Writing: A life-long Journey by Paul Greci

Photo by Paul Greci

A couple days ago I ran in a 16-mile race, the same race where I injured my calf two years ago. My goal this time was to complete the race without getting injured, which I achieved by paying attention to my body and not pushing myself beyond my current capabilities.

I was just happy to be running, knowing that I won’t be able to run forever.

One thought that popped into my head as my feet slowly but steadily carried me forward was this:

Baring any debilitating mental or physical conditions, or extreme political persecution, I can keep writing for as long as I live—if I choose.

I know a 90 year-old man who is working on a revision—that’s a choice he’s making—to continue a writing journey he’s been on since his teenage years.

And it really is all about the journey. You don’t know what treasures you will find or when you will find them.

In the United States the average human life expectancy is about 78 years. (However, there are no guarantees. I’ve had a sibling and close friends pass away in the prime of their lives.)

My friend and talented writer, Eva Saulitis, passed away this year. She was in her early fifties. It was a sad, sad, day for all who knew her.

Eva’s last book, Becoming Earth, she wrote as cancer took over her body.

From her publisher, Red Hen Press—“In this posthumous collection of essays, Eva Saulitis meditates on mortality, the art of living fully, and her advancing illness and nearing death, confronting the waiting question without fear or sentimentality: how are you going to live when you know you are going to die.”

 I can have writing be part of my life for however long I want. For me this idea is freeing. I am on a path that can extend all the way to the end of my life however near or far away that may be.

Just like on my run where I didn't get injured, I don’t have to be in a hurry. I just have to be present.

Paul Greci is the author of Surviving Bear Island, a 2015 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 Scholastic Reading Club Selection.

Getting Lost as a Reader - and Finding Your Way Again by Donna Galanti

Photo courtesy of Flickr

In becom­ing a nov­el­ist I soon lost the one thing I had loved all my life.

Read­ing.

Hard to imag­ine, right? My dad likes to brag that I had read every book in the school library by the time I was eight.

But it was as if I had traded my love of read­ing for a new love – that of writ­ing. And writ­ers must read. If suc­cess comes with sac­ri­fice did it have to be the one thing that I needed to do to be a writer? I suddenly feared that writ­ing and read­ing were not compatible.

It struck me in way it was like hav­ing your first child. When my son was born all my love and affec­tion went to him. It was so intense, this new love. It col­ored my entire world. It was a force that hit me and cov­ered me in need, dri­ving all my energy to it. Parents know what I am talk­ing about. You love your spouse but a child – that is a crazy intense love that takes you unaware. Even­tu­ally, I found my own iden­tity again as a mother and wife – and author. I had bal­ance again.

But I had become so sucked into the world of cre­at­ing that I needed to redefine my bal­ance as a new author. My brain burst with words, ideas, dia­logue, action, and char­ac­ters. I couldn’t slow my thoughts down. All of my concentration went toward writing.

But a writer reads! I forced myself to slow down my brain and set aside time to read. From book to book I traveled. I would read a few pages then move on like a wan­der­ing nomad. There was no joy. The words jumped and crashed into each other. I couldn’t absorb them.

Then a writer friend told me some­thing that changed every­thing. She said I wouldn’t be happy with what I used to read before I was an author. I would need books to chal­lenge me, not just the same book escape. She was right. I had become bored with read­ing. I needed more. 

I wanted to be affected by what I read. Changed, trans­formed, and moved - exactly what I yearned to achieve in my own writing. I didn’t want to read for empty enter­tain­ment. As our tastes in food, clothes, and music change as we grow, so do our reading tastes. This realization uplifted me. I had a new quest. Discover what kind of reader I had become.

My son reading one of my fave books from childhood

I kept look­ing for the book to change me. One day I hap­pened upon a sweet middle grade book, Spar­row Road by Sheila O'Connor. It was beau­ti­ful and sad and hope­ful. I cried and laughed as I read it straight through. I had fallen in love again. This time with middle grade and young adult. And this prompted me to switch from writing thrillers for adults to thrillers for children. You can read my review of Spar­row Road here.

Stephen King said, “The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of your­self with your pen.” I aim to be less of a fool for sure.

