There's a wiseass in every crowd...

Hello fellow writers at AW,

You mean I really get an opportunity to toot my own horn? Wow! Well, better to get shot from the front than the back, he said, as he crossed the Rubicon…

Since the summer of ’09 (I retired from Goo…; was, what else a SW nerd) I’ve written two novels and a short story. Well, that’s not exactly true. How many novels are in 3,000 or so pages? I wrote one big novel, almost a thousand pages and then a TR (trusted reader) helped me to understand that my opus was really two. I split it apart and once I did I was glad. And since I’ve rewritten both at least three times that accounts for the 3K pages. Maybe more. I’ve lost count. It really doesn’t matter since it was a labor of love. I love the process, every part of it but especially editing. I edit, edit, edit and it just gets better and better… or so I believe. Need more TRs to help me to know for sure. I’ve had two TRs and both helped me see the forest for the trees. Full disclosure: a TR is not your mom or your spouse.

I wrote the short story as a writing exercise. The literary association I’m a member of holds an annual SS competition. I had just ended what I thought was going to be a promising relationship with a literary agent and was suffering acute writer’s rejection at the hands of this agent when the opportunity to have my work read came along. I thought: I can’t get agents to read more than ten pages; or even know for sure they’ve read them; here is a chance to get five people, all published authors, to read a blind submission in its entirety. Can any writer pass up an opportunity like that? Well, the five read the story but none offered any feedback and mine wasn’t one of the ten selected for publication from 160 submissions.

No feedback, no feedback… no feedback! Did I say that loud enough? In my opinion that’s what’s broken about the familiar agent-query process. I understand the Internet is a giant slush pile. I understand agents are overwhelmed with queries but what is a writer to do? Don’t, whatever you do say self-publish… except as I do, in a free blog. Anything else is self-deception.

Well, what this writer did was build a WordPress website to supplement his queries. Well, all the experts (experts???) say you need a platform without defining what a fiction writer’s platform should look like. They’ll gladly take your ninety-nine bucks to teach you how to create a WordPress blog, something you can do for free by reading the online tutorials. I myself have posted a freebie that tells you how create a WP sandbox, in several different ways. But creating a WP blog and knowing what to post are two different things. For me that means trial and error. My idea is to demonstrate that not only can I write but I also understand the craft of writing. Why is that important? Because this agent I truly admire said she could fix plot problems, character development, dialogue problems even genre changes if the craft was high but there wasn’t much she could do if craft was absent. I believe my craft is very high and if she told me what to fix I’d fix it in a heartbeat. Did I get any feedback? What do you think?

Any who are so inclined may visit me at http://thomasdocheri.com. There you will be most welcome. There you will find fragments of my work, scenes and in some cases complete chapters including the complete text of the short as well as essays on certain aspects of writing fiction. I have a very thick skin so I welcome any and all feedback. I look forward to joining the discussion at AW and thank you for taking the time to read this introduction.

Thomas Docheri (perlboy)

You may be right but... there's always a but...

Hello Old Hack,

Self publishing can be great. There's a self publishing room here where many of our members write diary threads in which they record their activities and successes: they're fascinating reads. Read through a few of them: you might realise how positive self publishing can be, for the right writer.

Click to expand...

You may be right... in fact, I'm sure you are, and I will follow up and read some of those threads. My problem with self-publishing, and this reflects a lifetime of thinking about the creative process (writing, making music, art, even writing software, which was my shtick), is that what I think is good enough may be just so much schlock if no one but me wants to read it. Whether you like the fact that agents have become the industry's first readers... and its gatekeepers... getting one sufficiently jazzed to believe in your work enough to try to sell it is a writer's - certainly this writer's - first trustworthy indicator that what he writes is worth publishing. Why I built that website is that when I do finally attract an agent, she will visit and know she can work with me to co-market my work. They all say, those that write about the process that co-marketing is essential. If I'm not doing it quite the way they think I should they'll tell me and I'll fix it.

I mostly view the world, and its many disciplines, as a broad-based pyramid; entry level at the bottom, early success somewhere in the middle and that rarefied air near the top where Leonard, Follett and their like hang out. The base is so wide, the competition so great that few will make it even to the middle much less the top. For me, the only path up through all that is the traditional one. My ego won't let me do it any other way.

Thanks for your thoughtful post. I'll drop in at your blog and keep an open mind re everything I see, hear and learn at AW.

Thomas