With a road trip taking my time this week, I am returning to the initial “Words on Paper” series with this unpublished post, No. 18 drafted earlier this year, with some updates.
Okay, so about that earlier pledge to refrain from using ChatGPT to help write these columns…. When talking about resources these days, you can’t avoid it. Perhaps even ironic, and I do not want to be seen as a literary Luddite. It’s okay for research, but I still draw the line at actual writing. AI may appear to be taking over the world, but it offers no wisdom and has no soul.
While I am no expert on writing resources and opportunities, it was a bit comforting when I asked ChatGPT about ‘resources for aspiring writers’, to see two books at the top of the results: The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White, and On Writing, by Stephen King. The above foundation of authorship graphic was inspired by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs.
My early writing aspirations found a home in newspaper journalism, where I first learned about The Elements of Style. Even though it dates back more than a century, if you had to pick one piece of training for a writer, that would be it.
Wikipedia quotes author Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) saying: “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”
I agree with the first part of that quote. Parker’s sardonic perspective could arise from the overwhelming hopelessness one might feel after being exposed to the almost limitless supply of books, websites, and advice about writing. Many of the practitioners turned in that direction after realizing that giving advice about writing was more lucrative than trying to create literary art.
A good starting point
In On Writing, Stephen King says about The Elements of Style: “There is little or no detectable bullshit in that book…. I’ll tell you right now that every aspiring writer should read (it).” While King’s book is a lot longer (309 vs. 85 pages), much of it is autobiographical about his development as a writer. Taken together they provide a good starting point.
The best advice from The Elements of Style: “Omit needless words.” The failure of most writers to follow that provides job security for editors. King’s advice: Write a lot and read a lot. He lists 79 books that he read between 2010 and 2019. It includes War and Peace, which I had once started, but never finished (~1,300 pages). Today a book like that likely would never be published.
After following their advice and having written your book, how do you get it published? Again, the vastness of advice overwhelms. For most writers these days, you do all the work yourself, or sign up with a partner or hybrid publisher, where you pay upfront costs. The fee for a hybrid publisher could range from $5,000 to $20,000. If you do all the work yourself the upfront fee is $0.
Having no major expertise about all the publishing resources, my only advice is to give it a shot. The print-on-demand services offer much assistance, templates, and advice. I have used Amazon KDP and DiggyPod. For my next book, if I go solo I may try IngramSpark. A local printer, Lakeside Press, will also be printing hard copies.
If your luck measures up to winning Powerball and you land a traditional publisher, congratulations! But if you get a call from someone claiming to be an agent who, for a ‘developmental’ fee, will find you a publisher, that is a scam. (That happened to me. They sounded very convincing. I reported it to the FBI.)
NaNoWriMo no more
In 2002 NaNoWriMo inspired me to begin writing my first novel. NaNoWriMo began in November 1999 with the challenge of writing a novel in a month. It expanded into a nonprofit organization offering writers tools, community, and encouragement. Some internal controversy led to its demise, according to a story last April in The Guardian.
Founded 50 years ago in Minneapolis, The Loft “offers hundreds of classes, awards and grants for writers, readings and events, major festivals and conferences, and other resources for readers and writers.” I am a member and have appreciated the employ of an editor there to critique my second and third novels, assisted with grants from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council.
If you are more academically minded, check out the Iowa Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa. I participated in two workshops at its Summer Writing Festival, in 2017 on campus, and in 2022 virtually. They come at a hefty price but can be worth it. I was fortunate to use grant funds.
With the digital age, platforms to publish your work are almost limitless. As I said in an earlier column, we have moved from the ‘mass media’ era to the ‘media mass’. Social media ‘influencers’ seem to have superseded professional publications with professional staff.
As a former newspaper editor, I still recommend reaching out to your local paper, if you still have one. They often publish special sections and invite readers to submit articles. They welcome thoughtful essays for opinion pages.
If you have greater ambitions for publishing an essay, you can try the big leagues. I submitted an essay to the New York Times. They invite ‘guest essays’, and they even looked at mine. At no surprise to me they politely declined. Still, it was rewarding to have written it, and I hope to publish it somewhere. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, it’s on my Substack page, the very first post on Aug. 31, 2024.
