Starting a writing career

[Sanity Claws]

I would appreciate it if someone who was trained in a different field, but somehow became a published author, could tell me how he went abount making the change. Did you attend workshops? Did you just write away? Just wondering what I should do to get my creative juices flowing again.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. I wrote a story I had to write

That was about it. No, never took any writing courses, never joined any kind of group, just wrote a story in the evenings while I was preparing for a very big, very complicated trial (preparation took a year - I wrote maybe one evening a week). When it was done, a friend of mine who's a childrens' book author said that I should send it to her agent. I did, figuring that I'd get, at the very least, a free evaluation.

The agent loved it, sold it to a big publisher, the movie rights were picked up, I practice law on a part-time basis now, and when I feel like it, I write. The novels get written, as do the essays, and life goes on.

Believe me, though, my story is an anomaly, so don't take it as any kind of template. It's all about having the determination and the need to put that story down on paper, and, frankly, after that, it's about who you know who will introduce you to an agent - a good, connected agent, preferably one in mid-town Manhattan, because the deals are all closed over lunch - and that, I understand, if even harder than getting a publisher to buy your ms.

If you're worried about your creative juices flowing, that's a sign that you probably ought to be out doing other things - living a rich, full, complicated life is a great way to jumpstart those juices later on in your life - with yourself and shouldn't think about writing right now. Good writing flows, and can't be stopped, so if you're struggling, you're pushing water uphill, a sure sign you're wasting your time.

Watch out, though, for those advertised workshops where you're promised that you'll meet an "editor" or a "publisher," and have a chance to show them your work. My editor - who's also a senior vice-president/publisher at HC - told me that her staff goes to those things depending on where they're located. One woman made the trip into her honeymoon.

When I asked her what these workshops were like, she said, "People who smell of stale cigarette smoke and desperation shoving their badly-written stuff at me while I'm thinking that I have another hour of this before I can get the hell out of there."

So, don't get sucked in by that kind of stuff.

And, to make this even more depressing for you - if you're still reading - sending unsolicited mss to agents will probably earn your ms a trip into the trash container with nothing else being done. The good agents don't work like that. My agency is small, but they get about 5,000 unsolicited mss a year, and the postage to return them would be outrageous, when you think about it. So, they just ditch them. In thirty years, they've picked up one author that way - ONE.

I wish this could be more positive or uplifting, but you're contemplating a career that really is more myth than reality. As I said, I'm very lucky.

All that said, I wish you the best.

[Sanity Claws]

2. Just want to make sure I understand

You got published because a friend knew an agent and because of the friendship the agent read it, right?
This is valuable information.

I do need to get my creative juices flowing. It's not just about writing. It's also about finding new ideas for a career. I've been stagnating as an attorney for too many years and finally said this week that I will close my practice in two to four months. I just can't take that feeling in the pit of my stomach anymore.
Fear of becoming a bag lady should make the ideas flow. Or so I hope.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

3. Not exactly the correct summation.....

I got my first novel published because I wrote something that was really well-done and an editor at HarperCollins loved it. It was good, which is why they bought it.

How it got there was because - yes - I knew someone with excellent representation.

As an attorney for more than thirty years, I truly do know the feeling you're experiencing. It comes and goes, I'm told, in all professions, but, yes, I went through it more than once in my legal career.

But, realistically, if you think you're going to make any kind of money from writing, I have to tell you that your odds are better going to Hollywood and getting a starring role in a feature film.

It's not a second career - it's almost something a dillentante would do. It's hardly anything on which to pin financial hopes and dreams.

But, you gotta do what you gotta do, and remember that it could take a couple of years to get an agent to look at your work, another six or eight months before the agent gets back to you, and - this was my experience with the first book - another year for the agent (if she loves your ms) to sell the book. Everyone turned it down until my agent waited for the woman who ultimately bought it to make a move from Doubleday to HarperCollins, where she took on a much more powerful job.

That's what an agent earns the 15% for.

Good luck.

[Sanity Claws]

4. Thanks for the clarification

I didn't mean to overlook the fact that you wrote something that was worth publishing.
I don't think that I can make writing a new second career that pays the bills. However, I would like to incorporate use writing as a way to unblock myself since I'm in a rut.
Thanks for the response.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. Then do this ..........

Write. Just write.

Don't give a damn if it's coherent or has any kind of plot line or even falls into any kind of category. Hell, write angry letters to everyone who's ever pissed you off.

Write as if you had twenty-four hours left to say everything.

Write to make yourself laugh.

Write to tell your kids who you really are.

Write.

Write.

Write.

Write, and don't give a fuck about any of it.

It's how you get and keep your writing chops. It's like playing scales on a musical instrument. It's about taking the words and not lettiing the words take you.

Above all, it's about taking control.

Don't be afraid - but don't quit your day job, either.

Just write.