So then I thought, why not re-read my favorite books from childhood all over again and discover why I fell in love with reading? These are my ragged books I’ve held onto for decades. The ones close to my heart. And that’s just what I did. I re-read White Fang, Fahren­heit 451 (RIP Ray Brad­bury), The Secret Gar­den, Fantastic Mr. Fox, My Side of the Mountain, The Crys­tal Cave, The Children of Green Knowe, and Island of the Blue Dol­phins. And of course, ALL of the Little House on the Prairie books.

Sample of my bookshelf now

I fell in love with reading again and soon wished I had a whole week to just READ. A reading vacation. To gobble up as many books as possible. Of fantasy, adventure, drama, middle grade, adult, young adult, and memoir.

As writers we need to read. I’m glad I found my lost-love again. The Argen­tin­ian writer, Jorge Luis Borges, said “I have always imag­ined that Par­adise will be a kind of library.”

I’m glad my par­adise is back. Have you ever lost and found your par­adise? If so, how did you find it again?

Building a Writer's Support Network by Donna Galanti

We can write alone but we can’t get published alone.

I have found that while writing is a solitary job, to truly succeed you need to be in a room alone – and surrounded by a crowd.

By Marjory Collins [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The young adult author John Green wrote, “Writing is something you do alone. It’s a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it."

This is true in your creative space, but today authors are called on to live uncomfortable public lives which can be hard for us introverts. It IS hard to put yourself out there as a writer when mostly we just want to hideaway in our fiction dream worlds (note to me: give yourself a pep talk for that first school assembly coming up!).

But we are also SO lucky to be writers in an age where the writing community is wonderfully accessible. We can meet authors in person and online and get to know them as mentors. We can engage with our peers and share resources. Yes, it takes away from writing time but it also opens up so many more doors for opportunities to improve our writing and get published.

I’ve found no other job like writing that involves constant change…and constant rejection. You need a positive support buoy to keep swimming in this career or you will sink. Wherever you are in the writing journey, look to elevate yourself now with people that can help you finish that first book and get it to market.  

Where to start? Here’s the crowd that filled my space (and still does) when I was working toward getting published.  

Hundreds of people
I was surrounded by writers of all levels at writer’s conferences like The Philadelphia Writer’s Conference, Push to Publish, and SCBWI. Scared stiff, I went to my first writer’s conference four years ago, The Write Stuff, and met other writers for the first time. From this one event my entire life changed and my network of peers expanded into an amazing circle today. This spring I went back to that conference – as a presenter. I grew into my role as an author, and putting ourselves out there enables us to do this.

Dozens of people
I’ve surrounded myself with dozens of people as an attendee of the Philadelphia Liars Club Writer’s Coffeehouse and at local author readings and book signings. As writers we need to do this! Get out there on a regular basis in small groups and mingle with writers and readers. It’s the human contact we need to keep our spirits up. Sometimes I didn’t always feel like going out of the house, but I’m always glad I did because every time I met a new person or learned something new. I still am.

The same goes for connecting with dozens of folks by joining writer organizations like SCBWI and International Thriller Writers (ITW). Over the past three years I’ve volunteered for ITW doing social media for the debut authors and as a contributing editor to their magazine the Big Thrill. I’m working right now with a volunteer group to propose a children’s thriller track within this organization. Having mentors and peers to boost you up within your genre is gold. Authors like to pay-it-forward, and someday you will too. I was just honored to have given my first book endorsement.

A Dozen People
I fell in love with writing for children on a challenge to myself. I heard of a class called “How To Write A Children’s Novel in 9 Months” and thought – wouldn’t that be different from my writing thrillers for adults? I signed up right away. It was hard. I knew nothing about writing for kids. I hadn’t read children’s books in years. So I read and I wrote, and I learned from my teachers and my peers. And along the way I fell in love with writing for kids. You never know what road you will go down in thinking outside the box, and taking a risk. I’m glad I did.

A Handful of People
For a few years now I’ve been meeting weekly at Wegmans Café with a wonderful group of women writers. We call ourselves the Weggie Writers (sounds like Peggy not wedgie!). This informal group has grown over time to be eight of us. We don’t all come each week, but when we do we sit and write side-by-side. We give advice, share resources, and offer shoulders to cry on. We are a giant brain collective that elevates each other! Since getting together we’ve celebrated getting agents and book deals and MFA graduations. We are awesome. I hope you have your awesome handful.

