What Defines Success As A Writer?

A few years ago I was on a walk with an artist friend who stopped to sketch the view. I sat down too, but instead of writing a descriptive piece, I decided to draw the view too. I hadn’t done any drawing since school, but it was a pretty fine sketch, though I say it myself. My artist friend was very polite, made a few kind comments about the charmingly naïve perspective and interesting use of shading and offered some suggestions which, should I ever sketch a view again, I fully intend to use.

I enjoyed myself doing that drawing. Success was about my enjoyment in the process, and satisfaction with the end result, however much the perspective was all over the place. It was absolutely nothing to do with whether anyone would give me some money for it.

Thousands of art classes take place every day and while a few of the artists may be wistfully thinking of selling their work for ££££, I bet most of them are just pleased to be spending time being creative. Why should writing be any different? Why does market place success matter so much to writers? Isn't it enough to enjoy the process?

I don't think using market place success is the right way to judge the success of your writing. What makes a published writer is a combination of many elements - determination, persistence, talent, luck, skill, hard work, imagination - but all published writers have one thing in common: they're writing what they believe in, not what they think will sell.

Sometimes, publication is a question of being lucky in writing the right thing for that particular moment. After the success of Twilight, there was a rash of young adult novels covering similar ground, currently dystopian novels are top of the YA best seller lists with The Hunger Games. But the market has already moved on. At Bologna - the international children's book publishing fair - last month, apparently no one was buying dystopia; instead they wanted adventure stories.

Enjoy the writing, and write from the heart. So long as you're writing what you really believe in and are enjoying the process (difficult and heartbreaking as it can be), you're a success.

Writing the Book of Your Heart

Just before Christmas I went to see Hugo.  This was taken from the graphic novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.  Selznick was a successful illustrator but like many in that business he had become disillusioned and depressed and had stopped working.  Then he met Maurice Sendak, the author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are.  

He talked to me about my work, which he said showed great promise, but he steadfastly maintained that I hadn’t come close to reaching my full potential yet. These words resonated with me very strongly. I think I had secretly felt the same way. I talked to him about how lost I felt, about how I didn’t know what I should do next. His words were simple but powerful: “Make the book you want to make.” 

At the time Selznick didn't understand him, but gradually a book unlike any other came into his head, a 550 page long picture book. He had no idea if there was a market for such a book but it was the book he wanted to make.  So he did.  The result was The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which received the Caldecott Medal, and it's from his acceptance speech that the above quote comes from.  

I say to students all the time that they should write from the heart. Creativity has to come from the heart, and not the head.  There's no point in trying to write a particular style or for a particular market if it's done for cynical reasons.  Everything in writing has already been done - every plot has been covered, every character has already appeared.  The only thing that hasn't been done is your story told in your way, with your whole heart behind it.  

H is for Heartfelt

The thing is, every plot you can think of has already been done. There are various theories about the number of plots there are - depending on who you read there are 27, 12, 7 or 2. Shakespeare is credited with creating several of them, but given part of his genius was taking stories that were current and making them entirely his own, I'd take that with a pinch of salt.

So you can't write an original plot. You can't write original characters - someone else has already been there. Recognise any of these embarrassing things?

- A man whom one loves gets drunk and keep repeating himself.

- Parents, convinced that their ugly child is adorable, pet him and repeat the things he has said, imitating his voice.

- In the presence of a skilled musician, someone plays a zither just for his own pleasure and without tuning it.

- A man recites his own poems (not especially good ones) and tells one about the praise they have received.

- To have spoken about someone not knowing that he could overhear.

They're all taken from The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, written over 1000 years ago in the court of the Heian dynasty in 10th century Japan. It's about as far away from us as it's possible to be, but we recognise it. There are no new characters, no new observations.

But. Yesterday I wrote: No one else can write a Sarah Duncan novel. What you can do that is new and fresh is write your take on the world. No one will have ever done that before. Write with authenticity and your writing will be unique. Write from the heart - it's the only way.

Not Knowing What You're Writing

At the weekend I met up with Liz Kessler, author of the series about mermaid Emily Windsnap, aimed at the 8+ age group. We chatted away about books and boats, and writing and living in Cornwall and at one point she asked if I'd ever thought about writing something other than what I was writing.

I said yes, in that I'd thought of shifting ground slightly, and I have a non-fiction book idea lurking around my mind, but essentially what I write is what I write. 'There's no point writing anything that doesn't come from the heart."

She agreed with me. Books had to come from the heart. She added that often she didn't know what she was writing about until well after she'd finished writing the story. Sometimes, she'd even had to have what the book had really been about explained to her by an outsider.

I nodded in agreement. I can now see patterns in my books - themes, concerns, reactions - that are about me, the writer, but there is no way I realised they were there at the time of writing. It sounds weird, but I suppose it's to be expected if you write from the heart.

Alan Bennett, in Writing Home, says this: "One seldom sits down knowing exactly what one wants to say, the knowing very often coming out of the saying. 'One draws,' says Lichtenberg, 'from the well of language many a thought one does not have.' A writer does not always know what he or she knows, and writing is a way of finding out."

I see it with students. They start with fixed ideas about what they're going to write, and then surprise themselves with what emerges on the page. Write from the heart, not the head, and surprise yourself - and that'll be worth reading.

NEW!!! I've finally got round to organising some course dates....

How to WRITE a Novel: London 3rd May/Birmingham 7th May/

Oxford 8th May/Exeter 21st May/Bath 12th June

How to SELL a Novel: London 24th May/Exeter 4th June/

Bath 3rd July Details are on my website