Early December 2010 – The submission of my novel to Creme de la Crime resulted in an emailed response to say that they had been taken over by a larger publishing house and they were no longer accepting unsolicited manuscripts. Not good news.

However, the Editor went on to suggest two Agents that were actively seeking fiction submissions from new authors and two publishing houses that welcome new writers, namely Macmillan New Writing and HarperCollins Preface. Finally, a breakthrough!

I started with the Agents – checked their websites for submission policies and drafted a query letter to send with my sample chapters and synopsis. Harder than you think. We are told to ‘keep it brief’, some people say ‘no more than three paragraphs’… Mine ran to six paragraphs. But there were all very small paragraphs covering the basics of introduction, word count, genre, target audience, experience of writing including relevant courses and published work. At this stage my only published work was non fiction articles and poetry, but it all helps.

 Within a week the first Agent came back. I remember looking at the email in my Inbox, idly clicking on it thinking, another rejection. But no, it was actually a request to read the rest of my manuscript! (I’ll admit I did a little dance around the lounge that day.) Within two weeks, the second Agent had expressed an interest. Wow! These things don’t happen to me, I thought. 

So it just shows that sending your manuscript to the right people, those who will actually read it, makes all the difference.

Then, I faced my next dilemma….

Jane Isaac is very much a Newbie, she doesn’t even have a website yet (one day…) and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication – hopefully!

Sometimes I am not the best at taking my own advice, or the advice of others for that matter but here are a few tips I have discovered the hard way and I hope you don’t fall into the same trap I did early on and get caught up into the logistics of what you are doing and spending valuable time on the idea of being a writer instead of actually being a writer. 

1)      Don’t worry about getting published.  This notion seems a bit counterproductive but I think every Newbie writer has this as a goal.  But worrying about it too much too soon is detrimental.  When I was younger I was a runner I hated running.  It was work.  It wasn’t until I took the advice of Jim Fixx that was to forget the stop watch, forget how fast you can run a mile, and just enjoy your runs that I began to actually enjoy it.  I let go of all the performance issues of time, distance goals and I was just running.  Before I knew it I was running longer and faster then I had ever run before. 

Writing is the same way.  You need to let go of all the usually benchmarks of success and just write.  You will get better before you know it.    

2)      Let someone else worry about the publication.   There are so many outlets to get your work out there now why spend hours building a web site, or a print publication.  You are a writer!  Let someone else be the editor and publisher.  At least until you are ready to get to your feet wet doing the logistics.

When I first started writing I thought I wanted to start a magazine, sell ad space, I was going to have the next big idea and I would be able to quit my day job and have my own publishing company in a few years.  What I didn’t realize is what it takes to actually do it.  I spent hours working on layouts and the graphic design portion of it that I missed the mark on what makes a publication click…the writing. 

I made the same mistake with a few websites which sucked up even more of my time because I was trying to learn the programs to produce the site.  Here I was trying to be a writer and I was doing everything but writing. 

3)      Volunteer to be a writer.  I know getting clips is a big portion of landing future projects and it’s all about building the book, but how do you get clips if you have never written anything before?  Grant writing, copy writing, and even free blogging gigs are a great way to start. 

You have a lot less pressure on yourself if you’re doing it for free, and I have gotten some of the best satisfaction in writing by helping non-profit organizations secure additional funding through grant writing.

Not sure where to look try ww.volunteermatch.com and do a search for “writer”.

4)      Don’t get discouraged. OK, this one is easier said than done!  Believe me I know.  And this seems a bit like common sense but being a Newbie writer is a little like being third string on a basketball team.  Sure you are part of the team but does anyone really take you that seriously? Not until you get into the game do you get any respect. 

As a beginning writer you get treated about the same.  The established journalist think you are a hack, editors treat you like you just asked them to for some spare change and sometimes even your family doesn’t get it. 

All of this can be enough for you to wonder why I bother.  For me I am beginning to realize it’s not about everyone else but it’s about what I want to do and writing is something that makes ME happy.  Eventually it will make someone else happy too. 

5)      Bare your soul. As writers our mind flows onto paper like a clogged sink sometimes.  I know some assignments have specific guidelines but getting your feelings, and emotion into that piece of writing takes a plunger sometimes.  You have to forget about things like, “What if my mother reads this”? Or what if I offend someone. 

Speaking your mind can take some practice.  But you have to get past all the restrictions to have the true you come out in your writing.  I don’t care how good a writer you are your readers will know if you are not being sincere or real with yourself. 

If I could give only one piece of advice it would be to write, write, and write some more.  Only through discover of yourself will your art come to life and with that life will come success.

I am surprised you are reading this, because I almost didn’t write it.  It’s been a rough year to say the least and writing has taken a backseat, but I can’t stay away.  When I do get a spare moment I find myself surfing through writing sites, reading blogs, and jotting down ideas into my pocket notebook.  I guess even though I don’t have a fine arts degree in English literature, or have yet to really publish, writing has gotten under my skin and I guess it’s here to stay.

