Over Time, I've Learned A Thing or Two

How has your writing evolved? When I was a teen, I wrote terrible poetry recording my feelings for the high school junior who was brave enough to ask me out and who is still with me after all these years. As a mom with young children, I wrote short stories. I sent a few off. When they came back accompanied by rejection slips, I thought that meant I couldn't write. When my kids were teens I went to a writers' workshop and learned that rejection of manuscripts are common, and the way to get published is to keep learning, polishing, and sending manuscripts out. As a result of that workshop, I found a writers' group in our area and attended meetings.

I shared poetry for critique. Like many unpublished writers, I wasn't very sure of my writing ability yet. I'll always be grateful for the kind, encouraging remarks members had. I self-published small booklets and gave them away. I decided to try my hand at devotionals for the challenge of completing a story with a "take-away" in 150-200 words. I had several devotionals published and in the process learned to write.

I found out about writing opportunities through contacts I'd made in the writers group and through conferences and had inspirational stories published as a result. At one point a friend and I met every week to critique each other's work in progress. We went to the post office together one year on her birthday to send our manuscripts off. Mine, a children's book, came back in four months with a rejection slip; her Christian romance took a year to find its way back to her. She sent her novel out once more and got it back. It's such a great story. Her characters are so real I used to look for the house where her "family" had 4th of July celebrations when I'd drive down a certain road in our county. I know the church where her fictional characters attend. I know their pastor. He used to be our neighbor. I'd like to see her novel published.

After my children's book came back, I asked a friend to read my 126 page manuscript to see if she could make suggestions before I sent it out again. My friend is an avid reader. I gave her my manuscript over two years ago. The fact that she hasn't finished reading it tells you a lot about what a page-turner the story is. My husband, a tough editor, thought the story was funny, poignant and brilliant, but then, he loves me. My friend loves me, too, but she's been really busy. ;-) I understand because I still have a copy of someone else's manuscript in my possession. I read it through it once, then the task of trying to track repetitions and make suggestions seemed overwhelming.

Whether the book I wrote ever gets published--and I do have to say here that I understand the correlation between sending a manuscript out and the chance for publication--I enjoyed the process of writing--the late nights up with the "baby." I didn't enjoy the dozens of times through, bleary-eyed, and the editing/re-editing. I loved the characters. They made me laugh and cry and rejoice at their victories. I felt for them deeply. Since I never could determine what I needed to do to "fix" the manuscript before sending it out again, I started another novel with the same characters, only setting the story a few years later. I used the novel I'd completed as back story -- their history to help me as I wrote about Sara at 14 rather than 11. A lot happened to that girl in the three years between stories. I learned a valuable lesson while writing the second novel. Always back up your work. You never know when lightening might strike and cause you to lose everything on your computer.

About that time I got busy with my Dad who lived alone in Texas when he fell and broke his arm. I live in Delaware. I'd make trips back and forth to stay with him during different hospitalizations and to take care of his house. We moved him to Delaware when he recovered. I made more trips to Texas to get his house ready to put on the market. Then my Dad died and I had to take care of "business" and got sidetracked from writing. But I know the community in Oklahoma where my characters are, and I wish them well. But I don't know if I'll ever tell their story again in writing. I might if I had a working copy.

If you're not in a writers group, let me encourage you to find one. Attend. Listen. Learn. Make friends. Go to workshops if you can afford to, but don't make a career of it. Read. Write. Polish. Submit. Encourage. Celebrate. Find a critique partner. And if you get discouraged along the way or bogged down by life, try it again. Just because you've been on the sideline for a year or two or decade or more, you've still got it. You are a writer. Write. Submit, submit, and submit again until you're published. And don't forget to backup your work. (Note to self.)

Identifying the Writer Within (Your Purse)

I'm afraid this post might seem a little sexist. I don't have a clue how to identify men who write. But women? Ahh.