NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

NOTE: the blog is currently dormant but please enjoy the posts we're keeping online.


Julie Moffet . Cathy Perkins . Jean Harrington . Daryl Anderson . Nico Rosso . Maureen A Miller . Sandy Parks . Lisa Q Mathews . Sharon Calvin . Lynne Connolly . Janis Patterson . Vanessa Keir . Tonya Kappes . Julie Rowe . Joni M Fisher . Leslie Langtry

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

TOUGH GUYS






 TOUGH GUYS
 
            IMHO, a little known fact is that writers are among the strongest people on earth.  I’m not talking Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone strong here, more the quiet, unrelenting kind of strength that has little to do with brawn and a lot to do with brain.  To keep the actor analogy going, I mean writers are more like Russell Crowe or Patrick Stewart in the roles they typically favor—quiet, thoughtful, resilient and, most of all, determined.  Writers, too, are determined.  They’re hell-bound to get that manuscript published, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many rewrites they have to produce, or what the cost in sleepless nights or dry days when the Muse has fled.
 
They will not give up.
 
Case in point:  A multi-published author friend recently had a story submitted to a  major publisher.  She had polished the book until it shone, so her hopes were high, but realistically so.  After all, she’d honed her craft over the years and earned a good degree of acceptance in the marketplace.  Long story short, the book was rejected.  What smarted wasn’t the rejection so much but the cold way it was expressed. 
 
On the phone to me my writer friend said, “The only thing he liked was the typing.”  Her attempt at gallows humor over a book she thought could be her break-through novel was as gutsy as going 5 rounds.  So what did she do?  She plucked what was usable from the harsh comments and went back to work on the manuscript.
 
I suspect this tale or a variation thereof is familiar to anyone who takes his craft seriously.  The name of the game is rejection.  No wonder we who write have the hides of rhinoceri.  Well, that’s what Oil of Overcome is for.  You slather it on and keep on writing.
 
Let the Terminator beat that.
 
Which leaves me with a question:  Have you ever been temped to give up and throw your manuscript against a wall—but didn’t?  Why not? 
 
Jean Harrington is the author of the award-winning Murders by Design Series.  The tongue-in-cheek, Naples-set stories are available here:
 
 
 





 
 

 

5 comments:

Marcelle Dubé said...

Ha! "Oil of Overcome" -- love it! As for giving up, well, heck, once a year, at least. I look around, realize that millions of people are perfectly happy not writing, and I could try it, too. Never works. I always go back. Good post, Jean.

jean harrington said...

Thanks, Marcelle, I'm a "back" slider too.

Rita said...

I guess I write because I have to. I'm one of those crazy people who love all my stories. I do wonder why I'm torturing myself with the publishing part. Ugg. Hope your friend saved that rejection so when she sells a gillion books she can let everyone know what that guy said.

Sandy Parks said...

I can't help but write...it just feels right!! I have so many stories clamoring to get out, I wish I could write fast enough to keep my muse happy. Alas, I am slow, but as you say...DETERMINED. Great post.

CathyP said...

Good for your friend! I think we've all been there at least once.

Pass the Oil of Overcome (love that phrase)

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