To Write or Not to Write: That Is the Question
By
William A. Gralnick
My latest book has just been published. Writing is a process with grins and groans. It brings to mind the title of the wonderful Doo Wop classic, “Step by Step.” Let’s walk through it together.
It is said that everyone has a book inside them. I am blessed or cursed with a bunch of them taking up room in the attic of my mind. Even so, a writer, before “pen hits paper,” needs to know the why of writing something. Without that, knowing where one is going and why, the process is hellish, laborious, and unforgiving. Once that has been dealt with one has to put one’s butt in the chair. There are many approaches to doing that, sort of like when Cramdon was teaching Norton to play golf and said, “You start by addressing the ball.” Of course, Ralphie gives him a weird look and then with a sweeping arm of gallantry says, “Helloooooooo ball!”
Some say start with an outline. It can be minimal, and your task is to let your thoughts spill out into it, the outline keeping the writer from wandering all over the place. Some, especially those wishing to find an agent first, begin with what is called a proposal. This is sort of like the complex Harvard Outline. What goes in it is what research tells you agents want in it. It’s a lot of work, almost like writing a small book before you write your bigger one. Yet, it serves as did the old AAA trip-tik, a road map to follow as you plod along.
Some say just sit down and write. Even here there are multiple options. Some say pick a time of day, a block of time for every day of the week and sit in the chair even if nothing comes to mind. Seems dumb to me. Some say do that but if nothing about what you want to write comes to mind and something else interesting pops up, write that. It greases the wheels. Some write until they drop. Some say that produces brain fatigue; stop before the fatigue hits. Mind you this is all before tapping the first letter of the first sentence on the computer.
Then comes the writing. It may surprise you to know, of the steps involved, this is the easiest. I am blessed with a gift, or so says an Evangelical minister friend of mine. When I get an idea, it goes from my head to my hand and flows onto the paper in a most orderly fashion. Writing has never been a struggle for me. On the other hand, journalist Gene Fowler once said, “Writing is easy: All you do is it starie at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”
Another tip is to write what you know. I know me best. Remember the Jackie Mason bit about the psychiatrist? He says, I know me better than you do, so why should I pay you to tell you what I already know? Ba da boom! I am into book two of a three-part memoir. My brother of blessed memory, a journalist, said I was a natural storyteller. That’s how I talk; that’s how I write. For reasons laid out in the introductions, I have chosen to write on the light said, with humor but also pathos. I don’t think the world needs “heavy” right now.
So, you write. The first book in the trilogy was 87,000 words. And that was after editing and leaving a whole bunch of stuff out. The second is a mere 68,000 words and that’s only because I was sure it was longer, decided I had enough material, and wrapped it up. I had easily another ten or twenty “thou…” I could have hammered out. Writing can be fun. It can also be labor. I have digital arthritis, so it is also painful. It really tests how committed to writing one is.
OY VAY
Ok. The book is written. Step two is dealing with the answer to the question “what now?” Now is finding an agent or publisher. This is worse than, as crushing as, receiving rejection letters from colleges. There’s only so much nice one can put into “we’re not interested.” That’s if you get a response at all.
I won’t regale you with the varieties of publishers out there only to say that some are pure thieves praying on people’s egos. I have a publisher. A nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn. He understands me. The first thing I learned about step two is that publishers are done when the book is. Before that happens is the editing process. I and one other person read and re-read my manuscripts five times. It is a process that is maddening, depressing, and exhausting. It’s hard because the writer’s mind knows what should be on the page therefore the writer’s eye doesn’t always see a mistake because of the mind’s interference. How people edit for a living I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to live with one. The publisher comes up with a cover, tells you to get some previews to go with the cover art that has been developed, and then pretty much says goodbye unless your books are possibles for the NYT’s best seller list and/or your name is known to most literate people in the world. We have arrived now at step three—marketing.
This is where one leaves a lot of rubber on the road. If you have a nice publisher he/she will guide you through what’s to be done next. He or she is not going to do it. You are. Nor is he or she going to pay for it. Now comes the decision of how much the writer believes in the work and how much there is in the budget to back up that belief. Let’s say the short form for me is two words, “Not much.” Advertising is expensive. One has to take the promo material that my publisher was kind enough to produce and figure out how to spread it around. For an ad one needs to think closely about target audiences, the closest being family and friends, then spheres of potential interest. My book about growing up in Brooklyn is timeless with a huge potential audience. This book has a much narrower bullseye on the target. Facebook. Instagram, other social media? You bet. If one is to receive results, one has to work hard and long and intensively. Next comes step four—making a living. Thank goodness I don’t have to do that. There’s more, but that’s enough.
Try It. You’ll Like It!!
If you are curious, the book is “George Washington Never Slept Here.” It’s prequel is about the growing up years, my version of the Wonder Years. If that has appeal, then “The War of the Itchy Balls and Other Tales From Brooklyn. Is for you. By the way, ‘ nothing to do with gym fungi. It ends after high school, “GW..” covers college and graduate school. Both are available at Amazon.com.
Comments