{"id":3340,"date":"2014-04-29T17:11:14","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T21:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.old.caraghobrien.com\/book\/?p=3340"},"modified":"2014-07-11T16:30:09","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T20:30:09","slug":"to-the-new-novelist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/writing\/to-the-new-novelist\/","title":{"rendered":"To the New Novelist:"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Forsythia\"Sometimes I hear from old friends or former students who are working on their first novels.\u00a0 They wonder if we could meet up for a cup of coffee to talk about the writing process and publishing, and I\u2019m always delighted to reconnect. \u00a0To be honest, I\u2019m touched that they thought of me, sometimes after a separation of years, and it\u2019s so cool to talk with such a friend about how fascinating and frightening it is to write.\u00a0 I become inspired by his or her determination, especially if the person is writing around raising kids and holding down other jobs.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, I can tell that reaching out to me took some nerve, not (I hope) because the new novelist thought I\u2019d say I was unavailable, but because looking up a publishing writer friend involves taking himself or herself seriously.\u00a0 This might be the first time that the new novelist has dared to reach out beyond the safety of his or her own computer to admit to someone outside the family that they write.\u00a0 In such a case, the writer is overcoming his or her own self doubt and fear just to send that email and say, I\u2019m a writer, too.\u00a0 Can we share where we are?\u00a0 Can you maybe help a little with what you\u2019ve learned ahead of me along the path?<\/p>\n

\"don'tThis is what I want to say to the new novelist: Don\u2019t let anyone tell you it\u2019s impossible to publish or you\u2019ll never be good enough or you\u2019re crazy to try.\u00a0 Don\u2019t believe the voices that say you\u2019re \u201cwasting your time\u201d when you\u2019re skimping on sleep so you can get a few more words down.\u00a0 Chances are, the writing is what\u2019s keeping you sane and whole.\u00a0 Your stolen hour of writing could be the one piece of yourself that has to be in place so you can otherwise be a good parent or spouse or worker.\u00a0 If that\u2019s the case, if you have to write to feel complete, then that creative drive is an inner gift you can\u2019t afford to ignore.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t promise you that publishing will happen, but I\u2019ll say that the desire to write stories that people will read is a valid one.\u00a0 It\u2019s fine to let that goal spur you on.\u00a0 You\u2019re not irresponsible or stupid or an unrealistic dreamer to want to publish.\u00a0 The only ones who ever publish must, at one point, be in the same place you are now.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s the deal, my friend.\u00a0 You work hard.\u00a0 You\u2019re getting better at your writing and learning more about it every time you sit down and put more words on the page.\u00a0 You\u2019re already in the group of rare people who are likely to stick it out.\u00a0 Believe in your ability to keep improving, and relish the time you do have to write, because, in the end, you\u2019ll be able to survive it if you never publish, but you won\u2019t be able to survive not writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes I hear from old friends or former students who are working on their first novels.\u00a0 They wonder if we could meet up for a cup of coffee to talk about the writing process and publishing, and I\u2019m always delighted to reconnect. \u00a0To be honest, I\u2019m touched that they thought of me, sometimes after a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445,3],"tags":[294,37],"class_list":["post-3340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-vault-of-dreamers","category-writing","tag-publishing","tag-writing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3340"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3572,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3340\/revisions\/3572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}