I WANT TO ENCOURAGE

I have had many people ask me in the last few months different things about writing. I will try to answer most of those questions as well as I can. It is my desire to help anyone that wants to write. I have had very young people and very old people ask me questions.

WHY DIDN'T I WRITE AT AN EARLIER AGE:

Funny as it may seem I have often asked myself that same question. However, when I was young I was married and had two small children. I often worked two jobs and put in as many as seventy hours a week. To put it bluntly, I was often dead tired. Also for some reason at that time writing didn't seem as the most important thing in my life, my family was the most important.

WHAT WOULD I SAY TO A YOUNG PERSON WANTING TO WRITE:

I would say put your heart and soul into it. If you want to write go for it. Don't worry about what other people think. It is your life and if writing makes you happy then shoot for the stars. There will be rejections along the way. When I first started to write I submitted to magazines. I was rejected fourteen times before Our USA Magazine accepted one of my stories. I have now had numerous short stories published in that magazine. I am now trying to get an agent to represent me to publishers for a novel I have written. I have received so many rejections, but I continue to keep searching. Many writers were rejected many times before being published. Stephen King was rejected thirty times before, Carrie was published. The most important thing is to stay positive.

I WAS TOLD I CAN WRITE A SHORT STORY BUT NOT A NOVEL:

I had the same feeling when I first started to write. I thought I couldn't do anything else. Cher Valentino, the founder and editor of Our USA Magazine gave me so much encouragement. She gave me the inspiration to expand my horizons. I wrote a novel, Golden Haze, and had it self published. There is nothing like the feeling to a writer when they first hold that book in their hand. When someone says they can write a short story but not a novel I will tell them this. A novel is just a collection of short stories. Think of each chapter as a short story and continue the next chapter as a continuation of that story. Soon you will see that you have ten, twenty, thirty, or more short stories put together to make your novel.

SHOULD I SELF PUBLISH OR GO THE TRADITIONAL ROUTE:

I self published my first novel and it has received good reviews. The problem is that you have to promote that novel yourself which can be time consuming and expensive. The advantage is that it will be published the way you want it and you retain the rights to the novel. For my second novel I am going the traditional route and am searching for an agent to represent me to publishers. Trying to get an agent is harder than writing the book. It is frustrating when you receive rejection after rejection. However, never give up. I have read stories of people taking years before they got published. I read that there are about 750,000 manuscripts submitted each year and less than 3% get published. I know that is a frustrating number. So it is a tossup between self publishing or going the traditional route. You as a writer have to make that decision.

HOW CAN I GET BETTER AS A WRITER:

Another question that is often asked of me. What I did was start on a writing website to get my stories out there to see what other people thought. I wrote on Triond for quite a long time. I saw what people thought of my stories and I met many amazing fellow writers that gave me encouragement. Many of those writers I am still in contact with and consider them my friends.

WHAT SHOULD I DO BEFORE SUBMITTING A STORY OR NOVEL:

I learned this after I had my first novel published. Always use spell check. You are going to make mistakes in spelling but at least spell check will limit those mistakes. Another thing is have someone else read your work to proofread it before you submit. They will find mistakes and point out errors you have made in grammar and punctuation. An agent or editor wants to see the best work possible. If they see many errors you surely will be rejected. Do your best work and submit something that you will be proud of.

I hope I have been able to answer some questions that have been asked of me and I hope anyone reading this will continue to write and do their best work. Thanks to everyone that has given me encouragement and advice through the years. It has been greatly appreciated.


Copyright  Larry W. Fish  2014