Streamwriting

After posting my Rejection Letters thread on the authonomy forum, Larry made this comment.  So good thought I’d cut and paste it here:

Publisher’s readers have a poor record for predicting best sellers. They reject future stars, like J.K. Rowling, if they’re outside the mainstream. They get enthusiastic over some books, which receive massive marketing budgets, and then disappear without trace. Private Eye (an English satirical magazine) used to publish an annual list of books which had attracted tremendous advances, alongside their derisory sales figures. The reality is that popularity can’t be predicted by applying simple rules - ‘celebrity memoirs, that’s what the public want’.

Roberto Bolano, currently being hailed as one of the greatest novelists of the millennium, ignored plot and incorporated long digressions, and was largely unread in the UK and US when he died, five years ago. Now he’s a publishing sensation, and has gone from having one book in translation, in a small press, to being a major success for Picador. Poor reviews and a pile of rejection slips? You could be a mega-star within five years like Bolano. Keep the focus on excellence, and ignore advice on what the market is looking for!

Animal Farm - "It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA.."

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."

Lord of the Flies - "It does not seem to us that you have been wholly successful in working out an admittedly promising idea."

Lady Chatterly’s Lover - "For your own good do not publish this book."

Lust for Life - "A long, dull novel about an artist."

And my fave:

The Voices of Angels - "There’s one principle reason why this isn’t suitable for HarperCollins at this time – the lack of a really strong central character."

Have returned from the joys of magazine work in Almeria back to the sleepy mountain town in the province of Malaga.  And it really is sleepy at the moment!  It seems like half my friends have already left or are in the process of leaving.  Was it something I said?!

Apart from that, all is well.  Especially on the writing front.  Am still awaiting my critique to be returned from the Hilary Johnon Author’s Advisory agency, quite excitedly now.  The last Christopher Howard seminar has left me in a state of extreme motivation so can’t wait to see the critique and start making the changes needed on my book.  Am hoping I will see all advice as constructive and not go all wussy and take it to heart….

I used to be like that.  My most famous example is sending off a short script to Eastenders, I must have been about 22 at the time, and they wrote me back a lovely letter explaining that although they really liked my writing I probably wasn’t right for the show, at least not on this writing example, but could I send something else through? 

Uh?  I didn’t have anything else!  I’d poured my heart into this one script to make it perfect!  And they didn’t like this?!  I shoved the letter into a drawer and kept it there for years.  (Am not joking - it really was years before I read it again.)  The reason being was because when I read the letter all I could see was the No.  We do not want you.  This script is not good enough for us.  Only years later when I worked as a reader in a literary agency, and my job was to write the rejection letters did I realise how much of an invitation mine had been.  You don’t flatter unless you want to receive.

Luckily, opportunies always come round again.  And i will snap the next one up!

This past weekend I went on the most amazing course. I’m a fan of courses, semimars, workshops, and the like, particularly those aimed at self-development. This 3-day course was a hybrid of NLP (neuro linguistic programming), hypnosis, and the latest techniques in re-setting negative mind patterns.

Now what has this got to do with writing?

Well, in my own personal experience and that of working with lots of other writers, one of the biggest stumbling blocks I keep coming up against is that of self-belief. Or lack of it.

The limitations we place upon ourselves, in all walks of life, are often the things which hold us back. We think we are not good enough, we have the fixed opinion that getting a book published will be hard work, we expect rejections. And when we get a rejection we let that rejection spiral into other rejections because we start to equate one person’s opinion with everyone’s opinion.

Which is why coaching is such a big business. An athlete needs a coach. A tennis star has a coach. A singer often has a voice coach. Even the most successful people in the world have coaches. Especially the succussful people. Why? Because a coach helps you eradicate all the weaknesses in your game. A coach can help you believe.

I’m not going to go on and on about coaches here, but what I will say is that being a professional writer is not always about having the best product on the market. It’s about self-belief, the self-confidence to promote yourself, and the focus, will, and power to keep going when you have a goal worth pursuing.

I haven’t written this blog for a while, 3 weeks or so, mainly because I’ve been busy, but also because I’d gone off the boil re my own novel. The rewrite loomed over me, I found myself staring at blank page after blank page whilst my mind floated skyward, and deep down I was starting to doubt. Doubting my ability to finish a project, to successfully sell a project, to make it into the big time. I’d had the course scheduled for months, it was a gift, a free ticket, and I knew it would represent a turning point for me, because what I needed more than anything was a healthy kick up the butt.

I highly, more than highly, more than anything, recommend this weekend course. There’s ones in Australia, the US and London so whereever you are you can go experience the Christopher Howard experience. He’s a dynamic, fun, charismatic teacher that will help you unearth any limiting beliefs that are holding you back from actualising your dreams.

I’ve got a hundred free tickets for the next Breakthrough to Success seminar in March. It takes place in London and if you want to reach into your pysche and pull out any demons, or if you want to believe that anything, even having a bestselling book, is achievable, then click on this link and reserve your place now.

http://champions.christopherhoward.co.uk/ukbts.asp?cli=CLA1017875

http://www.firstwriter.com/newsletter/archive/2007/fwn54.htm#article2