This fourth Monday of the month I’m dedicating this last Q & A of 2021 to some of the answers I have received to a question many of you, dear writerly readers—and workshop students— might find especially interesting.
C.M. MAYO: For those looking to publish, what would be your most hard-earned piece of advice?
DAVID O. STEWART: Nobody asked you to write that book. You’re doing it for you. If you can’t get it published, accept that they’re all a bunch of morons and move on.
SUSAN J. TWEIT: In the writing stage, be honest. When you get to a scene or place or event you want to skip over, stop and ask yourself, what am I afraid of? And then go there. Find the universal threads in your personal story—memoir works when it reaches beyond the personal into the territory that anyone can learn from. And when looking for an agent or publisher, be perseverant. Memoir is a crowded field these days, and yours has to be the best it can possibly be to stand out, and it also has to be so compelling that an editor or agent simply cannot put it down.
JAN CLEERE: Do your research before querying publishers and agents. You will save so much time if you know whether the publisher or agent you are querying accepts the type of book you are writing. There are several good websites that list publishers and/or agents and describe what they are looking for.
KARREN ALENIER: If a publisher says s/he likes part of your manuscript, ask immediately if you can send a revision. Don’t delay by feeling sorry for yourself or thinking someone else might like the whole thing. Take your openings when they present.
SOLVEIG EGGERZ: Don’t waste years seeking an agent, a large publisher, a small publisher, or anything. Instead invest time and money in getting your work read and vetted 1) by your favorite writers group and 2) by an excellent developmental editor or mentor. Once you feel confident that you’ve written a good book, do what feels right regarding publishing.
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ: Before submitting anything, research the market. If looking to publish in a magazine, purchase half a dozen or so that seem to be likely venues for your work. Look at them carefully and see if you fit in. This is a good place to start, rather than submitting book length manuscripts to publishers, because book editors read these magazines, too. It also gives you a chance to learn how to work with an editor, to receive suggestions and shape the best possible piece for the magazine.
CHRISTINA THOMPSON: Don’t be too impatient and don’t try to publish work that isn’t ready. Also, I do recommend having some readers for your work-in-progress: a writing group or a class can really help you identify weaknesses in your writing that you might not be able to identify on your own.
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My own hard-earned advice about publishing? Chances are, you’ll make some mistakes, some minor, others appalling, so why not lessen the number and the pain by learning from the mistakes of others?
My favorite answer is David O. Stewart’s: “Nobody asked you to write that book. You’re doing it for you. If you can’t get it published, accept that they’re all a bunch of morons and move on.” I would add to that, don’t overlook the option of self-publishing. But again, and with self-publishing especially, it helps to learn from the mistakes of others. (On my writing workshop page, scroll down aways and you will find a batch of posts on publishing.)
May 2022 be a year filled with health, happiness, prosperity, and inspiration for you and yours. And if you’re looking to publish, may your path be blessed!
I welcome your courteous comments which, should you feel so moved, you can email to me here.
C.M. MAYO: How has the Digital Revolution affected your writing? Specifically, has it become more challenging to stay focused with the siren calls of email, texting, blogs, online newspapers and magazines, social media, and such? If so, do you have some tips and tricks you might be able to share?
Down with social media!
