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FICTION WORKSHOP #1
What is "Serious Writing"? (And What Makes Her Such an Authority?)
By Nan Jacobs
©June 2001
To answer the last question first, "nothing, really".
Perhaps "Fiction Workshop" is a rather lofty name for what I propose to set forth in this series of articles. I desire only to share what I've learned from other workshops and how-to books along with knowledge I've garnered through listservs and membership in writers organizations such as RWA (Romance Writers of America).
I've been writing "seriously" for only six years. Since typing "THE END" on the first of three novel-length manuscripts (all now complete, albeit in dire need of renovations), I have studied the craft and the market. I've done well in fiction contests, and a few articles of mine have been published here and there on-line. I have not yet pursued publication in any bulldog-do-or-die sort of way, although I did succeed at one point in getting an agent for the second manuscript (which then went the tree-publisher rounds and was rejected one-by-one) as well as capturing the attention of an editor for another manuscript via a contest (ultimately the mss was rejected, but it was a "good" rejection in that the editor took the time to tell me what didn’t work for her). I think I have some worthwhile knowledge to share with beginners. For those who are no longer in the "omigawwww I've completed a novel… now what do I do with it?" stage, well, review never hurts… or you can laugh at my blather if you prefer.
To answer the title's first question:
It's my humble opinion that, if one is open minded, one can always learn something new and that "Serious Writing" is a relative term. For my purposes, I define "Serious (Fiction) Writing" in several ways:
1.Writing with the intent of completing a short story or novel-length manuscript and submitting it (palpitations!) to a (::tremble::) publisher rather than scribbling off a scene here, a scene there and sending them to the under-bed dust bunny gang for their Friday night poker game (what, your dust bunnies don’t have a poker night?).
2.Telling non-writing friends and family what I have been doing with all my "spare time" (no one has spare time…why does the expression even exist?), which has yielded a gratifying show of support, even after I confessed the nature of my (misleadingly maligned!) genre: romance. Of course my mother fixed the evil eye on me and demanded, "It's not pornography is it?" Well, what can you expect of a mystery reader, after all. (Please do read the amusing article, "Romance Novelists Seeking a Little Respect" by Leanne Potts at http://www.abqjournal.com/fun/329728fun05-11-01.htm )
3.Working hard to understand the foundations of compelling writing. The most important thing I've learned in this respect is that writing is an on-going, HANDS-ON process. Above all, you MUST WRITE. If you don't WRITE, all the how-to's in the world aren’t going to help you enhance your writing or get published (if that's your intent). Conversely if you don't open your mind to the myriad of how-to information available (and I mean "how-to" in the broadest sense), and if you don't then learn to adapt these ideas to your writing style (not the other way around, unless you want to lose your "voice"), your writing may well stagnate.
Hopefully everyone who is reading this is already engaged in the WRITING WITH INTENT step. That's up to you and you alone, of course, as is the confession step. The step to "Serious Writing" that I'd like to help you with for starters is the "WORKING HARD" step: finding the resources to stretch your natural ability.
To that end, the next article in this series will address "how to" resources.
Stay tuned.
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