Breaking a Rule
August 7, 2001
7:17 a.m.
Sara McLachlan on the CD   The mail has been very quiet the past few weeks, but it is pretty much all my own fault. Or, it's the book's fault. Yeah, that's right. It's the book's fault. That's the ticket. The "problem" is that since about April, I've been sluggish in keeping stories out there. As rejections come in, manuscripts are just as likely to sit silently on my hard drive as they are to go back out the door. Yes, I know this breaks even my own advice. An editor can't accept something she doesn't see. While up in Indy for Steve Leigh's signing last week, I talked to Lisa Silverthorne and Linda Dunn. We reminisced about a bunch of stuff, and we commiserated about writing in general, and novels in specific. "I'm not happy with the plot," Linda said at one point. "So I'm going to storyboard it on a roll of paper. I figure it will never sell, but I'm committed to making this thing the best I can make it." Later, Lisa said: "I miss the freedom of not knowing anything about the market. It was so much easier to go to the keyboard and have fun when you didn't know." I agreed. "Writers are so weird. Half the job is faking ourselves out to the point where we actually think we have a chance to succeed despite all evidence to the opposite." We laughed. "That's it, you know? It's a box. We have to build this little box around a novel while you're working on it. You have to funnel everything into it, otherwise it's just too big. It overflows like some ugly blob of radioactive waste." We laughed again. "That's really hard sometimes, though." "Yeah." There wasn't much more to say, and it got a little quiet. "So, are you in the box right now?" Lisa finally asked. It is, perhaps, the most personal question you can ask a writer--are you in the box with your work? Is the flow so close to you that you feel it? Are you there, or are you flailing? Do you even want to admit it? Are you free to talk about your work? What are you going to say, eh? It is testament to our friendship that she felt comfortable enough to ask. "Yeah," I said. "I think I am." Right now it's all about trying to stay there. Right now I've consciously decided to leave manuscripts lay when I can. I can't afford to spend time on them because I'm in the box on this one. So I'm breaking a rule. Manuscripts are sitting around going nowhere. So sue me. Made it to page 434 today.  Up Next: Using Purple Paper Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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