novelist/career day at balboa high school

Novelist.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

It’s not hard to become a novelist.

All you have to do is write a novel.

All you have to do is finish a novel.

First, I was just a kid who liked to write.

So I went to a university that had an undergraduate creative writing program.

And I won writing awards.

I was going to write THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL.

By the time I was 25.

But then, I graduated.

And I never wrote again.

And let me say,

That happens all the time.

Because suddenly you’re out of school and nobody is waiting for you to write.

Nobody.

So I got a job.

And I was good at it.

So I did it for 15 years.

But I wanted to write.

So I read.

And read.

And I read.

And then I bought a desk.

And sat down.

Nothing.

I had no clue how to write a book.

Because as a young writer, I wrote beautiful sentences.

And I started stories all the time.

But I had no idea how to keep going.

I had no idea how to write a story that was startling.

And satisfying.

So I took classes. I studied with writers.

And I volunteered at 826 Valencia,where got to know other writers.

I went to graduate school.

And I started a story about a girl who was looking for a family.

I really wanted to know what would happen to her.

So I kept writing.

And writing.

After three and a half years,

I finished it.

(Finishing is very important.)

When the book was finished, I got a literary agent.

The agent sold the novel to a publisher.

The publisher turned the manuscript into a book.

The book is now sold in bookstores.

And available in public and high school libraries.

So readers can buy it or check it out.

And they do.

And that’s kind of amazing.

So, to recap.

I became a writer by writing.

And reading.

And studying.

(and this is the secret)

Finishing.

If you want to write a book,

You have to finish it.

No matter how long it takes.

So, if you want to be a writer, you can study writing in college.

Study English.

Study biology or sociology or comparative religion or physics or history or animal science or art.

Or anything really.

Because there are a million paths to becoming a writer.

But they all require writing.

And finishing what you write.

Also, there are a million ways to make a living as a writer.

And you might have to do all of them.

This is how the writers I know make a living:

Grants.

And residencies and fellowships.

And speaking. And graduate school. And teaching or tutoring.

Also commercial fishing, waitressing, investment banking, house cleaning, internal medicine, advocacy.

And sometimes from the proceeds of their books.

For the past two years, I pieced together a living.

From grants, a book advance, judging literary arts festivals, teaching, fellowships, speaking and consulting

You have to be comfortable with financial instability.

It’s why artists have such big egos.

We have to believe in ourselves even when no one else does.

(and this is a big but)

It’s worth it.

So if you write. Keep writing.

Share your writing.

Find other writers.

There are writers here: 826 Valencia

And here: YouthSpeaks and YouthRadio

And here: NanoWriMo and TILT and Rising Stars

Of course,

All over the internet.

Onward.

Novelist

Prepared by Erica Lorraine Scheidt for Balboa High School Career Day March 20, 2013

novelist/career day at balboa high school

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