ENCOURAGING THE DREAM

Current Project: Blatant self promotion of A VALENTINE'S ANTHOLOGY
Status: Book launch party on February 14

Please join us if you can at Willamette Humane Society, 4246 Turner Rd. SE, Salem, Oregon

For several weeks, we  have had a great deal of discussion and enthusiasm about setting goals and working toward writing dreams. I didn't consider these things when I joined RWA almost twenty years ago. I simply discovered a fascinating world where writers finished books and sold them for undisclosed sums of money and, best of all, shared the secrets of how to write with wide-eyed newbies like me. 

If someone would have asked what my writing dream was back in those days, I probably would have finally stammered out that I wanted to write a series romance and sell it to Harlequin/Silhouette. If they would have pressed me for specific goals to realizing this dream, I doubt I would have been able to list much beyond write the book and submit it. 

From RWA, I learned the craft of writing, and then I learned to target specific editors and lines, and had the opportunity to enter contests and attend conferences to do this. I learned about publisher guidelines and query letters and those dreaded synopses. I learned so much from RWA and was offered so many opportunities. They encouraged my dream.

Through rejections and doubts, writer friends encouraged me until I developed the inner strength and confidence to pursue my own dream. Until I became one who offered encouragement to other writers whose dream seemed just out of reach or totally impossible or perhaps just a bit unfocused.

My own dream has changed since those early days. I have chosen an alternate pathway to share my stories: a small publisher of electronic books and books that are printed on demand as readers order them. I see this not-so-new technology and the more recent technology of combining audio and video with words to form interactive books as exciting developments. Others aren't so eager to embrace these changes.

This produces chaos and conflict--the stuff of good stories--but an uncomfortable situation in "real life," especially when our national organization that sets policy and direction struggles to define their role in this time of dramatic change in the book producing industry. Amid this conflict, how do we focus on our dreams? How do we encourage others to follow their dreams, even though those dreams may be different than ours?

A couple days ago, I talked to a woman who has the dream of writing a novel. She has written poems and has done some work on a novel. She said she had a couple of main characters outlined, had some ideas about plot, and knew the story would be a thriller. But she hadn't written anything since Christmas. Some people would have told her that writers write every day and since she wasn't doing that, she wasn't a writer and might as well give it up now. 

That's not my style. I told her she had made a good start, gave her some ideas for resources that might help, and told her I was looking forward to meeting her on Sunday at my booksigning. If we had talked longer--without the beeping of my cell phone warning the battery was almost dead--I would have also encouraged her to think about what she wanted out of writing. Writing for the pleasure of putting words in the computer? A few copies of a book for friends and family? A comfortable income with a small publisher? A contract with a New York print publisher? A New York Times bestseller? 

As someone recently commented to me, what you want from writing--your dream--will determine  your promotion, your networking, the time you commit to writing, perhaps even the stories you choose to write--or someone else chooses for you. 

I'll offer those suggestions when I talk to this woman again and will tell her about new opportunities. However, I will also caution her to beware of unscrupulous businesses who want to take advantage of her dreams, something I wouldn't have felt necessary just a few months ago.

How about you? What encouragement have you received in pursuing your writing dreams and goals that has been most helpful? And when you offer encouragement to other writers--no matter whether you think you're a newbie or have been at this writing business awhile--what do you say? Have your suggestions changed as technology and publishing have changed? Or do you encourage new writers to simply tell the best story they can?