Exasperation and Inspiration

Posted by VaughnDL January 18, 2017

Exasperation and Inspiration

I'm sure this is universal to anyone who wants to be a published author some day, but there are periods of time when I spend a whole week researching how to make that dream come true. Basically my google history from the past day or so is a whole bunch of "what publishing companies are accepting unsolicited submissions?" The answer to which is none that I've found so far. See, there was a time not so long ago when you could write a book, write a nice cover letter with a little bit of groveling, package it up nicely and send it on down to Simon and Shuster. A middle aged guy with a twiddly mustache and one of those suit jackets with patches on the elbows would find the manuscript in his mailbox, open it up with an air of skepticism, and then be blown away by the pure talent that lied within the pages. He'd give you a call on the landline and tell you in a Boston accent that the book needed plenty of work and that it wasn't going to be easy, but if you were willing to change just about everything about your first draft, you had a deal. And you'd say thank you, hang up, tell your mama the good news, have a drink of whiskey and a cigarette, and then start cracking on draft two. Nowadays, you have to get an agent. Who you have to pay. Or you go the self publishing route and purchase a publishing package for two thousand dollars, which does not by any means guarantee you any type of publicity or a name for yourself but is essentially an expensive shot in the dark.

How did SE Hinton do it?? I googled her too, and I read her whole Wikipedia page and it didn't really tell me anything about the process. I just want to be able to walk up to some publishing house, slam down my manuscript and say "let's do this thing!" That's what happens in the movies! (Once again, all my problems boil down to the fact that I watch too many movies and have a distorted view of reality).
Like wouldn't it be great if I could have my first book published by the time I graduate college?? That way I could immediately pay off all my student loans and have a great deal of credibility when applying for positions at magazines and newspapers.
I don't think I realized it until now, but I'm pretty sure I had writers block for like the past month and a half. Actually, I'm kind of still at the tail end of it, but I think I'm starting to come unblocked. I never really admit to myself when I have writers block. I just go through ebb and flow periods of writing a lot and not writing at all. But I don't call the periods of not writing at all "writers block". I just ignore them all together. But then I watched the movie Not Another Happy Ending, and I read SE's post about creativity that was like such a "WOW SO TRUE!!!" moment, and I went stir crazy on Pinterest and got tons of inspiration and for the past few days I've just felt so much like MAKING stuff and WRITING stuff and looking at pictures and listening to new music and revamping my wardrobe and singing and playing the ukulele and being colorful and being happy and I think all of that prompted this sudden veracity for wanting, very badly, to be a published author once again. Not like I ever stopped. But sometimes I rationalize with myself and remind myself that it's so very rare for people to get books published and that it's kind of a pipe dream and that I'm not necessarily any more talented than any other kid out there who likes to write. And then other times I throw rationality out the window and grab myself by the shoulders and say "DAKOTA, THERE ARE LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF BOOKS OUT THERE, MAYBE MILLIONS. AND THEY'RE ALL WRITTEN BY PEOPLE. THAT MEANS THAT LOTS OF PEOPLE GET THEIR DREAM COME TRUE. AND YOU CAN TOO MY FRIEND!!!!" And then I can sit down and pump out page after page after page of stuff that I read later and go "whatttt I don't even remember writing that but I kind of love it!!"

It's hard to be a writer without sometimes being a little narcissistic. And that's something I find difficult to reconcile with. Because I truly like to read the stuff that I write. It feels like reading something somebody else has written. Like as if it's written itself and my hand is just the instrument, as cheesy as that sounds. I mean I've written so many words that of course I don't remember all of them, so when I go back and reread my old stuff it's kind of surreal. But I hate being that self important and pretentious person who thinks they're so special and talented and entitled to a life of success.
Anyway, I'm rambling. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel very inspired lately. Very inspired and creative and in awe of other inspiring and creative people. And that's a great feeling! Just for fun, here's a list I found on tumblr:

Famous authors, their writings and their rejection letters.·        Sylvia Plath: There certainly isn’t enough genuine talent for us to take notice.·        Rudyard Kipling: I’m sorry Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.·        Emily Dickinson: [Your poems] are quite as remarkable for defects as for beauties and are generally devoid of true poetical qualities.·        Ernest Hemingway (on The Torrents of Spring): It would be extremely rotten taste, to say nothing of being horribly cruel, should we want to publish it.·        Dr. Seuss: Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling.·        The Diary of Anne Frank: The girl doesn’t, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the ‘curiosity’ level.·        Richard Bach (on Jonathan Livingston Seagull): will never make it as a paperback. (Over 7.25 million copies sold)
·        H.G. Wells (on The War of the Worlds): An endless nightmare. I do not believe it would “take”…I think the verdict would be ‘Oh don’t read that horrid book’. And (on The Time Machine): It is not interesting enough for the general reader and not thorough enough for the scientific reader.·        Edgar Allan Poe: Readers in this country have a decided and strong preference for works in which a single and connected story occupies the entire volume.·        Herman Melville (on Moby Dick): We regret to say that our united opinion is entirely against the book as we do not think it would be at all suitable for the Juvenile Market in [England]. It is very long, rather old-fashioned…·        Jack London: [Your book is] forbidding and depressing.·        William Faulkner: If the book had a plot and structure, we might suggest shortening and revisions, but it is so diffuse that I don’t think this would be of any use. My chief objection is that you don’t have any story to tell. And two years later: Good God, I can’t publish this!
·        Stephen King (on Carrie): We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.·        Joseph Heller (on Catch–22): I haven’t really the foggiest idea about what the man is trying to say… Apparently the author intends it to be funny – possibly even satire – but it is really not funny on any intellectual level … From your long publishing experience you will know that it is less disastrous to turn down a work of genius than to turn down talented mediocrities.·        George Orwell (on Animal Farm): It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA.
·        Oscar Wilde (on Lady Windermere’s Fan): My dear sir, I have read your manuscript. Oh, my dear sir.
·        Vladimir Nabokov (on Lolita): … overwhelmingly nauseating, even to an enlightened Freudian … the whole thing is an unsure cross between hideous reality and improbable fantasy. It often becomes a wild neurotic daydream … I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.·        The Tale of Peter Rabbit was turned down so many times, Beatrix Potter initially self-published it.
·        Lust for Life by Irving Stone was rejected 16 times, but found a publisher and went on to sell about 25 million copies.
·        John Grisham’s first novel was rejected 25 times.
·        Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for the Soul) received 134 rejections.
·        Robert Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) received 121 rejections.
·        Gertrude Stein spent 22 years submitting before getting a single poem accepted.
·        Judy Blume, beloved by children everywhere, received rejections for two straight years.
·        A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle received 26 rejections.
·        Frank Herbert’s Dune was rejected 20 times.
·        Carrie by Stephen King received 30 rejections.
·        The Diary of Anne Frank received 16 rejections.
·        Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rolling was rejected 12 times.
·        Dr. Seuss received 27 rejection letters