Susan Sarah here....
Last week,Susannac asked the Wenches:
How did you all go from zero to published? Did you futz about with it
for years before buckling down to write a whole novel? Or did you decide one
day, "I'm going to write a novel", and voila! finished it 3-6-9 months
later? What did you use to learn the craft - college classes? Books?
Critique partner/group? Trial and error? Which is harder for you - character
or plot? How many completed manuscripts did you have before you sold? Is
getting published the first time different today than when you first
published?
Whew, lots to think about there, great questions! I’ll tackle the first part....
How did I get from zero to published?
Slowly at first, then a meandering pace, then very quickly. The short version is: I played around with fiction for years, I began writing a book, I entered a writing contest; I won, got an agent, finished the book and got published. From sending in final manuscript to editor’s offer took five weeks. So it was fast, or seemingly so. The whole process was more complex.
The looooong version: Secretly, since childhood, I had always wanted to write fiction – I wrote a few “books” as a kid, filling spiral notebooks full until the pages were tattered and ink-smeared. I illustrated them, too, and kept them hidden–never told my family, never showed anyone, but they knew I was always noodling around with those spiral notebooks.
Then the illustrating got a stronger hold on me than the writing, and I studied art in college. I was always reading fiction and poetry, and for a while wrote poetry and short stories, and got lots of positive feedback on these in creative writing seminars. But I wasn’t “serious” about it – I loved writing, but I was sort of a Hippie artiste at that point in my life. Then I went from art school to art history graduate studies, and lectured in art history. At the same time I was having kids. Studying, teaching, changing diapers, picking up toys, rocking fussy little guys to sleep, grading exams...not much time for reading, or my own play time, which was writing poetry and fiction.
During those years, I had several high-risk pregnancies (I have three kids, so you see the math wasn’t in my favor), and it seemed like every couple of years I was on mandatory bed rest for weeks and sometimes months at a time, with assorted hospital stays. Suddenly I couldn’t teach, couldn’t go to classes or the library or finish my dissertation, couldn’t lift my toddlers or get on the floor and play with them. So I had lots of help--and lots of reading time. That’s when I started to read romance, during the long days when I was on the sofa or in bed. Art history books were big and heavy, and paperbacks were just the right size. I read stacks of books, found a genre I loved, and I started to dream about writing novels again.
When I got my first computer, a gift from my dad so that I could finish the nearly-done dissertation that had been put on hold along with so much during the complicated baby years...I worked on the dissertation, and also started playing around with fiction. Soon I had a complete idea, a beginning-middle-end, then I had chapters, then more chapters....
I had discovered writer’s magazines and local writer’s groups. It was a revelation to me that writers had support networks. I forced myself to go to the group meetings (I was very shy about putting myself out there, though I was teaching classes of 150 students at the time–-go figure!). So I listened like a mouse in the corner, in awe of these confident, talented, friendly women (many of whom have since become close friends). Listening to them, though not saying much myself, I gained confidence in what I was doing.
One day I saw a contest advertised in Romantic Times asking for three chapters and a synopsis, with agents looking at the submissions. Well, I had that much written--I constantly rewrote, and taught myself that way -- and so I made myself enter, scary as that was. My book was set in medieval England, and was sort of the flip-side of my art history dissertation: the heroine was a manuscript illuminator. The hero was a sort of Robin Hood character, and the book was more action-adventure romance than anything else. I had a blast writing it, loving the freedom of playing with medieval history without footnotes.
Somehow I won first place. The prize, a literary agent’s opinion, was duly activated – she loved what she saw and wanted more. Gulp! I didn’t have any more. She told me, this is good stuff -- finish it, and send it to me when it’s done. Then she gave me a great piece of advice: don’t finish it fast for me, she said. Take your time and write the best book you can.
A few months later, I sent her the entire manuscript of The Black Thorne’s Rose. Five weeks after that, she called to tell me of a two-book contract offer – and the next day, I spoke with my very first editor, Audrey LaFehr at Penguin. That conversation was a thrill I will never, ever forget (especially since I had a five-year-old writing, coincidentally, his very first kindergarten book report at the kitchen table, going Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! the whole time). I wrote twelve books for her...and then on to other editors, other publishers, and other books since. There are few feelings as fantastic like the high-flyin’ thrill of that very first conversation, the one that starts you off in a new direction in life, the one that will change your life, and you, in so many ways.
So that’s how it began for me. Gradually, as the idea and the skill formed, and slowly while I cleared other life hurdles until I was ready for a whole new direction. From a certain point, it all went very fast. In some ways, it was an advantage to skip over the rejection-letter part, which is also character building and prepartory in its way. Yet in some ways that fast leap was not to my advantage, as I was very green–didn’t know beans about publishing, didn’t know the questions to ask, or how to proceed in most areas. My editor was very patient, and taught me a great deal in those days. I will always be indebted to her for that.
What about you all, are you in the various throes and stages of this? If you are published already, was it a quick leap or a slow and steady climb?
And I would love to hear the other Wenches tell how they got started!
~Susan Sarah