Wither writing?

I ran across a post on Facebook – a “sponsored post” that is – for a pamphlet or book or some such thing on how to write a novella. I get a lot of stuff like this in my feed and my email inbox. I am a writer, or at least I was, so these things have a way of finding me. For if you have any passion at all in your life, the online marketers will find you and try to get you to part with your money.

I actually made a living as a writer for more than two decades, but now it is a much more difficult career path. There are many writers out there who are willing to work for a lot less than I am. That means if you want to raise a kid or pay a mortgage, you better be prepared to do something else. I still write, though, because I know how and I enjoy it. It’s kind of what I do.

Like any other vocation, if you find it important you try to get better at it. Many writers want to get better, to find shortcuts to success, to find an agent and someone to publish our work. So there is a whole industry dedicated to giving you advice on writing. For the most part, these come in the form of books written by people who are looking for that same kind of success. Most of it is crap. The type that makes me laugh the most is books of writing prompts, as if I didn’t have notebooks filled with things to write about.

If someone whose work I admire has written a book on their work habits, I will pick it up and read it. Ah, who am I kidding? I read a lot of this stuff. Someone may know the “secret.” Usually, these self-help writing books are written by someone a lot like me and a lot of titles focus on how to write a bestselling novel. Here’s the thing about writing, though; it’s a trade. Like most trades you will get better at it with more experience. Yes, there are bestsellers written by young writers and the literati who choose them. It doesn’t make it any less crap, does it?

I just finished such a book from one of those literary types who went slumming in genre writing. This book was a New York Times bestseller and all the reviewers loved it. I kept thinking something was wrong with me because there wasn’t anything that made it any better that the more than dozen mystery writers I know personally have published but will never see a bestseller list. Shoot, as I read this book my one thought that would not leave my mind was that my work is better. It’s not fair, obviously, but it’s the way of the world and, for the most part, I’ve accepted that.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be a better writer.

All of this has a point, I promise. The best writers are those who work at it and write and write and write and read just as much. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something. Learning on the job is the best way to get better at what you do. I currently have three books about writing that are in my library. I go to them when I need a kick in the butt to get working. They are all three reminders about how writing is work and that good writing comes about after putting in the time. The books are Stephen King’s “On Writing,” Ray Bradbury’s “Zen and the Art of Writing,” and the third is “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser.

All three are imminently qualified to write about writing. Most people know and have probably read a book or short story by Stephen King or Ray Bradbury. Zinsser is lesser known unless you are a member of several generations of non-fiction writers who have worn out copies of his book on their shelves. (I currently do not have a copy – I tend to give them away to writers who say they want to get better.) In all three of these books – and many more I’m sure – the primary advice is not “write what you know” but instead that if you want to be a good writer you have to practice at it.

Obviously, this is good advice, but what of the practical advice such as developing work habits? That’s why I will always at least glance at these promises that are fed to me online about writing a bestseller. Plus I like to identify the scams if only to get some sort of self-satisfaction and feed my own ego. What I really enjoy, though, is the comments that come with these social media posts foisted on me.

There are several types of commentators with these ads. The first are those who buy into it hook, line and sinker. The second are the skeptics who are more than willing to point out the scam. The third group are best categorized best as “other.” At first, these nonsensical comments seem more the work of people who aren’t with the program, but really they are talking more about themselves than anything else.

Those are the comments I truly love because they reveal the sadness and excitement that comes with producing Art.

I would encourage anyone who has a story in them to pick up pen and paper and get it out. Just don’t constantly talk about how you intend to get to it. Writing is a painful, exciting, satisfying and humiliating way to go about your life. The best way to do it well is to do it often. Work constantly and regularly, and once you finish a piece you move onto the next – there is always a next project on deck. (Every writer has been asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” This may not seem like a silly question, but my serious, standard answer is usually, “How do I make them stop?” However, if you ask a writer a specific question about their work, he or she will usually go into great detail of how it was created. Everyone loves to talk about what they do.)

As you work at and learn your craft, you will develop a routine that guides you through your work. Everyone has a process to finish a task, just as you develop a process that could easily be titled, “How to Write a Novel,” or “How to Write a Novella.”

Which gets us back to the ad on social media and the comments. (I apologize for all the digressions.) One of the comments on this posting trying to sell a book on how to write a novella said, “I don’t buy novellas, they are too short for the money people charge for them.”

My initial thought was to flame this person. This person will not spend $3 on a 15,000 word story, but will probably spend double that on a cup of coffee every day. She doesn’t see the value in a writer’s work. A novella is essentially longer than a short story but shorter that a novel – think anywhere from 25 pages to 100 pages. Most of the short stories I start to write turn into novellas and it can take about 40 hours of sitting in front of a computer screen to write one. That’s just the writing part. It doesn’t include the time spent thinking about a story, nor the hours spent lying awake in bed thinking of character motivations, or making notes on plots, rising actions, pacing, narratives, antagonists and resolutions. How do you measure that time? And if you can measure it, how do you put a price tag on it?

But let’s just stick to the 40 hours. That’s a weekly paycheck. We all know how much we make a week, but most people who write are in no way guaranteed any money for their efforts. For the sake of needing a figure, let’s say our poor wretched writer is making $15 an hour which puts the value of writing a novella at about $600. If we look at a self-publishing model of doing this, a novella sold at $3 a pop would take 200 sales for the writer to break even, which does not include whatever your online retailer decides to keep. Through Amazon, you would have to make closer to 700 sales of a novella to break even.

If the writer sells her piece to a magazine – either paper or online – the pay is anywhere from $25 to $100. There are ones that pay more, but are nearly impossible for an unknown writer to get into. Arguably, taking low pay for being published can pay off in the long run.

So, $3 is too much to be entertained by someone’s hard work? You know, there might be something in that story that makes you laugh or cry or even gives you something to think about.

I know I shouldn’t complain because it has always been this way. Artists have always needed to rely on a patron to succeed, whether it be a prince or a queen or the public at large. I certainly do not advocate for the government to step in and subsidize the arts because when you take the king’s money, you are expected to do the king’s bidding.

I guess it comes down to wanting acknowledgment that there is value in writing – even bad writing – and maybe people could skip Starbucks once a week and invest in a story.