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As a teenaged author, gathering up enough rejection slips to wallpaper
room, I didn't give up. I just got arrogant and decided "You don't understand me, ya eejit." That's no solution. Nor is paying to be published.
Nope, if you want to get published, learn how to tell your story. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, pacing, dialogue... all that stuff you may have slept through in high school will become second nature with enough practice.
I did quite well in high school English, by way, but it's not like they taught pacing and dialogue and real story- telling there. To learn those, you've gotta read. But that's no problem for an author. If you don't enjoy reading, you can't write something that others will enjoy reading.
Also, you must listen to criticisms. Accept some and reject others, but always listen. I believe Internet makes it much easier to get those criticisms.
I work as an editor now, and one of my authors told me that he sees movies inside his head. It shows in his writing! I don't write that way, unfortunately, but I still know how he feels. When "the Muse" pays me a visit, I've gotta write it down as fast as it comes to me. That's one part that can't be packaged, taught or mass-produced. That part comes from you, author, and no one else can do it way that you do.
Kurt Vonnegut, whose works I greatly admire, writes one sentence at a time, and makes each one perfect before he begins next. But I don't write like that, nor do most of authors I know. We just let it fly, then go back and fix it later.
But if you don't want to get published, don't go back and fix it. Pass that raw copy around to your friends and family and let them tell you how wonderful it is for fear of hurting your feelings. Then send it to publishers and collect rejection letters. That's what I did in my younger days, and I wasn't published.
It took me twenty years to learn my lesson. It would genuinely make me feel good to hear that most writers aren't taking quite so long.
Michael LaRocca's website at http://www.chinarice.org was chosen by WRITER'S DIGEST as one of The 101 Best Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. His response was to throw it out and start over again because he's insane. He teaches English at a university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, and publishes the free weekly newsletter WHO MOVED MY RICE?
