The Ups & Downs of Writing - A Case Study

By Robin Weaver

If you’re a writer, this month’s theme, “Ups & Downs of Writing,” couldn’t be more apropos. If you look writing up in the dictionary, it says: Trying to write is like getting on a roller coaster while trying to create your artistic masterpiece with an etch-a-sketch. In a thunderstorm.

Of course, it doesn’t say that, but it should. Someone please let Dictionary.Com know they can quote me.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if only 10% of the world’s doctors actually got paid? That’s the life of a writer. To quote Irvin S. Cobb, “If writers were good businessmen, they’d have too much sense to be writers.”

Not only do we work and work with little chance of actually making any money, we expose ourselves to continual criticism. And even great stories often don’t garner any readers.  As an anonymous source said: If Moses were alive today he’d come down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments and spend the next five years trying to get them published.

My family is very supportive—in part, because I always kept my day job.  Still, my crazy writing career—or lack thereof—is the epitome of “Ups” and Downs.”

So here goes…

In Grammar School, I had a best friend…. My friend later decided he’d sleep in a coffin every night.  And write stories. He did both.

Thus the vampire-friend, Pudgy (aka me), decides she wants to be a writer.

Only to be told during her teen years, “You need a real job. You know, one that pays money.”

My backup plan? Information technology. Thus a computer geek, who secretly wants to be a writer, is born-created.

 Life intervenes… for a couple decades. Then, in the early 2000s a genealogy project sparked my deeply buried writer gene.

•     First, I discovered a lot of Strange in my tree—literally, that’s my grandpa’s last name. I traced him back to the Earl LaStrang, who may or may not be featured in some of the racier Regency novels. But that’s a blog for another day.

•     And for those of you into hyphenated names, my mother was also a Strange. Until she married a Cox.

Anyway, that genealogy research uncovered my Great-Uncle Noverta. Who may or may not have killed his wife. Guilty or innocent, he went to prison. Until he escaped, hightailed it to Colorado, and served as a deputy-sheriff for 25 years.

BINGO. I decided to finally write that book.

 How hard could it be?  You think, you type, you staple the pages together. RIGHT? For those of you who are a little younger, that’s how you did it in the days before ebooks.

But back to my topic… how hard could it be? This book would write itself. Better yet.  I’d just use the tape-recorder (forerunner of the iPhone notes app) on my way to Myrtle Beach.  My admin could type the novel when I got home. After all, the entire book was “in my head.”

Fortunately, I wasn’t really that dumb (or so I thought at the time).

Really.

I took a class. Being a newbie, I didn’t see any issues when the teacher…

•       Was old enough she might actually have been Moses.

•       Was last published in the 1970s

•       Quit writing when her writing partner died

•       Told all her students to write erotica because… Anyone could get published at Ellora’s Cave. Note: For those of you who don’t remember Ellora’s Cave, good luck with the Google. 😊

But I got lucky (or not, depending on your perspective). I found the instructor’s book on eBay. And discovered her novel opened with the hero raping the heroine and  then they fell in love …

That’s when I decided to write a short story first. After several tries and thousands of submissions… Okay, after several tries and ten or so submissions….

I sold my mystery story! To a webzine.

The day before my story was scheduled to appear…

The webzine went kapooy.

But I persisted. I found CRW/RWA. And learned about craft. About craft. And craft. I had a loooong way to go. I also learned to be published, I needed 4-inch heels and 2-inch fingernails. And access to editors and agents.

I was told, writing contests were the quickest way to get editor and agent attention. So, I entered, and entered…

And then I made finals. And started to win contests. And you know what happened?

No Requests!!!

I became a Contest Coordinator And my chapter’s program’s chair. I  blogged; created a Facebook Page. Created a web site.

 

AND…..

I finally got a contract. Two weeks before my book was to be published….yep…publisher folded.

I eventually found another publisher. Published seven books. And still haven’t made enough money to cover expenses.

And I’ve enjoyed every minute.

 But… Thank God I kept my day job.