Finding Your Way

        I get messages from people who are excited about having completed their first "novel" which I assume means they have now written a first draft. And they want to know now how to get it "published." I smile. I remember having written three of five or ten chapters of this great American novel I was going to write and wanting to know how to get it to a publisher, even though I had not even finished a first draft. Naive, well intended person that I was. Thank God, none of those rough beginnings saw the light of day.  I get messages from people who say  they are going to write a book as soon as they (fill in the life-event that has to pass before they begin) Some think they don't need to edit because the used spell check.  I know, because I used to say that too, before I actually did the whole "finish that draft, kill it, start again, rewrite, revise, and edit the shit out of it. Not just figuratively. Really. Because I promise you there is plenty of poop in anyone's first draft.

        It's a little confusing for a newbie to sort through these things, but I'll expound a bit of advice for those who are in the category of "Just finished my first draft" if I may. If you post that on any FB page,  especially those aimed at fledgling authors, and get a flood of "I'll PM you, we can get your book published." Those offers are on the level with the of "Widowed" nice looking doctors and others with new profiles who send friend requests and if you click on them they immediately PM you with "hello, pretty lady, I'd like to get to know your heart" (stop right here to throw up in your mouth, then keep reading) Authors who have actually gotten books published by legitimate publishers did not do so by responding to the people who PM them to offer their "publishing" services.

       What I want those of you who are excited about your "novel" to understand is that you are not going to send your first draft to any legitimate publisher and have them fall in love with it and want to offer you a "publishing deal". If someone DOES that, it is a scam. No one, and I mean no one writes a first draft that would make a great novel, as is. Hemingway didn't. Fitzgerald didn't, Harper Lee didn't. And importantly, there are no longer editors like the legendary Max Perkins who edited Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Wolfe. unless your are a celebrity and they see value in making you LOOK like you can write Nowadays, those manuscripts going to the better publishing houses have to be pretty darn polished to get a nod and an offer. There is a reason the first draft of any novel is affectionately called a "shitty first draft" in the industry. Believe me, I got my feathers ruffled when I first heard that term, because I was SURE my first draft of my first novel could not possibly deserve such a title.

       What every person who wishes to add "author" to their resume has to learn to do is to recognize the first draft as clay. Author Amy Hale relates this beautifully in her essay about the woman who goes to the cut bank on the river to gather clay in her basket. She then washes, and refines the clay, over and over until it is usable, and then she starts forming the clay into something that is not beautiful until it has gone through a lot of refinement. Then she has to fire the pot, and it may shatter in the firing. Or it may have a crack that renders it not useful. She begins again, and she works until the pot does what it is supposed to do.

       I love Hale's essay because I also work with clay. I still have the thick walled, squat, homely mug that was my first clay project. I screwed up the shape and the thickness and the finish work because I was in a hurry. A kind woman in the clay group told me it was beautiful because it was my first and to make the next one better. Nowadays, I can make lovely thin walled bowls, formed by hand, that "sing" when "plinked" but it took a lot of failed bowls to get there. It's a process of learning from those who have gone before us, and they learned from someone else, and the refinements and lovely touches are shared from generation to generation  None of that happens the first day, or the hundredth day.

       What does it all mean, if we are not learning as we go? I probably ran 17 rounds of edits on my first novel before I pitched it to any publishers. The editor who took a chance on that first manuscript spent several months going through and making edit and revision notes, and then he and I did at least three rounds of edits.  I never said "no" to going another round, because another wise author had told me I could trust that editor's eye.  I have been pitching my second full length manuscript, and have a contract offer from a nice small publishing company with longevity and dedication in their favor. Was my second novel easier? Hell no. I wrote at least 6 different "first five chapters"to find the entry to the story that worked. I have probably done 20 or 25 rounds of edits and revisions and at one time chopped out 30,000 words, saved them away, and revised as a shorter manuscript, only to go back for those 30,000 words and put them back, and carve out 20,000 somewhere else. Ackkk.

       So when you approach a published author and say you are going to write a book, and he or she smiles and nods sympathetically, well, it's because they know what you will face if you actually put the work into doing it. But who ever knows if that lump of clay will be refined into a useful cup, unless they spend the time washing, refining, forming, re-forming, firing, glazing, and firing again?

Gotta get your hands dirty to find out.