A Little Advice to Young Writers and Readers

Years ago I literally agonized over every fa-

cet of writing you can imagine. I seemed terribly

impatient and knew not the cure, knew not where

the balm lay. Who could help me? I wondered.

Then I wondered not only who could, but who would!

Life seemed so unfair and even cruel when I con-

sidered writers who had made it "big" while they

were still young; writers like Capote, RL

Stevenson, McCullers, the playwright Williams et

al. Not only did I want and need to see some

thing of mine(Me, myself, and I--Ego, I love you!)

in print, but I wanted and needed compensation

for it. Eventually "The Writer" only increased

this appetite. In other words, reading THE maga-

zine was like looking at Playboy or Playgirl and

not being able to do anything about the urge.

Finally(I DID keep busy, though.) I was able to

take refuge in the "There is a season, a time..."

philosophy. Some things simply cannot be hurried,

and all the logic in the world is there. Many

times we just don't want to see that it is there.

It's like planting. We can't rush a fruit tree

or a tomato plant, can we? No, we must nurture

it repeatedly and wait until it grows and can bear

fruit. Did not Chaucer mention the craft as being

so long and life so short? So, patience can be

only beneficial for us. From the lack of it stems

our frustration.

Now the reader is thinking or saying, "Okay,

I get you. So what's the advice--the gist?" The

advice isn't one sentence. We have to look at

several factors, to say the least. The first fac-

tor, for me, is a commitment to quality. Medio-

crity should be the BIG ENEMY, therefore, com-

pletely unacceptable. To illustrate: Young wri-

ters can show one a piece of work and, while the

"pro" can and should allow for weaknesses here and

there in plot and clarity of meaning, there can be

no allowance for sheer carelessness. In other

words, I, personally, am turned off quickly by

writers who don't know the difference between to

and too, or who mispell receive(They write

recieve.). Don't misunderstand me. I'm not say-

ing one cannot make mistakes or that I never make

any. What I am saying is that the young writer

must be curious, not too lazy to look up the words

or grammatical mysteries that are before her or

him, and must desire to develop quality writing.

All of us are going to err and we should learn

from it when we do, but our mistakes should be

logical and not SILLY. It is silliness to send

off a piece of work with tree spelled treee or

three several times. Doesn't it mean we didn't

take the time to proofread our own creation?

Another factor to look at is overcoming our

insecurities. Gradually, of course, we must over-

come them. We have no choice. As youthful wri-

ters we seem to be quasi-masochists--running here

and there for an alleged "pro" to tell us that

this or that isn't acceptable or that our work is

done carelessly, to go back to the drawing board,

both of which crush our tender egos mercilessly.

Of course, at times feedback can be instructive

e.g. constructive criticism. But we need to be

careful. The "pro" cannot decide for us whether

or not we are going to be a writer. WE

OURSELVES DO THE DECIDING! This is because a wri-

ter is a

person who likes writing and, more importantly,

actually writes. So, many of us already are wri-

ters. Maybe our last name isn't recognizable as

is the name Joyce, Wouk or Tolstoy, but we ARE

writers.

A third factor that is important for me is

reading. I'd be willing to bet that most major

writers have been heavy readers. You see, that

which we haven't absorbed cannot exit. Where we

haven't learned elegant words and phrasing, we

cannot employ. So, part of the young writers com-

mitment to quality is unrelenting improvement in

her or his level of reading and level of general

knowledge.

Lastly, I'd like to mention the details. I

could go on farther but at this stage in my life

I'm trying to concentrate on things brief. All

kinds of books and articles exist telling us how

to do the paper, the envelope, which company,

which editor, do this, do that. Granted, some of

these pieces of advice cannot be totally ignored.

Additionally, any publisher has the right and

power to choose and use only that writing which

suits her or his needs. But these details will

never be as important as the piece of writing with

a real essence to it--meaty, juicy, high-calibre

and, of course, completely captivating to its rea-

ders in the style of In Cold Blood or A Rose for

Her Grave. So, if your writing desire is truly

authentic,

never give up in your quest. Try, try and

try. And so what if you never make millions upon

millions like Maupassant did in his time(He died

young and exhausted, didn't he?)? So what if your

name never becomes as famous as the name Balzac

became? Is a monetary amount the only way we can

measure a person's worth or success? No sir and

no ma'am.