5 Reasons to Keep Writing When Publishing Hurts
In this episode…
❤️🩹😥Sometimes publishing hurts, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on writing! Pam gets personal in this special Heart 2 Heart episode of Writes4Women, giving you 5 reasons you should keep writing that DON’T include signing a book contract. If the sometimes fickle publishing industry has you a bit down, have a moment with Pam and find your mojo again ♥️✍️
Key Takeaways
(01:30 - 02:45) Sometimes Publishing Hurts - What Inspired this Episode
(15:08 - 16:57) Reason 1: Writing as Creative Expression
(18:01 - 19:33) Reason 2: The Cathartic Nature of Writing
(19:35 - 20:51) Reason 3: Escaping into Imaginary Worlds
(22:20 - 24:50) Reason 4: Being Part of the Writing Community
(26:05 - 28:17) Reason 5: Writing as an Act of Hope
Transcript
[00:00:43] Hello, welcome to another episode of Writes4Women. It's Tuesday, the 28th of May. As I'm recording this. And this episode is actually going to go to air this week. So I'm not having a long lead in time with what I'm about to talk about. And this is a little bit of a different episode because it's a solo app. Where I'm going to give my thoughts on why we should keep writing when the world that we're in - the publishing world - can be quite disillusioning. I can be quiet disheartening. Can sometimes make us feel. Very dejected. But. I guess what I'm going to be looking at today. All the reasons why we should keep writing. In the face of that.
[00:01:30] This is coming off the back of a number of things actually. So those of you who are regular listeners may have listened to the very recent episode with Ber Carroll where bear and I talked quite openly. And I really appreciate Ber’s honesty about the kind of. Obstacles that she's had to publishing over the years. So that's one reason why I want to talk about that because not that there has been a backlash or anything about that, but just seeing the responses to that and the video clips that we're putting out. On top of a couple of other things has made me think I don't want. Either that interview or anything that's I say on rights for women or anything that I expresses my opinion to deter anyone from writing.
[00:02:20] The other reasons that how things come in threes. After the Burke Harrell episode, I, as you will also know if you're a regular listener. Hosted a writing retreat called the next chapter, writing retreat. And based on the feedback that I've had from that retreat and the evaluations, it was hugely successful and everybody loved it. We did on the Saturday night have around table more informal discussion.
[00:02:45] It wasn't a workshop, but it was a discussion where anybody could raise questions or topics for discussion. And as you would imagine in a room of 13 women writers, the issue of publication came up. And along with that, the difficulties of being published. I was very aware at the end of that discussion, that can also be quite a disheartening discussion because yes, it's really super hard to get published.
[00:03:10] I'm going to talk more about that in a little while in this episode. But there are other reasons once again, to keep riding and other reasons why riding, if it is a passion of yours and is something that feeds your soul is very important. So the retreat conversation and even some of the comments that have that, like, why are we doing this? Was the second reason why I thought I wanted to have this conversation today.
[00:03:35] Very one sided conversation, but hopefully I'll be able to hear your responses to it. In the coming weeks. And the third thing
[00:03:43] Two things. I think. That have happened. One of them just today. Two friends have experienced rejections recently. Now one of those. Writers is somebody who had a debut novel out. And unfortunately the publisher has. Opted not to take her second novel. Now that is one publisher. It's one person's opinion.
[00:04:05] And it's also about. What they see is happening in the market. And it is in no way, any reflection on that story or that writers work. But it was devastating for her to get that know that knocked back from the publisher with not a whole lot of kind of encouragement to resubmit. And another good writing friend. Had a rejection today from an agent. And this is somebody who's writing.
[00:04:32] I'm admire enormously, who I think is absolutely one of the most beautiful writers. I know. Has been writing. For as long as I have probably longer, it's been writing all our life and writes beautiful. Beautiful. Pros and short stories. And I know that she will resubmit and that she will find an ancient and hopefully we'll find publication, but again, this issue of rejection and the impact that it can have on our writing raised its head for me.
[00:05:00] And. So I'm telling you these things. Because I want to give you the reason for why I am recording this solo episode. There is a gap in the interview episodes. But I thought I would take this opportunity to address this. Issue of. Why should we keep writing? If it's so hard to get published and. If it is actually going to give me heartbreak And disappointment.
[00:05:24] Why should I keep doing it? So before I get onto that just for those of you who may not be as familiar with my own writing path, if you like. I thought I'd just give a very quick rundown on that, just so you know, the kind of experience that I'm coming from. When I talk about this topic. So I have been someone who has written pretty much all my life in various forms.
