Laura Moreno: Guest Post

What advice do you wish you had received when you first started your literary career?

Photo by Sammie Chaffin on Unsplash

Welcome Laura Moreno who writes The Attic Workshop.

Laura Moreno

We’ve exchanged guest posts (love this idea that she suggested) and mine on her site is Sense of an Ending—Reliability and Believability and Julian Barnes

What advice do you wish you had received when you first started your literary career?

By Laura Moreno

What advice would have benefited you? For me, I wish I’d pushed myself much harder. Unfortunately, the first creative writing class I took, while very high quality, was part of the notorious Endless Rewrite Contingent and it took a while to break out of that self-absorbed habit. Instead of being so inward looking, it pays to keep your eye on writing stuff that will be truly useful and enjoyable to others. If possible, get major works out the door (published) asap, not just articles. We don’t have forever here!

Best advice: write a book as soon as possible. Even if self-published, this is the best way to boost the careers of journalists, editors, artists, professional people, and writers of all stripes.

How? #1 best-selling author Margarete Buber-Neumann, wife of the head of the Communist Party of Germany on the eve of WWII, gives the best advice I’ve ever heard on how to write a book. It was advice given to her by best friend in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp while they were political prisoners there.

Milena Jesenká, former Czech newspaper columnist and Kafka’s muse, told Ms. Buber-Neumann that she must write a book after the war. But with absolutely no literary experience, even though she was well educated and fluent in several languages, she was at a total loss for how to write a book. Ms. Jesenká replied, and I’m going from memory here: it’s easy, just jot down notes when you think of something you want to include in the book and collect all the pieces of paper in a shoe box. Then when you have enough ideas, open the shoe box and start writing about each idea, one after another. She did exactly that and the result was two best-selling books including Milena: The Tragic Story of Kafka's Great Love.

Here is what others have said:

·      ...before I start a project, I give a whole lot of thought to how it will (or won't) be received, is there a contemporary market for this project, which publishers will be interested, etc, etc. I wish someone had told me from the start that writing a book isn't enough in and of itself; you have to pitch and sell it, and that's an art in itself. -Roger F. Fisher

·      The first 20K was a drudge because I needed it to be good the first time through, but after I let go it was so much easier to edit. Not easy, but easier. Once you have a bird's-eye view you can see what needs to be adjusted. -FuriousNik

·      ”When I decided to make writing, specifically poetry, my life's work, Chicanas weren't published. It was critical, personally and politically, to create that path. I'd advise anyone taking an untracked but necessary path, always love yourself, work on that first. That will lead you and carry you through to meet your goals.” -Ana Castillo, author of Dona Cleanwell Leaves Home

·      “Just keep going, son, you can do it!

Want to write a guest post for me or do an exchange? Write me at <mltabor@me.com>.

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