I have a child in middle school. When I was coming up, it was junior high school but no matter what it’s called, the mentality of the students is largely the same. Early teen students who are just old enough to think they know something about everything and too young to realize they know little about most things. And the things they do know, they haven’t practiced enough to be really good at them yet.
It’s kind of like that in the middle stages of becoming of a writer. I’ve moved up from elementary school, where everything is new and wonderful, to middle school, where it feels like I know a whole lot about a lot of things but I have yet to do much concrete with all that knowledge.
I remember when I first yielded to the writing itch. I’d always been a reader but somewhere between the first and second child, I’d gotten a slow burn to write that eventually became a steady fire.
When I began to write in earnest, with the hope of publication, there was so much I didn’t know. Years of toiling in a technical profession afforded me the opportunity to go many places, meet many people, and do many things. Yet I still felt an unfulfilled yearning within that writing seemed to satisfy.
I knew at least the basics of writing, or so I thought. I could write a complete thought with subject and predicate. I knew the difference between nouns and verbs, adjectives and adverbs. I knew my story characters and something called plot, an entertaining series of events involving those characters. I could even write and follow an outline, thanks to that technical experience, developing a point in a cohesive manner and building to a conclusion.
But what did I really know?
I wrote and submitted a few short stories, some of which were accepted for publication. Oh, how I was excited! That early success added fuel to my dreams. I was a writer!
The truth was I knew very little…and I doubted very much.
Because the more I learn, the more I realized I don’t know. When I think about those early stories, I wish I could issue a general recall, like the government does for goods that are not quite right. I also wish I’d been slower to offer advice to writers newer than I. The elementary school students, if you will. I don’t think I steered anyone wrong but I didn’t have a broad enough base of knowledge and experience.
Thankfully, I’ve invested time. I scour blogs for nuggets of craft knowledge. I listen to authors tell their stories for lessons in what—and what not—to do. I take classes and attend workshops. I read. Craft books. Books in the genre I write. Books in other genres.
Still, I realized not long ago that although it feels as though I’ve learned enough about writing and publishing to fill Fort Knox, there’s still so much more to learn. The publishing industry is changing. Readers are changing. Some changes feel a bit glacial, others like moving at warp speed.
I remember when I went off to college. It was then that I felt I’d made a quantum leap forward. Life was finally as much about doing as it was about absorbing new information. From that point on, I had a confidence not previously felt and the opportunities seemed limitless. I couldn’t wait to experience life.
I’m not there yet in my writing but I’m on my way. I look forward to the experience of becoming comfortable in a writer’s skin, of knowing that I can put together a story from start to finish, again and again and again.
To the experience of incorporating all of that craft knowledge into my stories so that it becomes less about theory and more about better writing.
To the experience of submitting and getting feedback, from critique partners, agents, and editors in the form of everything from marked-up manuscripts to Xeroxed rejection letters. (But I’d be okay with skipping over this and going straight to The Call.)
And finally to the experience of getting that call, of entering the next phase of the journey and eventually holding a book in my hand, one with my name on the cover.
I realize the road may not be smooth or straight.
I’m at the point where I’ve learned a lot and incorporated some of it. Time to “just do it”, it being writing to completion and submitting.
And then do it again.
Will I stumble into some of the same pitfalls other authors have blogged about?
Will the time to publication be a year or two or twenty-five?
Hard to say. Got a ways to go before the college stage but I’m already beginning to feel liberated. I’m no longer afraid of the process or worried about what I don’t know. It’s time to show what I can do.
I wonder how I’ll feel when I look back in a few years, about the journey and about the stuff I’m writing now. I wonder what lessons I have yet to learn that I wish I’d known when I wrote this.
Related posts:
I think you nailed it with “just do it.” I never really thought about being a writer. I started toying with fan fiction, and from there, the challenge of learning a new craft took over. And getting a contract on a short story validated that I was doing “something” right, although I think in this business, if you stop learning, you’re through. I noticed that at the last couple of conferences I attended, I sat through workshops and thought, “Gee…I know that.” So, I guess I’ve learned something over the past five or six years.
An early lesson. Nobody knocks on your door asking if you might have a manuscript you’d like them to publish. You have to do it yourself.
You’re so right, Terry! I relish the strong support of the online community, from which I get both hugs and the occasional kick in the rear.
And both are welcomed! I’m working on a ms now that I expect to start submitting beginning of the year, while I start yet another story.
How appropriate for this back-to-school season.
Writing is a seemingly never-ending learning process. Even after you’re published you’ll want to stretch a bit, maybe incorporate flashbacks and different points-of-view into your stories. That’s what keeps it interesting versus dull and stodgy. Even surgeons have had to learn different techniques as technology continues to bloom.
But I agree with Terry that you hit something when you said, “Just do it!”
I am, I am. I’m just curious as to what I’ll know, say five years from now, that I’ll realize I didn’t know now (and wish I had).
When I first started writing, I thought I already knew everything about the craft, which really was nothing. It has been a real learning experience for me, and it is never ending. It has made me more well rounded in my stories, and even in my life. Writing really is a humbling experience, but one I’d never give up. The internet has opened so many doors for me, and taught me, that in my struggle towards publication I’m not alone.
I so agree, Lee. I’ve had some recent author encounters that I never would have had if I weren’t writing that have changed the way I approach some things in writing and beyond.
Patricia,
You hit the nail on the head. We will never be done learning, but I think that’s the best part of being writers. It’s something we can do forever and just keep getting better at it.
Great post, Patricia! I’m of the belief that a person should never be done learning or growing because if they do then they are probably dead… or worse closed.
When I think about it in terms of my “other career” as a college professor with a terminal degree, I realize that even the teacher is still learning. I know a lot more than my students about a lot of things. But as an open-minded person, living life means learning and growing every day. And sometimes my students teach me a thing or two in the exchange.
As a writer, I learn every time I read, engage with other authors and readers… it never really ends.
Gwyneth
Chicki and Gwyneth, I’ve always loved learning. I was one of those kids who enjoyed getting shiny, new books at the start of every school year. To this day, I hate to write in, dog-ear or otherwise mistreat a textbook. Crazy, I know!
So one of the things I’m enjoying about being a writer is learning new things about a subject which I thought I already knew a lot about.
What a great comparison! As a teacher, I completely agree with your analogy. I know I sometimes feel that frustration of those young teens when it comes to writing. I want everything to happen right now, right away and the heck with the process of experience and learning. I really enjoyed this discussion and all the comments.
Thanks Susan! Back to school time, as you know, so I guess school and being a student is on my mind.
Best wishes to you in the classroom this year. You have an awesome responsibility!
Excellent blog…and anyone who garners my attention and gets me to follow them around is a GOOD WRITER.
xoxo
Gee, thanks Yasmin!
I really enjoyed reading this post. It was so honest and I can completely relate to how you are feeling.
I graduated with a technical major and feel like I’m starting from scratch by pursing a career in writing. I feel like a naive child discovering a whole new world.
BellaVida, I know the feeling. Because writing is a very different type of creativity than that required to develop a new information system, debug a program, or develop a new networking scheme.
But hang in there. You’ll catch on quickly!