[00:05:48] It was angsty poetry, in journaling when I was in my teens. I've always journaled on and off or my life, or they haven't been doing that as much recently. I did a travel correspondence course in my twenties. I thought I was maybe going to be a journalist and I went to high school English teaching. Someone that's been surrounded by books.
[00:06:08] My father was a book collector. And as I grew up, I had books all over the place and never went a day without reading and always loved library visits. So books and writing have been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember, as they have been for many of us, particularly those of you who are listening to the podcast and those of you who are writing. So I enrolled in a master's of creative writing after teaching for around 12 or 13 years and just thought I wanted to. Do something more creative that didn't involve marking other people's work take away that kind of critical judgmental brain and really focus on doing something creative. It must've been a creative period in my life.
[00:06:52] I was pregnant with my third daughter at the time. And I just decided that. That was something that I wanted to do was to really explore. I wasn't riding a lot at home at the time. I did have to. Children. I had a full-time. I'm job. So anyway, I enrolled in a master's of creative writing and pretty much got hooked on writing and thereafter decided to combine my writing and teaching experiences.
[00:07:16] And I've been teaching, writing. Dare I say it. For 20 years In varying capacities. But during the course of that degree, I also wrote a novel. I didn't write a novel. I wrote. An opening, what could be potentially the opening of a novel and went on to work on that probably for about the next seven years or so. Six to seven years. It was a literary style novel with some kind of poetry. Sprinkled through it.
[00:07:44] It was. A woman's journey story. It was actually set in Nepal. And. It taught me a lot about. Writing. And taught me that I wanted to write and taught me that getting words down on the page could be cathartic and an escape. And a few of the other things that I'm going to talk about a bit later in this chat, but. My first published book came out of the NaNoWriMo experience, where I wrote 50,000 words in a month in November, 2009, that went on to become my first published book, Blackwater lake, and actually launched me into the. The world of commercial fiction. So I didn't go down the literary pass as I thought I might, because I had pretty much read exclusively literary novels up till that point. And my horizons were broadened.
[00:08:34] And I started reading more in the commercial fiction space. That's the area that I was writing in. I started meeting writers in that space and really developed a love of commercial fiction. And of course I still love literary fiction as well. Although I must say I don't read it as much now, and I certainly don't write it because I realized it just wasn't my voice.
[00:08:54] That's not where my voice lies. I was accepted into the Hachette manuscript development program in 2011. And that first published book, Blackwater lake was published in 2012 by Hachette. And I went on to have three more books published by his shit over the next.
[00:09:13] Six years, five years. It was wonderful. I had a fantastic relationship with my publisher there at her shit, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It pushed me to write. Harder and faster. It pushed me in many ways to become a better writer. And I have absolutely no regrets about that pass. I did have my fist novel that I submitted to his shit rejected. In around 2000 and.
[00:09:41] Let's say 18. 2017 18. My memory of the dates is still very good. And. I am not going to lie. And I have been very open about this on the podcast previously, that rejection. Was really shattering. As we're the subsequent rejections for that novel from quite a few publishers afterwards. And. Let me at the point where I really had to question why I did right, why I wanted to have another book published.
[00:10:10] Why was I putting myself through this kind of torture, really of putting myself and my work out there and having it knocked back and in. One particular instance that I remember knocked back quite Scathingly, shall we say.
[00:10:24] Aye. Did question my own writing abilities to question my teaching abilities at that point. And so the reason I'm telling you this is because I want you to understand, I want listeners who may have been rejected out there to understand that I know what it feels like. I haven't been rejected just one.
[00:10:42] I was pretty lucky to be picked up by the manuscript development program. Without even having to submit that novel anywhere else, but. When I did submit that fifth novel it was rejected resoundingly by. Pretty much every big five publisher. That was the world that I was in. So I was someone who'd been for the last kind of five years prior to that in the world of books and writing in Australia, I was teaching, I was having books published every 12 to 15 months.
[00:11:09] I was going to launches having launches, all that sort of thing. And, it, it was pretty devastating. So I gave myself. Some time to sit and think about it when I finally realized there's not really anybody else to submit this to, by this stage, I did have an agent I wasn't aged in for the first four, but I had picked up an agent who was subbing this Facebook around. And we had a conversation about it.
[00:11:34] And by this stage it had been two years since I'd had a book out. So I decided. That I would self-publish. Again, absolutely no regrets about that decision. It pushed me to be a better writer because I thought if I'm putting this out there myself, I want this to be as good as any traditionally published book on the shelf. I hired a professional editor, a professional book designer, and I really worked hard to make that book, everything that I thought and hoped it could be.