LYNNE SHARON SCHWARTZ: “I avoid social media as much as possible—I think it is destroying critical thinking, as well as print journalism. A lot of it is simply garbage. I do like email, though I miss getting personal letters in the mail.” —From Q & A with Lynne Sharon Schwartz About Crossing Borders, Madam Mayo blog, August 23, 2021
MATTHEW PENNOCK: “I am not particularly prolific. I do not write every day, and I’m often distracted by all the shows I can stream, and podcasts I can listen to. Social media has never really appealed to me, so I am okay there, but other than that, someone needs to give me some tips about how to get a little more done.” —From Q & A with Poet Matthew Pennock on The Miracle Machine Madam Mayo blog, November 23, 2020
ALVARO SANTANA-ACUÑA: “While I am writing, I minimize interruptions, including turning off my cellphone and notifications. I only turn it back on when I am having a break. In general, I try to use social media as little as possible. What I do is to log in, scroll down a few posts, and, if I have to post something, I do it and then log off. The truth is that, when we are on social media, we easily loose ownership of our time, which we put for free at the disposal of these companies. We become their workers. I prefer to use my time for other things.” —From Q & A with Álvaro Santana-Acuña on Writing Ascent to Glory: How One Hundred Years of Solitude Was Written and Became a Global Classic, Madam Mayo blog, December 28, 2020
It depends…
CHRISTINA THOMPSON: “I think this depends on what stage one is at in the writing process. When you’re actually writing a book, all this stuff is a distraction and you have to be very careful not to waste too much time on it. But once your book is published, it becomes a lifeline to your readership, and the more you participate the better. So, I think it’s really a matter of making all these opportunities work for and not against you, and that takes a certain amount of discipline.” —From Q & A with Christina Thompson on Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia, Madam Mayo blog, January 25, 2021
Balance
JAN CLEERE: “While digital sources have made a writer’s job more efficient when it comes to finding pertinent sources, it has also taken away that spontaneous delight of uncovering a long lost letter or hidden journal that has not yet been digitized. I try to focus on the business of writing separate from the hours I spend actually writing. Not always possible but I have found by trying to compartmentalize the creative from the business end of writing, I am more productive. The trick is to balance these activities so that by the end of the day, you feel you have put out all the fires as well as progressed with your writing.” —From Q & A with Jan Cleere on Military Wives in Arizona Territory: A History of Women Who Shaped the Frontier, March 22, 2021
No problemo!
SOLVEIG EGGERZ: “Actually I love writing on the computer. I am not one to long for life in a cabin on a mountaintop where I write on a yellow pad free of technology. I don’t like to be surprised by “emergencies” days after they occur. I resolve the issue of disturbances by keeping my phone next to me, so I can glance at a message without shutting down my story. Maybe I am exaggerating my equanimity!” —From Q & A with Solveig Eggerz on Sigga of Reykjavik, February 22, 2021
KARREN ALENIER: “I’m used to being interrupted. I grew up in house of six children. I was eldest. The point is when I am working, I am able to ignore the lure of online wonders like YouTube, blogs and newspapers. However, I like to work in silence and know that listening to radio, TV, or music is too distracting. Yes, my smart phone is an interrupter. Still I don’t turn that off because someone important to me might reach out and need me. Some of my friends get annoyed that I don’t read their Facebook pages except occasionally. The best way for me to get something done is to put it on my list of things to do. I take great pleasure in ticking off those items.” —From Q & A with Karren Alenier on her New Book How We Hold On, the Word Works, Paul Bowles & More, Madam Mayo blog, September 27, 2021
DAVID O. STEWART: “For a lot of years, I was a trial and appellate lawyer with a dozen or more active cases at a time. I used to describe my work as a life of interruptions. Clients called. Colleagues dropped by (remember offices?). Opposing lawyers called. Dumb firm meetings. Interviewing job applicants. I was constantly dropping one subject to pick up another. I tried to be in my office by seven a.m. to get some uninterrupted time. So these days, working at home by myself, I actually get antsy if I don’t have a few interruptions. I’m used to working for a stretch, taking a few minutes off to do something stupid (see social media) or annoying (see call health insurer), and then getting back to work. It’s normal.” —From Q & A with Biographer David O. Stewart on the Stunning Fact of George Washington, Madam Mayo blog, June 28, 2021