Me with some of my super-talented and generous Weggie Writers!

One-on-One…One-by-one
This involves the nitty gritty hauling-water-uphill-barefoot-and-both-ways-in-a-storm work. I hired an amazing developmental editor who went three punchy rounds of edits with Joshua and the Lightning Road over the course of two years. Working with her was also like getting a mini-MFA in writing as I applied what I learned from her in my writing going forward. This was all in-between the rounds of rejections one-by-one from agents, many who provided insightful feedback to make my story stronger. And in-between that was one-on-one feedback gathered from my first-readers who knew how to deconstruct a story for its strengths and weaknesses.

 
Once you get a book deal there are more people in your room of course! An agent, a publisher, a publicist, and more editors – and more editing. Check out my articles on the 8 steps to an agent, a publisher, and a two-book deal and how to get your manuscript past the gatekeeper, based on my experience as a literary agency intern.

And once your book comes out, you can chuckle over the many ways folks can butcher the title. Because they will – and it will be funny!

Funniest Blooper Titles of Joshua and the Lightning Road:

Joshua and the Lightning Tree
Joshua and the Lightning Rod
Joshua and the Lightening Road
Joshua and the Lightening Rod
The Joshua Tree (one of my favorite U2 albums ever!)

I’d like to see the cover design for these, wouldn’t you? I'm waiting for Joshua and the Lightning Pee to show up...

But it’s not all hard work. There are lots of fun rewards like the week your book releases, talking with readers, getting great reviews, and creating fun book trailers. Check out mine!

Oh, and check out
Joshua and the Lightning Road.
It’s real and it’s here - out today!
The crowd in my room helped.

  
Do you surround yourself with people as a writer? 

Do you recommend any other ways to build yourself a strong writer’s network?

From Concept to Contract

As I peered over my shoulder at the twisted, ten-year path that led to my first book deal, I paused and thought something understated like, “Okay, this is really happening.” Below, I’ll paint my journey with a broad brush, year-by-year, to give a long-view. It’s easy to be discouraged day-to-day when you receive rejection after rejection, or are creatively stalled while writing. I’ve been in both of those places multiple times.

Everyone’s writing journey is unique, and I’m sharing part of mine in the hopes that whenever you’re considering giving up, instead, you’ll take a breath and keep going.

2002. I had an idea for a story, which I chewed on for a couple of years as I rode my bike to and from work.

2004. I started writing my story down on notebook paper.

2006. I finished a meandering first draft and erroneously thought it was pretty good.

2007. I took a writing class and wrote and revised a second book that got some attention at a writer’s conference and made me realize that my first book needed work and revised it.

2008. I wrote and revised a third book that resulted in several offers of representation from agents (queried over 100) and I signed with one who was not successful in selling the book. Meanwhile, I kept rewriting my first book.

2009. I wrote and revised a fourth book that I have yet to put out to the world beyond my critique partners and I kept rewriting my first book.

2010. I wrote and revised a fifth book and did a major revision on my first book. My first book took second prize in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association's Annual Contest.

2011. I parted ways with my first agent, queried my fifth book (again queried over 100) and obtained representation from my current agent, Amy Tipton.

2012. As she tried to sell my fifth book, I suggested we work on my first book together and get it ready for submission. As my fifth book climbed to the editorial boards of a few houses but did not result in any offers, we did two major revisions of my first book.

2013. My agent started subbing my first book while my fifth book was still on submission. We got an offer on my first book in November from Move Books, which I accepted.

2014. I’m in the middle of revisions with Move Books on a novel I started writing in 2004.

So, what does all this mean???

Like most publishing stories, it shows that you never know what will happen or why, or when you and your story will be in the right place at the right time.

Sure, you have to make choices about what story to work on, when to put a story away, when to start a new one, what craft books to read, what conferences to attend, what goals to set for yourself, when to submit and for how long, and a zillion other things related to your writing life.

 One of the keys is to keep making those decisions.

Don’t give up.