[00:12:03] And that was cross my heart. And some still very proud of that book today. And. The way that it really changed the way that I see. My career. So what that book actually did was I guess it made me a hybrid rider in that I still had traditionally published books out there. I was now an indie publisher as well in indie author. I subsequently got. The right spec for my second published book se sway. And re-published it as all we dream.
[00:12:33] And I won't go into the reasons why here you can listen to my interview with Michelle Berra cloth. On the writers book club podcast, if you want to hear more about that. But anyway, so I then had two independently published books out there. What that experience taught me is that I'm much prefer the writing and the editing of manuscripts to the marketing and publishing of them.
[00:12:52] Even though as a traditionally published author, you do have to do a lot of your own marketing. Selling and promotion. I. We have really questioned over the last couple of years, that particular. Avenue of publishing and myself because of the amount of marketing that you have to do, if you. I want to get your books in front of people. That's what you have to do. So anyway, that's where I am now.
[00:13:16] I have had since then my audio books my, I have had since then, all my rights have been returned from his shit. And those books have been now published in audio by Belinda Australia, and they did also take two. The new books. What out of the ashes being the first one, which has recently come out and. The working title, a place of her own, the third in the Blackwater lake series coming out probably early next year. So the reason I'm telling you all this, as I said is so that you can understand where I'm coming from in my publishing journey. As Berger and I chatted about in the recent episode. There are. Many challenges in the publishing life and the writing life. I have in the last few years, Try to see those challenges as opportunities when you know things don't go the way I want them to, if I've had a rejection, I think.
[00:14:07] Okay. What's the next step. What can I do?
[00:14:11] What I haven't done. And what I decided I was not going to do is stop writing. I must say that first rejection from a shit. The kind of pivotal one, I guess did stop me writing for a while. And. It did make me question why I'm doing this. And the reason that I kept going I'm going to talk about in a minute and. That reason has been added to, by some of the other things that I'm going to discuss. So while I fully understand that everybody's situation is completely different and everybody's emotional reasons for writing their emotional needs. Their, the reason that we write is can be different for everyone. But I just wanted to lay out there for you. What I feel, I guess from my point of view the five main reasons for why we should keep writing. Whether or not, we're going to be published. And so these are in no particular order and I'm not using notes for this.
[00:15:08] I'm saying all of this completely off the top of my head. Because I want this to be just really coming from. The heart and. The reason that I'm telling you this, because I want. For everybody out there. To continue to experience the joy that writing can. Bring. Even if. Those words and those pages. I never published in traditional form. Reason number one, I think that we should keep writing in the face of rejection. Is for creative expression.
[00:15:41] I, 100% believe that we are all creative beings as a writing teacher. I've taught many classes over the years and. I used to have people come in and I still do sometimes come into classes, whether that be online or face-to-face and say I'm not really that creative. And I immediately want to wash their mouth out with soap. Because I fully, 100% believe we are all creative beings.
[00:16:05] We all have a desire to create in some form to express our creativity. And without sounding too. Woo. I believe that. Passion and that drive and that need to create comes from our soul. I just think that we are creative beings and that we. Thrive and grow and evolve. So much more beautifully if we. Find ways that we can express our creative self. For some people that might be through music for others, it might be through art or photography or any kind of form of the arts through knitting or crochet.
[00:16:45] There's so many various ways we can do it. But if for you. Like me, it's through writing. Then continuing to rise in the face of rejection. It's not only.
[00:16:57] Advisable. It's actually crucial because in those times when we're feeling at our lowest, getting the words out on the page, even if it's in the form of a journal, it doesn't have to be fiction.
[00:17:08] It could be nonfiction. You could just stick to journaling for a while. Poetry. Any other form, or you might channel it into your fiction, but.
[00:17:18] Continuing on with that kind of creative expression and doing it for no other reason then, because it's your passion because you love words because you love seeing what you can create with words. I think that is so valid and so valuable and so much more important in the long run than whether our books are on a shelf for. A short period of time in a bookshop. So that's number one. Creative expression and finding an outlet for our creative. Self to blossom and thrive. Very closely linked to that, I think is the cathartic nature of writing.
[00:18:01] I don't know about you, but if you've ever done morning pages, the Julia Cameron suggestion, where you get up and write three pages every morning, or if you've ever journaled or you've ever had kind of emotions that you just could not process.
