What Does it Take to Succeed (as a writer)? by Elena Hartwell
Many years ago, I asked my first
acting teacher what was more important, natural talent or commitment to
learning the craft? He didn’t even stop to think about it. “Tenacity,” he said.
“Tenacity wins out every time.”
I never actually pursued a career in
acting — though I did get some very nice reviews from the only show I ever did
in New York — but as a writer I’ve often thought about the same question. What
makes a writer rise to the top? My answer? Working on craft… and tenacity. Tenacity
is the component every writer needs, because everything else comes from there.
Of course it’s nice to have both and
I think most serious writers have at least a kernel of talent or they wouldn’t
have anything to attach their tenacity to, but survivors in the arts keep at
it. The last one standing really does get the part, the agent, the book deal…
the wonderful, elusive, sought after, yes.
When I got my book deal for One Dead, Two to Go, (and Two Dead Are Better Than One and Three Dead, You’re Out J)
it was not my first finished manuscript. It wasn’t even the first finished
manuscript I pitched to my publisher. I’d sent them my third book, which they
liked enough to offer suggestions and recommend I submit again. So I said,
“I’ll work on that, but meanwhile, I’ve got this other book….” And the rest is
history.
My point here, is whatever
manuscript you’re working on is very important, but don’t get hung up on it
being your only shot at publication. Write it as well as you can. Rewrite it as
well as you can. Get feedback and rewrite it again, as well as you can. Pitch
it. Maybe you’ll even find a home for it with an agent or publisher. But don’t
let it be the end of your story. Write another manuscript. Write the next book.
Write and write and write, because that’s how your voice gets clear, your work
gets better, and your publishing dreams come true.
Write like your life depends on it,
because your artistic life does
depend on it, but don’t write like your artistic life only has one chapter.
Write like you have an epic career with many stories ahead of you, because in
the long run, isn’t that better than writing just one book?
There is no such thing as wasted
time writing. The stuff we cut is the stuff we cut away from the diamond in the
rough. If we didn’t write the manuscript we hid in a drawer, we’d never have
been able to write the manuscript sitting on the shelf in the bookstore.
Scrape paint from the work of a
Master and you’ll find another painting underneath. Mistakes are how we learn.
The only failure is calling it quits.
--Keep the faith, Elena Hartwell
One
Dead, Two to Go is the first in the Eddie Shoes
Mystery Series. Private Eye Eddie Shoes investigates the death of a young
woman. A young woman she’d seen alive and well and lounging around in lingerie
the night before, along with Eddie’s current client’s husband. After her own
client goes missing, victim or killer, Eddie can’t help but get sucked further
into the case. In the midst of it all, Eddie’s poker-playing, card-counting,
mafia-befriending mother arrives unexpectedly on her doorstep, with enough
luggage to indicate a very long stay. The only thing that could make things
worse would be to have her ex show up in Bellingham, Washington, as the new
homicide detective in town. Oh wait, there he is now…
Bio: Elena Hartwell was born in
Bogota, Colombia, while her parents were in the Peace Corps. Her first word was
“cuidado.” At the age of nine months, she told two men carrying a heavy table
to be careful in their native tongue. She's been telling people what to do ever
since. After almost twenty years in the theater, Elena turned her playwriting
skills to novels and the result is her first book, One Dead, Two to Go.
@Elena_Hartwell
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