{"id":3752,"date":"2014-11-13T07:54:46","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T12:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=3752"},"modified":"2015-01-03T07:57:02","modified_gmt":"2015-01-03T12:57:02","slug":"be-a-tortoise-not-a-hare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=3752","title":{"rendered":"Be a Tortoise Not a Hare"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"tortoise<\/a>

(photo: c2.staticflickr.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Almost all novels, said Pulitzer-winner Jane Smiley in a recent Publisher\u2019s Weekly<\/a> article, are imperfect because they are \u201ccapacious and hard to contain.\u201d This is why editors invented the creative byway of rewrite, and where many self-published books trip up. Joyce Carol Oates\u2019s students said she taught them<\/a> that to be a writer they had to not stop writing, Jane Smiley puts the idea this way: \u201cnovel-writing is a choice\u2014you can always stop.\u201d But don\u2019t. Smiley provided several tips to keep writers going.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>Be the tortoise, not the hare. Every draft is first and foremost an exploration before it is a work of art.\u201d This is at odds with the desires of the publishing industry, which can pressure authors for the next book in the series and may explain why later books don\u2019t always live up to early promise. And, don\u2019t be in a hurry to show your work to other people, Smiley says. Only when you\u2019ve exhausted your own \u201ccuriosity\u201d about a book, find people whose input can help you move it toward completion.<\/p>\n

Advice on every list, including Smiley\u2019s is \u201cread a lot.\u201d We learn more than we think we do by reading, she says\u2014facts as well as form. Her writing showed me that a writer can even go into the mind of a thoroughbred horse in a heartbreaking way. Yep. Smiley\u2019s Horse Heaven<\/em> (2000) is one of my favorites.<\/p>\n

Look and listen. She gives permission to turn to good use those people-watching skills, as well as that ability to ask the question from left field. \u201cYou cannot know human variety and maintain good manners at the same time,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Finally, she says, enjoy the process, and let the possible rewards take care of themselves. \u201cIf you love the process, you will be happy. If you focus on possible rewards, you will be unhappy.\u201d Especially good advice at a time when the path to publishing is so full of stumbling blocks! Nice roundup article<\/a> right here on those.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost all novels, said Pulitzer-winner Jane Smiley in a recent Publisher\u2019s Weekly article, are imperfect because they are \u201ccapacious and hard to contain.\u201d This is why editors invented the creative byway of rewrite, and where many self-published books trip up. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Be a Tortoise Not a Hare","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104,29],"tags":[276],"class_list":["post-3752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-morgue","category-writing","tag-jane-smiley"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-Yw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3754,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions\/3754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}