GIVING UP

by Deborah Elliott-Upton

In 1924, a book was published by Scribner with the title, How to Write Short Stories. The author was Ring Lardner and it wasn’t an instruction book at all, but a collection of his short stories. The preface stated the book was to provide “boys and gals who wants to take up writing as their life work … a few hints in regards to the technic of the short story, how to go about planning it and writing it, when and where to plant the love interest and climax, and finally how to market the finished product without leaving no bad taste in the mouth.” Obviously, Lardner had a sense of humor, but his words had a ring of truth nonetheless.

I have been saddened this last month to hear two more promising writers I know decide to give up their dream. Another—and one of the best writers I’ve read published or otherwise—quit a few years ago and that one broke my heart. I’m not sure why she never sold her work. She’d won contests, scored a great agent and was dedicated to the craft. Her writing stood out among the rest of ours like the Holy Grail sitting on a trash heap. Some of her phrases remain in my memory even ten years after I first read her work. For some reason I don’t understand, her contemporaries sold time and again while her work didn’t. She said she tired of hearing their talk about royalties and deadlines when she had neither. She simply lost her need to strive for the brass ring her critique group was grasping so easily.

Only, it’s rarely that easy. It takes diligence and for some of us, more work than others. But, life isn’t fair and I’m not sure it should be. Artists suffering for their work usually makes a better artist in the end.

Some writers find selling their own work difficult and I admit it can be. The competition is fierce and even worse, since almost everyone who wants to has access to a computer, the sheer number of submissions are staggering to editors and agents alike. Slush piles have always been something to wade through to find the gems. Now wading boots aren’t enough; editors need diving gear. Not that all submissions are worthy—there have always been those separating the good from the bad and even the ugly. Cream rises to the top … at least eventually. Talent is important, but timing is everything. It’s just that we don’t know when the right time and place will pop up.

Many writers need the validation of a paycheck to prove their writing worthy of their time. Ring Lardner was once offered $3,000 each for six stories or $3,500 each for his next twelve. This was back in the early twentieth century. Most writers don’t receive anything near that salary until they’ve proven themselves with multiple publications and certainly not for a short fiction piece. Starting out, often there is no pay at all. Adding up the time, supplies and postage, we sometimes feel we paid for the privilege of being published. Even magazines that pay with contributor copies have standards and do turn down an alarming amount of the submissions “not suitable at this time for us.” Many writers think if they don’t sell their first few attempts, writing is not for them. For those, I admit: If you can quit, do. Writing wasn’t meant to be your heart’s desire after all.

At a writer’s conference at Glorieta, New Mexico, author and speaker Marita Littauer referred to our needing to spend time in the Pits. (Putting In Time, also known as “paying your dues.”) Becoming a writer is like any career and needs instruction and practice. It is no different than having an internship or on-the-job training. No one says, “Today I will be a lawyer,” and expects others to think of him as a lawyer, much less pay him a fee. First there is schooling, studying, and a bar exam to pass.

The writers I know come in four categories

• those who are exceptionally talented and will find outlets because they are exceptionally talented
• those who are at the right time and place
• those who are determined to improve their skills until they find themselves at the right place and time
• those who are writing simply because they enjoy writing
• those who will give up before reaching their dream

Bestselling author and three-time RITA winner, Jodi Thomas says, “Talent, persistence and luck are what writers need, but if you only have two of the three, you can still find success as a writer.”

I believe giving importance to your work is as critical a factor for success as talent. Some don’t even need that. Publicly, Ring Lardner was said not to take his own writing seriously. I wonder if secretly he did, but didn’t want to seem as pompous as some of his contemporaries. What was the magic ingredient that propelled him to keep going? What if he had quit just before scoring his first big publishing contract? What of his friends, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway? What if they could have quit? The world would have missed countless wonderful characters. I wonder how many delightful stories we shall miss since the three talented authors I know have given up. We’ll never know and that makes me very sad.

What about you? What makes your work — whether it be writing or something else—worth doing? The paycheck is nice, but what would you do and keep doing just for the sheer love of it?