[00:18:13] And then you've sat down with a pen or pencil and paper and just. Blurted everything out on the page, it feels so much better when you get to the end. And not only is it cathartic, but it's also. Way of talking ourselves into understanding. It's like a conversation that we have with our self. Nobody else ever has to see it. We don't have to show our journals to anyone or we can, if we want to, but. That journaling process is very cathartic and it can be a great way to process those emotions, particularly, if you are going through a rough period of. For any period at all, but if you are. Dealing with rejection from a publisher or an agent, or you haven't had a critique feedback that, you feel gave you what you wanted to hear. Then I think that, journaling about that and trying to come to some understanding of that through the written word and through putting it all out there on the page, it's a really great thing to do. So that's another reason to write is the cathartic nature of writing the way that it helps us to understand our own emotions. And of course, whenever we come to understand our own emotions, we can then. Then at some later point, channel that into our fiction because processing our emotions and understanding our emotions is a great way to then understand the emotions and. Motivations and all those things of our characters.
[00:19:34] Very closely, related to that.
[00:19:35] And these it's really hard to separate these things out, but this is a slightly different ones and it reason number three. Is. Just to escape and to lose ourselves in that imaginary world. The world that we live in can sometimes be pretty tough. Even just sitting down and watching the news at night.
[00:19:52] Sometimes you just think, God, What is going on? What hope is there in the world? Might also have one of those horrible rejections have might've just come in or something might not be going well in your life.
[00:20:03] You might be suffering from some kind of illness or you've got relationship difficulties in, Some way, shape or form. Having an escape where we can just sit down with a pen and paper or sit down in front of our computer and lose. Ourselves in the imaginary world of our own making. Where we make up the characters we make up the rules we make up the world that those characters are in. That can be such a a healthy experience.
[00:20:31] It's just a way of escaping our world. Even if we're a bit strapped for cash, we don't have to pay anything to do this. It's pencil and paper is cheap. We can sit down and do that and we can just. Again, Lose ourselves in one of those imaginary worlds, find our inner child, that child, that. At some point was probably told, yeah, this story isn't really that great.
[00:20:54] Or no, you're not really that good a writer or, it might've been something outside of writing where that inner child of yours was. Put back in its place, but there's that other side of the inner child that loves to play and loves to just imagine and loves to just let its mind run wild and writing can provide that. Imaginary escape. That can be so illuminating. And can lead us back to finding, maybe an idea or something else that we want to express in writing that we hadn't thought of when we first put pen to paper. And I guess this is almost another one, but I think it was mayor Angelou, who said something about, I don't know what I think until I write it. I don't know about for you, but for me, the act of writing actually triggers something in my brain and. Gets the wheels turning so that things. I didn't even know that I thought or felt. Come out on the page experiences that I'd forgotten about. The smells or taste or texture of something that you know, was part of an experience many years ago will come back to me. So the. The act of writing can actually. Bring other aspects of our lives. Into the spotlight for us, it can help us to understand it can help us to make sense of things in the world around us, and it can help us. Connect to that child again and who doesn't want to be a kid again for a little while.
[00:22:20] And another reason for me, which is really important and has been a really. Really pivotal reason in why I have kept writing. Is. To continue to be part of the book. And writing community. There has been a few times when I could have just gone, not. I'm not doing this anymore. It's too painful. Just do not want to go. I have another rejection.
[00:22:44] I don't want to face the fact that my work isn't good enough to be out there on a bookshelf.
[00:22:50] But what would I lose if I did that? I would be stepping away from a fantastic community of writers that I feel I have. Grown to be part of the Australian commute writing community is so welcoming. And supportive and encouraging. That. To not be a part of that anymore would really create a big. Big hole in my life. And it's a circular thing too, because then being part of that community. Encourages me and inspires me to want to keep writing. There might be some of you out there listening and thinking I'm not really part of that community.
[00:23:31] If you write, then you're a writer. And if you're a writer and you live in Australia. You can very easily become part of a writing community, whether that is through doing an online course, connecting with other writers through a writer's center. Doing a workshop going along to a retreat. Going to book launches, going to festivals makes you part of the writing community.
[00:23:54] And that was very evident. I thought at the Sydney writers' festival just last week that I attended quite a few fantastic sessions including seeing Ann Patchett. In conversation with Megan Mason, which was amazing. But. Just the sense of comradery and. The uplift, that being part of that book and writing community. Provides now.
[00:24:18] Yes, you can be part of the book community as a reader. But. Connecting with writers and people who have that same, like-minded need to express themselves through writing who understand what it's like to put your work out there and, the joy of having it accepted, but also the disappointment of having it rejected. Being part of community of those riders is really important.
[00:24:40] And. Again, it feeds your soul and being part of any community is fantastic. But when you're part of a community that is. A group of people in my case, mainly women, because I guess I write women's fiction contemporary fiction, and my books are really directed at women. And I have a podcast called rights for women.