It’s an outlet for me.  It’s a way of being creative.  I know some of the purist could point out every grammatical error in this post but is writing a technical process or is it an art form?  I prefer the latter and that it’s an expression of the writer and what that person has to say.  Not necessarily that they are saying it in perfect English.  After all some of the best characters we know murder the language with their own interjections, and slang.  It’s not irreverent it’s their voice. 

When I read something I want to be transported to that time, that place, which the writer is describing.  If they have done a good job of it you feel as if you are in the scene.  You are the guy sitting across the park on a bench feeding the pigeons.  You perspire yourself when the runner crosses the finish line.  That’s what writing is to me.  Its entertainment, its art, its knowledge shared.

I look at my writing with some degree of success because unlike the old adage “write what you know”, I often write about “what I want to know”.  So you may get a post about panning for gold, a post about reducing high blood pressure, or what diversionary tactic I used to get my four year old out the door to daycare that morning .  But I can guarantee that you and I will learn something together.

We don’t write because it’s a hobby or because we want to be the next J.K. Rowling, ok maybe I would like to have her income, but we write because it’s who we are and who we want to be.  Writing takes us places of unlimited possibilities through fiction.  It educates us through non-fiction.  And it finds us a home inside ourselves that we can either share to the world or tuck away in our journals to ponder on a rainy day. 

Whatever makes you write.  Keep it up.  You will soon find your voice. 

Who am I? I am new to the blog, but I have been writing seriously and sometimes not so seriously, for about eight years.  I have done some paid blogging, some grant writing, and even pondered a zine or two.  I am a newbie and probably always will be.  Your feedback is encouraged as I look forward to contributing to Newbie Writers and I know that I am in the presence of greatness even if you have not realized it yet.

Procrastination should have been my middle name. As much as I love writing (and believe it or not I do!) I don’t have to look too hard to find another pull on my time. But a couple of years ago, I dropped off the face of the Earth, gave up the odd freelance assignment, writing forums, hibernated from friends, even stopped yoga, to concentrate on writing my novel.

Finally, last November I sat back in my chair, heaved a huge sigh of relief and put it to bed. I had actually written a book. Wow! Now I would land a publishing deal with a major house, tour the world, become famous… OK, so a girl can dream. This is when the real hard work started; the rollercoaster that takes you from pen to publication – if you are lucky.

I started with the usual dilemma: Agent or Publisher? A little bit of research very soon made up my mind for me. Try everyone! I quickly learned that, as a Newbie in this current climate of penny pinching, the first major hurdle to overcome is getting your work read. Your prose may be excellent, your plot amazing. You may be the next Jeffery Deaver, the new Dan Brown. But if nobody reads it, your book that you have lovingly laboured over will never reach print.

 I also read that approaching the right people seems key. My book is a crime thriller, so I scoured the internet, bought a copy of the Writers and Artists Yearbook, checked calls for submissions in writing magazines. It didn’t take long to realise that the world of publishing is a bit of a mine field.

 Then I had my first piece of luck. A former Writers Bureau student, I asked my tutor to read a sample of my work and she suggested that I try a little known publishing house, aptly called ‘Crème de la Crime’. So I visited their website only to be told that they were no longer accepting submissions (doh!).

This is where the cheekiness comes in. As writers we are constantly told to follow guidelines when submitting work. The website said no submissions. But I thought I’d try them anyway. What did I have to loose, apart from another rejection to add to my pile? So I sent off my sample chapters, synopsis with covering letter and waited…

Jane Isaac is very much a Newbie, she doesn’t even have a website yet (one day…) and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication – hopefully!

Last fall my family took 300 calves for a few months. We weaned and pastured them for a feedlot in Iowa.

The night the first load came in, the older boys were gone hunting. Dad had been driving truck and came home late with our first calves in his cattle pot.

It was stormy that night with a terrible wind. It kept trying to rain, and lightning lit up the horizon making the mountains stand out in black relief.

Dad could not make it up the hill in his semi, and called for someone to pull him. I winced. That would be me.

I could not see a thing as I backed down the hill to him, just aimed for his headlights and took it slow. My window was down to let in my younger brother, Jimmy’s directions. It also let in a spatter of rain and the rumble of Dad’s semi.

We made it up just fine the first try, and I thought I drove like a cowgirl.

I took down the electric fence in the glare of headlights to make room for the cattle pot to get through. It was still close. I watched as the trailer brushed a fence post, slowly tipping it to the side.

We did not have a loading chute. It was one of those things that never got done. Dad just parked by the corrals where we could push the calves out the little side door.

My job was to prop up an old, abused panel. Together the panel and I blocked the way to freedom. The only other route for the calves was up along the trailer and into the corrals.

On the other side of the trailer, my sisters yelled, pounded on the trailer, and poked at the calves with sticks, trying to push them out. I waited as lightning flashed above the trailer, and the wind blew grit into my eyes and teeth.

This was not how I imagined it, when I looked forward to raising 300 calves.

There were only calves on the lower deck, but it took us nearly an hour to unload them. They came out slowly, one by one, instead of following each other.

When we were finally done, the others went down to the house while Jimmy and I fixed the electric fence by flashlight. My eyes burned from the blowing sand, and my hands burned from pulling on the cold wire. We could hardly see the wire and kept losing it, but I did not mind.

Actually, I loved it. I felt like a cowgirl.