Go into another world…
SUSAN J. TWEIT: “When I am writing, I am in another world. I turn off notifications on my phone and computer, so that I’m not distracted by the bing of email coming in or the ding of texts or news alerts. My daily routine is pretty simple: I post a haiku and photo on social media every morning (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), and answer any comments on my posts. After half an hour on social media—I set a timer—I read the news online. When I’ve finished with the news—which is research time for me, as news stories, especially those about science, are raw material for my writing—I write until the well runs dry. And then, usually at two or three in the afternoon, I allow myself to go back to social media, answer other comments, check the news. Then I close my laptop and go outside into the real world and walk for a mile or two on the trails around my neighborhood to clear my head. Getting outside into the “near-wild” of the greenbelt trails in my high-desert neighborhood keeps me sane in turbulent times, and refills my creative well. Nature is my medicine, inspiration, and my solace.” —From Q & A with Susan J. Tweit on Her Memoir, Bless the Birds: Living with Love in a Time of Dying, April 26, 2021
KATHLEEN ALCALA: “All of this is terrible. I am so easily distracted. I will start laundry, open a file, take notes by hand, and forget what I had planned to do that day. For me, the best strategy is still the writing residency, away from home, where I don’t have any excuses and fewer distractions. This is especially needed when I am trying to organize large blocks of writing, such as the chapters in a novel.” —From Q & A with Kathleen Alcalá on Spirits of the Ordinary, Madam Mayo blog, May 24, 2021
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My Own Logbook and Stopwatch for Work on Madam Mayo Blog
The ever-increasing and OMG-so-many siren calls to the Internet—as a writer, it’s something I’ve been struggling with and pondering on for the past many years. I’ve had some continuing frustrations, but also some successes, and I’ve blogged about the latter (see my writing workshop archive). Tips & Tricks for Coping with Digital Distractions, that’s a book I’m not going to write because I’m already writing another book, with two others contemplated after that, in addition to hosting this blog. Enough already!
But I will offer a word on my strategy for fitting Madam Mayo blog into my week. This blog has been ongoing since 2006, and since 2019, on a regular schedule of posting on Mondays. Although for years I resisted establishing a regular schedule, to my surprise, it has made the blog far easier to manage.
One of the biggest challenges to the sort of blogging I do is that because there’s no editor, no paying subscribers, it’s easy to have the whole show just ooze on out into who-knows-what-who-knows-when.
If you enjoy writing, watch out, blogging can take over your writing life!
Blogging then, for me, is what behavior modification expert B.J. Fogg, in his book Tiny Habits, terms a “downhill habit,” that is, a habit “that is easy to maintain but difficult to stop.” (Of course, on the other hand, for many people, blogging is, as per B.J. Fogg, an “uphill habit,” that is, one that requires ongoing attention to maintain but is easy to stop.)
Starting in January of 2021, I have been attending to the tiny habit of logging the time I spend on Madam Mayo blog, aiming for about two hours per week, never more than an hour a day, and also aiming for putting my attention on it (including dispatching any related emails) only on Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesdays. When I sit down to work on Madam Mayo blog, I open a digital stopwatch app. When I’m done, I note the date and time spent in the logbook. Was it as scheduled, and within the time limit? If so, I give the entry a check mark and do the B.J. Fogg prescribed “celebration.” Yes, it’s kind of nerdy, but I have been finding this system, or rather, set of tiny habits, balancing, energizing, efficient and, hey, just fun.
I welcome your courteous comments which, should you feel so moved, you can email to me here.
