practice – christyoslund

Are you Joining your Guilds?

There is protection in a group of fellow writers.

Remember in the olden days when groups of crafts people or business people would form guilds for mutual support, safeguarding their way of life, and keeping an eye on what other people in the business were doing?

Actually, we still do that. Most countries, for example, still have a bread baker’s guild. Then there are trade unions which perform a similar role of organizing and trying to ensure fair wages, and for writers there are professional organizations, or writer’s societies.

Guild Coats of Arms from Czech Republic (Wiki)

There’s a professional writing organization that has been formed around each genre of writing currently commercially viable. I myself am a member of several writer’s groups.

Sisters in Crime, (particularly but not exclusively for women) writers of mystery/crime.

I’ve also joined The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, which includes writers of board and picture books, middle grade, and young adult.

If you write romance, then you’ll want to join the Romance Writers of…(America where I am, but other countries may have their own version.)

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association has this nifty logo:

There’s also the Writers Guild of America East, and West, which represent screen writers and is still known collectively as The Writer’s Guild.

Technical writers have their own associations, which vary by the nation you live in, and sometimes by industry.

Why Join a Writing Association?

Aside from the comradery and opportunity to talk with people working in the same genre/industry you’re working in there are a number of very practical reasons to belong:

Educational opportunities including conferences and workshops

Funding for writing fellowships

Ability to enter association run contests for writing

Access to legal consult

Access to standard contracts

Support if you’re in a context of being sued or suing

More immediate knowledge of class action lawsuits around writing that might impact you

Medieval Merchant Guild House, Russia (wiki)

I think we’re all being reminded more often that we cannot take for granted that others will respect our work or pay us a fair wage for it. This isn’t a new problem and is at least in part why guilds go back for hundreds of years.

Whether people are taking our work to feed their AI or trying to get our money by convincing us they’re going to provide a service that isn’t real, the more we talk to each other and share information, the more we protect ourselves.

Stay strong, stay connected.

Learned the Hard Way vs. Failure: clear line or point of view?

Writing and axolotl keeping may have something in common.

A pair of axolotls

Sometimes we learn lessons we don’t want to learn. The example I’m using to demonstrate this is my experience of the past year + keeping axolotls.

Axolotls, also known as Mexican swimming salamanders, are aquatic and spend their lives in cool water – ideally 60 – 65 Fahrenheit. They eat worms and/or pellets, they are rather low intellect, with poor vision. They’re also dwerps, e.g. they will suddenly zoom around their tank or float at odd angles, or play in their bubblers. Some of us find them very appealing because of their looks and their enduring behavior.

One of life’s ironies is that some axolotls will survive horrible neglect: poor water quality, underfed, ignored. Others, seem to be doomed. They look good, receive good care, and they die. While water quality is vital to their good health, some survive water so bad it causes them to start peeling their ‘slime coat’ and others can look beautiful but become unalive.

Photo by Raphael Brasileiro on Pexels.com

Writing vs. Keeping Axolotls

Some of us work hard at our writing. We do the right things: attend workshops/classes, learn to improve our craft, study the market, read the comps, craft our query letters, use beta readers, adjust when our first queries don’t go well. We study, write, and rewrite. And still – we can’t seem to be in the right place at the right time.

Some of us who keep axolotls do all the right things and our lotls still cease to exist.

As a writer or an axolotl keeper, what do you do when things aren’t working out?

Options

Of course, one can always stop what we are doing. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I think two of the things we learn from trying with little or no success is:

a) how passionate are we really about this craft, hobby, activity, life-plan

b) are we pursuing this for ourselves or others; are we still finding a sense of purpose in our pursuit?

Sometimes people frame trying something and not having great success with it as a failure. I tend to disagree. If you wish to be a good person but you spend all your time physically harming others, then you’re a failure. If you want to try writing and after several years or longer you aren’t enjoying it anymore, or need a break, you haven’t failed. You’ve learned a lot, improved your writing, read things you otherwise wouldn’t have and are emotionally and psychologically richer for the experiences. Time spent creating doesn’t seem to ever be a failure to me.

As for keeping axolotls…after some heartbreaking experiences over the last year I’ve realized that there is something in my very hard water in this region full of former copper mines that is not agreeable to axolotl life. Something that doesn’t show up in the little store test kits but that probably also contributes to the high cancer rates among people. So I’m going to quit unaliving these adorable dwerps and stick with my freshwater fish.

I am choosing to keep writing but to stop axolotl keeping. My writing is an outgrowth of my need to create and tell stories. Axolotl keeping was an extension of my enjoyment of fresh water aquariums. My fish are thriving, so I will continue with them; I will miss but no longer harbor lotls.

Sometimes it isn’t our writing, but what we’re writing that isn’t suited for the time and place. I’m running 6 home aquariums and 2 in my office and all are healthy. This isn’t the time and place for me and axolotls.

If writing sales matter to you, you may want to consider the popularity of the genre you’re currently working in. It may be that the type of story you’re writing isn’t as popular in the current market. I’m not suggesting you need to chase the market but that you ought to be aware that some genres or certain tropes within a genre may not be popular at the moment.

In writing as in aquarium keeping, sometimes it isn’t about what you most want but about what you are best able to do.

