Why didn’t you tell me… Writing is hard!
There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.
-Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith
After my visit with a literary agent, I developed a clear idea of the book I want to write. I need to write a killer book proposal first, which means I need to build up my writing credentials to make it look like I’m the best person to write this book.
So I started a personal essay that I’m pitching to national women’s magazines. I’m thinking 1000-2000 words. Given that I write at least 500-2000 each day for clients, I figured I could just knock it out. After all, I just need to write my own experiences, right?
Holy crap was I wrong.
I already had about 800 words of another piece that I could use for a starting place. I went to a coffee shop Sunday to slam it out. One hour, two hours, three. The work just kept expanding. I returned home to keep working. Four hours. Five. After the sixth hour my eyes were blurry. My butt was numb. I wasn’t finished. And I was flabbergasted that writing my own stories was so difficult.
As a professional writer, I compose articles and marketing copy all the time. But now that I’ve been spending time writing my own stuff, I realize that I make my living more assembling the content than creating it. I interview people for profiles, so they provide their own content. I use facts about a company to write web pages, adding keywords from a list for search engine optimization. The chunks of information I need to do my job are either handed to me or fairly easy to gather.
But when it all comes from me, it takes more time than I ever imagined. I have to work to pull memories, struggle to capture them correctly, fight to find little details that will illustrate points. And I have to write it so that my voice comes out — which means I have to *find* my voice.
As a business person, I’m weighing the ROI per hour spent on different types of writing. The ROI on business writing is pretty darn good. I can easily write a 500-word press release in 1.5 hours and get paid in two weeks. The ROI on personal writing, be it fiction, nonfiction narrative or business book writing, seems to suck. I spent a good 15 hours total on 2000 words, and I haven’t come close to selling it (though I did get a “good” rejection already). It’ll probably take me weeks of research and waiting to find the market — at least another 5 hours of work. That’s 20 hours for 2000 words, with no guarantee that I’ll ever get paid.
Err. If I had studied accounting, the answer would be clear. Dang my nagging need to write for myself!
Jenny on 17 Jun 2009 at 8:36 am #
It’ll be worth it in the long run, trust me.
chris on 17 Jun 2009 at 11:59 am #
Writing comes easy for you when you write for others because you’re the person asking the questions. Then you build upon it – drawing more and more out of your clients until… Bam! The story to write is clear. That’s what Beth is great at!
So when it comes to your stories, who’s asking you the questions?
Perhaps writing isn’t so hard after all. Hint: You’re a great writer. Maybe the interviewing of yourself is your real challenge.
pete on 17 Jun 2009 at 7:23 pm #
Yeah, it’s hard. But you’re good at it! Good luck in Seattle!
Ingrid on 17 Jun 2009 at 9:01 pm #
As a pseudo-accountant the practical thing would be to stop and do a cost analysis of the time of writing and the profit of doing it.
But, writers are not accountants, writer write and create for the pleasure and satisfaction of using words to create a world that others want to be in or apart of.
How do you measure that? How do you measure an intangible? You don’t. The time it took you to write all that, you may think it’s a waste, but is it really?
When, not if, you publish your book and it takes off, and your publisher wants another. How do you take that feeling of accomplishment and happiness and put a price on it? You will not remember this pain, these doubts, or the frustration.
That’s why writers or artists take the “pain”. Because the product that comes out is amazing. And people like me, who are not creative, are thrilled with people like you are in this world.
Mark McClure on 18 Jun 2009 at 1:02 am #
Why not blog it – rough and semi-polished – and let the publishers sniff it out? (With your agent’s help.)
Isn’t this the future of publishing?
Steph on 18 Jun 2009 at 4:56 pm #
Beth, it takes me forever too. I think it’s because I can’t take off my editor hat while I’m trying to write. Everything has to come out perfectly. But I’ve learned the trick is to let it all out, unadulterated, and edit it afterward. However, knowing the trick and being able to follow through with it are two different things! And finding the material, too, is very difficult. The best remedy for that, I think, is to make sure you’re in a different environment altogether from the one in which you typically write your work copy. Find somewhere that inspires you, put on music or watch a movie or read a book that creates the feeling of getting ready to write for you.
SOndra on 19 Jun 2009 at 1:06 pm #
I can relate!1
SOndra on 19 Jun 2009 at 1:07 pm #
I can relate!
}{+Rio wrote this
Read this for me? | Life on Avenue Z on 03 Jul 2009 at 5:52 am #
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