“My interest in the 20th century history of Iceland led me to write. I wanted to show how Iceland struggled for independence from Denmark, how isolated Iceland was from the rest of the world until May 10, 1940 when Churchill’s occupation force arrived, and how Iceland’s independence hung in the balance during World War II.”—Solveig Eggerz
One of my very favorite writers is Solveig Eggerz. Waaaay back in 2011 I interviewed her about her novel The Seal Woman for my Conversations with Other Writers occasional podcast series (listen in to that interview anytime here.) Although she has been living in the Washington DC area for many years, Solveig Eggerz is from Iceland, so of course she speaks Icelandic and she writes about Iceland in a knowing way. Her work is so fresh, like a sea breeze and it will carry you right to the shores of that far, fantastic isle. Her novel Sigga of Reykjavik is recently out in a new edition from Bacon Press Books, apropos of which she agreed to answer some questions. But first, here is the catalog copy for Sigga of Reykjakik:
Meet Sigga, a spirited young woman who flees the abusive conditions on an Icelandic farm, only to face grinding poverty in Depression-era Reykjavik. Her struggle for independence runs parallel to Iceland’s quest for freedom from Danish dominance. Born a century before the Me-Too movement, Sigga supports her family, working among men who learn never to touch her without her permission. Adventurous, optimistic, and always practical, Sigga is thrilled when World War II brings Iceland out of centuries of isolation. Thousands of Allied forces occupy the country, bringing money and work. But moral dilemmas abound as Sigga seeks to financially exploit the occupation while at the same time protecting her young and beautiful red-headed daughter from soldiers.
C.M. MAYO: In brief, what inspired you to write Sigga of Reykjavik?
SOLVEIG EGGERZ: My interest in the 20th century history of Iceland led me to write. I wanted to show how Iceland struggled for independence from Denmark, how isolated Iceland was from the rest of the world until May 10, 1940 when Churchill’s occupation force arrived, and how Iceland’s independence hung in the balance during World War II.
C.M. MAYO:As you were writing, did you have in mind an ideal reader?
SOLVEIG EGGERZ: My ideal reader would be excited about little known history and charmed by quirky characters.
C.M. MAYO:Now that it has been published, can you describe the ideal reader for this book as you see him or her now?
SOLVEIG EGGERZ: An ideal reader loves my protagonist despite her flaws and sees the logic in gaining one’s personal independence through sewing corsets.
C.M. MAYO:Can you share any surprises for you about your book’s reception? (Andf has it been different in different countries?)
SOLVEIG EGGERZ: I have been surprised when readers do not discern Sigga’s anger as a cloak for the intense love she felt for those closest to her.
C.M. MAYO:Which writers have been the most important influences for you?
SOLVEIG EGGERZ: The writers that set me free from the ordinary are Annie Proulx (The Shipping News) and the Icelandic writer, Halldor Kiljan Laxness (Independent People).
C.M. MAYO:Which writers are you reading now?
SOLVEIG EGGERZ:I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, even better on second reading; Survival on the Edge: Seawomen of Iceland by anthropologist, Margaret Willson; and a trilogy about a brave and wise woman of the Viking era, Auður Djúpúðga by Vilborg Davíðsdóttir
C.M. MAYO:How has the Digital Revolution affected your writing? Specifically, has it become more challenging to stay focused with the siren calls of email, texting, blogs, online newspapers and magazines, social media, and such? If so, do you have some tips and tricks you might be able to share?
SOLVEIG EGGERZ: Actually I love writing on the computer. I am not one to long for life in a cabin on a mountaintop where I write on a yellow pad free of technology. I don’t like to be surprised by “emergencies” days after they occur. I resolve the issue of disturbances by keeping my phone next to me, so I can glance at a message without shutting down my story. Maybe I am exaggerating my equanimity!
C.M. MAYO:For those looking to publish, what would be your most hard-earned piece of advice?
SOLVEIG EGGERZ: Don’t waste years seeking an agent, a large publisher, a small publisher, or anything. Instead invest time and money in getting your work read and vetted 1) by your favorite writers group and 2) by an excellent developmental editor or mentor. Once you feel confident that you’ve written a good book, do what feels right regarding publishing.
C.M. MAYO:What’s next for you as a writer?
SOLVEIG EGGERZ: I’m returning to my toughest task, assigning coherence to my collection of personal stories, so that I might honestly call them a memoir.
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Visit Solveig Eggerz and learn more about her novels at solveigeggerz.com