To Rember, When Book Writing and Seeking Publication

The more writing and querying you do, the better you ought to get at doing what you’re doing. Sometimes the first written novel will not find an agent, but as a writer, you should also be working on your next book even while you are querying the first.

Practice Writing, Revise, Repeat

I’ve been writing a loooong time. When I was in high school, I was thrilled to be gifted an electronic typewriter with built-in correction tape [to be clear – this was state-of-the-art at the time]. By the time I was a senior, Dad, who was an early tech adopter, purchased our first family computer. I could not get him to understand how that didn’t help me as a writer unless he actually bought a printer. This was decades before publishers were taking electronic submissions, and with dial-up modems, it would have taken over a day to send a manuscript electronically and with the amount of electronic screaming the phone lines provided, no one would have put up with that for longer than it took to send a fax.

I mention this because newer writers sometimes ignore the foundational part of becoming a writer – practice writing. Lots, and lots, and lots of writing, revising, and reading, and learning, and practicing. I’m published now, but that took over two decades, three strokes and recovery from them, and time off for graduate degrees.

Malcolm Gladwell has posited that one requires 10,000 hours of practice to become established at something; this may not be true for everyone but when it comes to writing, there’s a lot to be said for practice, revision, and more writing.

It also helps to come to terms with the realization that some ideas are good without being novel-worthy and some characters are engaging but don’t have a story that’s compelling enough to earn readers.

Just because you’ve written something good doesn’t mean it’s good enough to find a traditional publisher.
Just because it’s good enough, doesn’t mean it will find a traditional publisher.
Your journey to becoming published requires as much persistence, research, and work as it does creative talent.

Photo by Dziana Hasanbekava on Pexels.com

Perseverance and research

If your goal is to go the traditional publishing route, then writing the book is arquably only half of the work you have to do. Querying agents and independent publishers who are open to your genre and unagented queries, is hard work. I previously posted on how to write a compelling query letter – which needs to be on point at 300 words.

The first paragraph of your query letter should be changed to suit each individual and company that you send it to.

You may have to revise your letter 50 – 150+ times. Yep, it does get discouraging to get 75 people in a row telling you that while your manuscript is good, it’s just not what they’re looking for at this time.

I found this response on a thread where a new writer was asking people who had submitted, how many rejections they received:

“My first novel I queried -140 rejections, 0 offers. Second novel I queried – 40 rejections, 5 offers. Third novel- 10 rejections, 1 offer.

None of those novels were related, I just got better at timing and hitting the right audience during the hard part of research in the trenches.”

Photo by Poppy Thomas Hill on Pexels.com

First Written Doesn’t Mean First Optioned

Sometimes the second book gets picked up; sometimes it is the third. You can always resubmit your earlier work once you eventually do have a publishing record. People – including Steven King and Ellis Peters – have done variations of this.

The ghostly presence of Sherlock Holmes, 221B Baker Street by Mike Quinn is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

Caveat

Of course, you may also find that like Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, once you’re known for a particular genre/character, readers aren’t really interested in your ‘other’ ideas. Writers, like actors, can basically become typecast, e.g. known for a particular genre. Which is a bonus for sales of new work, and a curse if you want to write different kinds of things. Readers cannot be counted on to buy work that is outside the genre they initially loved you for.

Not that any of us early in our careers can really wrap our heads around the idea of resenting readers for loving us too much for a particular story we’ve created. That’s a future-you worry, right?

Photography and Writing: You Learn by Doing

Writing and photography are two of my biggest passions in life – along with animal rehab and adoption.

Sable and white collie, indoor, low, natural light

But let’s not go down too many rabbit holes at once.

Recently I was discussing photography with a young person and they said, while they enjoyed taking pictures, they didn’t do so often because they weren’t good at it. This is the same bind that many writers get into – I don’t write more because I’m not as good at it as I want to be.

Swan and geese on early spring lake, sunny day

People! None of us are born great, we achieve [largely moderate] success by doing, learning, and doing more. Trust me – I researched and wrote a whole dissertation on this topic!

Recently I treated myself to a new camera. I hadn’t been doing much photography lately because of frustrations with my old camera; we’ve been together for decades and though we’re not divorcing, we did agree it was time to bring someone new into the relationship.

Quincy Mine lift, Hancock MI,
bright sun reflecting on snow

This new camera is mirrorless [internal element that reduces weight] and I’m in love again. But there’s a steep learning curve for new equipment with vastly different functions. In order to learn, I have to go out and take a lot of very average or trashy photos. Each picture teaches me something and rather than frustration, I feel happiness that there are so many things I’m still capable of learning. Or at least experiencing.

Low light bridge photo;
needed a tripod and didn’t have one with me

Embrace new opportunities! Admittedly, I’m the last person to suggest we should always be embracing the new. I need routine. I’m clinically OCD, and even with medication, my need for order is at best managed. I get my brain to accept challenges by considering them educational opportunities. Undoubtedly you’ll need to find your own way to embrace the new, the less than perfect, the practice sessions that are necessary to get better at any endeavor.

None of us, however, can get really good at anything – writing, photography, teaching, dog training etc., without first being really average, maybe even mediocre. It isn’t where you start out that’s going to decide things, it is how much time and practice you’re willing to put in. Stick-to-it-ness accomplishes as much or more than raw talent and I’ve been around long enough to see that play out from the art community to academics and industry.