You might think it’s weird that that would be music to my ears when a writing student or one of my clients says this to me. You might think that I should make the writing and getting published process “easy” for them. Well, you’d be wrong. You know that whole helping a butterfly out the crysallis state would actually weaken and damage the butterfly analogy? Yeah. That.
So when a client recently said “Wow, writing a [children's] book isn’t easy,” my heart skipped a beat and I caught my breath, I was so happy. A breakthrough! Few things that one might undertake just because they are “easy” are NOT certain to succeed (where succeeding means obtaining excellence). Of course, there is a difference between “easy” and “simple.” We’re all striving to simplify, and in fact, that’s one of the objects of the creative process…I never set out as an author or artist to complicate something, but to find the clearest (or you could say, “simplest”) way to express my message/communicate a solution to an unanswered question. Soooooooo, when there’s an acknowledgment that this process isn’t “easy” I think we are just getting on the right track.
When something’s not easy, we are not lazy. When something’s not easy, we are not on auto-pilot. When something’s not easy, we are ready to question, challenge and think through our discomfort. There just isn’t an “easy” way through the creative process or the writing process or the publishing process. There are effective ways, productive ways, simple ways. But it’s kinda like math in that certain truths can’t be invented or avoided in the creative process. It’s vital to trust the process, which means letting go of your preconceived ideas; if you’re willing to do that, then I have a secret for you–it actually is easy.
I was so happy to read Veronica Roth’s (author of the great YA dystopian read, Divergent) blog post “A peek behind the publishing curtain.” A very helpful look at the process behind traditionally published books (in short: it don’t happen overnight, yo!). While my process isn’t nearly as long with my Fifties Chix publisher (they’re not printing books overseas, for one example), I think it’s still a great outline for readers and aspiring writers to see, especially steps 1-12 that Veronica lists; and especially if they are dead set on getting published the old-fashioned way without checking out cool new ways like this. I love it when people ask when the next Fifties Chix book is coming out (Keeping Secrets…and the answer is within a few months), but it is so much more involved than just writing it–which can be a challenging process in itself.
I’m working on making some classes available on the Interwebs for those of you interested in writing and publishing. I hope I can help more people discover the process so they can be liberated from an obsession with easy and can move on to mastering the process (which can actually be simple). Be sure to be in touch if you’re interested in those classes or in consultation. You, too, can be a strong butterfly soaring to publication*
*Sorry for that terrible mixed metaphor.
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