How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?
“It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.” —Ernest Hemingway
No one wants to hear the truth when it comes to writing because it’s boring and painful. Words exist in our world so why can’t everyone write well enough to constantly produce beautiful poetry, galvanizing journalism, novels that enthrall and essays that change lives? You love to dance so why not be a ballerina? You love to speak so why not a TED Talk? The truth is no one is good immediately and many will never achieve anything beyond okay after dozens of revisions. An idea is not a book, movie or play. It’s a thought and until you sit down and make that thought come to life with excellent writing, like a dream, it slips away.
What do we do? We don’t let it slip away. We spend years learning our craft, revising, receiving rejections, broken promises, false leads and yes, acceptance that may or may not feel good because we’re crazy. We edit and parse and cut and create timelines, back stories, eschew cliches, and silently curse those who think we are good because we are lucky. There is no writing fairy who swoops into the darkened bedrooms of certain people and bonks them with the talent wand. It’s grinding, difficult work.
How do you get published? Timing, connections, resilience and yes, brilliance. How do you get brilliant? Just like that Carnegie Hall joke, practice, practice, practice. You may still remain outside, but you are moving forward, and you are learning discipline and if you aren’t that good, moving on.
Writing is a business like all art. Don’t ask a writer to “take a look”, don’t expect a writer to find you a publisher or an agent. That’s not what we do. If you want a writer to read your work and provide feedback hire them to be an editor and pay them accordingly. The only person who read my novels before they were sent out was my father who wanted nothing but the chance to help me become a better writer, a published writer, a disciplined writer. He was critical yet encouraging and basically always right.
—Molly Moynahan, author and writing coach