[00:25:00] Just being part of that community can be so uplifting and so inspiring. And that was also very evident at the retreat that I ran recently. The next chapter retreat.
[00:25:11] A couple of the people that came on that retreat knew each other previously, but most of them weren't known to each other before the retreat.
[00:25:18] And I know now that they are a fabulous. Connected group of women writers. They. A few of them met up at Sydney writers' festival last week again, after the retreat. And I know that through. Different channels, Facebook group and emailing and all sorts. They are going to continue to stay connected and. Being connected to other humans. Human beings is a really important part of being alive.
[00:25:41] So. For me, that is a really crucial reason to keep writing. And as I said, Being part of that community is then also inspiring.
[00:25:50] The fifth reason. Which is. A bit more esoteric perhaps than some of the others. Although I have already mentioned this in some ways. Is that I think that writing or following any passion.
[00:26:05] It's an act of hope. It's a way of. Affirming who we are. Of understanding who we are. But it's also a hope
[00:26:17] that we can reach our potential, that we can become the best version of ourselves. That we can. Achieve the goals that we set out to achieve now. That might sound contradictory because I'm talking about why we should write in the face of not being published, but. What I have learnt. Over the years is that there are so many different ways to be published.
[00:26:39] And there are so many different opportunities out there. That we can seek and find sometimes they fall into our lap, but I fully believe that if we. Continue to act to take action ourselves. And for us as writers, that act is writing is doing the writing. If we continue to do that. And to seek opportunities and to look for inspiration and to create connections and to. Maintain those connections and let them grow. Then we will find other opportunities.
[00:27:12] They might not be in the traditional publishing world. Because, as we discussed in birth episode recently in S comes up. Time and time again on the podcast. It is a tough world the sales of books are down. In Australia at least. While audio book sales are growing print.
[00:27:28] Sales are declining. Meaning. But there are still readers out there. There are people who we will be able to reach with our words in some way, shape or form, whether that is through. Newsletter through a blog. Through a book through a P through poetry or short story. Through a podcast. But there are lots and lots of ways to connect and being part of that writing world. And continuing to put our work out there. Even in the face of potential rejection. It is a way of affirming all of the things that I have been talking about affirming our belief that. Writing is a passion that it's important that it feeds our soul, that it provides an escape and that it creates connections.
[00:28:13] While I could probably ramble on and on about this for a long time.
[00:28:17] I. Really do fully believe that well, being traditionally published is. Exciting. And validating. Holding that book in your. Hand that thing that you have labored over for hours and years in many cases is just so exhilarating. There is so much value in writing. Outside of that. And writing, even if you don't ever get to hold a traditionally published book in your hand. I hope that something I have said today resonates with you as a listener, particularly if you are someone who has been rejected or is seeking publication.
[00:29:00] What I would say about seeking publication is never give up. It's this thing of hope. And I do firmly believe that if you continue to learn and grow and.
[00:29:14] Be open to experience and opportunities that you will get your work published in some form. Whether that is the form that you originally hoped for or not. You have the ability and the potential and the opportunity to get your work out there, to connect with readers. And whether that is through traditional or independent publishing or shorter forms or longer forms in some way that you may not even have thought about before. I think that's all for today's episode next week I have male and L talking to Catherine center. About her very near release, which is coming out. In early June. And in coming weeks, I'm going to be talking to. Donna Cameron about her new book the rewilding.
[00:30:00] And we have some other great interviews coming up on the podcast. With myself and from guest hosts in the near. Future.
[00:30:07] I would love to hear your thoughts on anything that I've said today. If anything has resonated with you, if you have any other reasons to add, would love for you to pop them up on posts as the snippets of this episode, go out. And you can always email me@wwwpodcastsatgmail.com. And I would love to hear from you. So have a great week.
[00:30:28] And I will see you next week on rights for women.
[00:30:32] Pamela: Thanks for listening to Rights for Women. I hope you've enjoyed my chat with this week's guest. If you did, I'd love it if you could add a quick rating or review wherever you get your podcasts so others can more easily find the episodes. Don't forget to check out the back list on the Rights for Women website, so much.
[00:30:53] Pamela: Great writing advice in the library there. And you can also find the transcript of today's chat on the website too. You can find details on the website on how to support the podcast through Patreon and you can connect with me through the website@rightsforwomen.com on Instagram and Twitter at WW podcast.
[00:31:12] Pamela: The Facebook page Writes4Women. Or find me and my writing@pamelacook.com au. Thanks for listening. Have a great week. And remember every word you write your one word closer to typing the end.