DUNE 7 BLOG

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The Olympic Shortcut

The 2005 Winter Olympics are over. We’ve watched great athletes from all over the world perform seemingly impossible feats with breathtaking skill. They receive their medals, and we admire them for their almost superhuman abilities. We don’t kid ourselves (as we’re sitting on the couch munching potato chips) that we could be just as good, if only we had the time.

For some reason, though, many people believe that about novelists. Everyone seems to think that writing is easy, that anybody could do it, if they just sat down and put their mind to it.

Here’s how the conversation usually goes. A person will come up to me at a book-signing or an appearance, saying, “I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I could write a novel.”

“Oh? Why haven’t you?”

“I just don’t have the time.”

“Hmm. Nobody gives me the time, either. I have to make the time, set priorities, discipline myself to get my writing done each day. That’s how I’ve become a successful author.”

“Yeah, but you just got lucky.”

Most of the athletes on the various Olympic teams start out as kids, practicing, training, competing, clawing their way up year after year. They improve their abilities, stretch their performances, beat their personal bests and then beat them again. They compete until their hearts are ready to burst. Many are injured along the way. The vast majority of those who try out don’t make the Olympic team. They’ll win semifinals, regional competitions, but only the best of the best will become part of the team -- and only the very best of those will win a medal.

I’ve received dozens of letters posing the same question: “I want to write a bestselling novel. But it seems to take so long, and it’s an awful lot of work. Can you tell me any shortcuts?”

Without doing a full count and comparison, I’d estimate there are about as many New York Times bestselling authors as there are members of the various US Olympic teams. The competition is just as tough, and your chances are just as slim.

But does anyone really say, “I want to win a gold medal in figure skating, but I don’t have the time to do all that training and all that practice. In fact, I don’t even have ice skates. Can you tell me the shortcut to winning a medal?”

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was five years old. I sat in my dad’s study and plunked out my first “novel” on a manual typewriter when I was eight; at the age of ten, I had saved up enough money to buy either a bicycle (like a normal kid), or my own typewriter -- and I chose to buy a typewriter. I got my first rejection slip by the time I was 13, my first story published when I was 16 (after I had gathered 80 more rejection slips), my first novel by the time I was 25. I have a trophy in my office that says “The Writer with No Future” because I could produce more rejection slips by weight than any other writer at an entire conference. I now have over 800 rejections, but I also have 90 books published, 39 of which have been national or international bestsellers, and I’ve been translated into 30 languages. I’ve written almost ten million words, so far.

Most DUNE fans also know that Frank Herbert wrote his masterpiece, the most beloved science fiction novel in history, and then watched it get rejected by more than twenty publishers. Only through his incredible perseverance did the book ever see print.

No, I don’t know any shortcuts. Sorry.

Where does this notion come from that anybody can write a novel, if they could just get around to it? You never hear that “just anybody” could be an Olympic athlete, or a brain surgeon, or a space shuttle commander. We all couldn't be as rich as Donald Trump, even if we did "have the time" to raise capital and invest wisely.

Every author has heard this one from a friend or a fan: “I’ve got a great idea for a novel. I’ll tell you the idea, then you write the book, and we can split the money.” (As if the idea is the hard part!)

If only I had the nerve to reply: “I’m pretty busy right now, but why don’t we try it the other way around first? I’ll tell you an idea off the top of my head, then you can do all the research, you can do the plotting and character development, you can write a hundred thousand words or so, then edit the manuscript (I usually put in at least five to ten drafts), then sell it to the publisher, then work with the editor for any revisions, then deal with the copy editor, then proofread the galleys, then do book signings and promotion after it’s published -- and after all that, we’ll split the money.” Sound fair?

Now, I’m not comparing myself to an Olympic gold medalist. I can’t even stay up on ice skates. I can’t change the oil in my car (though I could probably figure it out, “if only I had the time”), or balance the monthly checkbook. But I do have a pretty good idea how to write a novel, since I’ve been practicing and training for most of my life.

--KJA