Writing Through the Years
| By Gayle Callen | 08.31.09 |
I started writing when I was thirteen years old, but didn’t pursue publishing seriously until I was in my 20s. It took me thirteen years to become published. NEVER MARRY A STRANGER is my 20th book, and I have two manuscripts sitting under my bed that will never see the light of day. My writing schedule has fluctuated a lot in that time, due mostly to my children.
When they were little, I used to sneak time to write (this is before I was published). They went to bed early, and so did my husband (he used to work an early shift). After 9:00, I would closet myself in my office and write for a couple hours. Writing was so new and marvelous that I would look up and find it was 1:00 a.m.! I was just so amazed that I could write a book. And I was lucky in that my husband has never been the kind of man to begrudge my need to write. He knew how important it was to me. He’s still my biggest support.
Sniff, okay, enough of the mushy stuff. The good thing was, writing like that kept me in the story, because I tried to use whatever free time I had. But the bad side of this was that sometimes I was just exhausted, especially after I began to work part-time, programming computer-controlled machines. Hard to find the brainpower to write when even reading the newspaper at night seemed too demanding. Sometimes months would go by before I’d write again, especially when I got stuck in the plot. Thank goodness for my critique group. We meet once a month, and that forced me to write. But I never gave up on my goal. The rejections were getting better and better. I came up with a new proposal, Avon read it—and asked if I had a completed book. And I did! The Darkest Knight was published in January, 1999.
After all the joy and amazement and pride settled down, I realized that no longer could I put something aside for months. I had my first deadline—nine months later. I’d never written a book in under two years. Heck, one took five! Way too much research and procrastination. I’m better at both now. I was still working part-time, so I only had evenings and weekends. My logical brain kicked in, and I started making daily page goals, allowing myself a month to revise at the end. Much tougher, especially now that my kids were playing soccer and lacrosse, swimming year round, or singing in the school musical. But I was determined to be a professional writer.
Within a year I was able to quit my other job and write full-time. It was definitely easier, but I discovered a whole new set of challenges. The weakness of procrastination still gnawed at me. And trust me, I’m not big on cleaning. It was the paperwork, the carpooling, the college admissions, the sports tournaments. And as an author, there are websites and contracts and page proofs and bookmarks. I slowly learned that I could get the most actual writing done in the morning, so I taught myself to be a lark instead of an owl. No more staying up late. In bed by 11:30, up by 6:30.
And it’s still the same way now that my last child is in college. My evenings are no longer filled with their events (and I miss that so much!). But I find that I have no wish to write at night anymore. I try for five days a week, 6-8 hours a day. That lets me write 2-3 books a year (since I write under Julia Latham, as well).
As I look back, I realize that writing was very different at the many stages in my life. I guess the message is to persevere and change as you need to. Or are you resistant to change?
August 31st, 2009 at 8:19 am
Gayle, what a wonderful post! I started writing when I was 8. Wrote my first book at 12. I wrote all through my teens — mostly Sweet Valley High knockoffs. lol. I was 28 when I sold my first book. It was my first attempt at romance and I couldn’t believe it when Avon bought it. Now, I sometimes wish I hadn’t sold that book, that I’d had a few years to get better and figure out what I was doing before my work was out there in print.
I’ve always been more of a night owl. Sometimes I can get more work done between midnight and 3 a.m. than I can all bloody day. But I’m teaching myself to be more productive during the day just so I can be on a schedule similar to my husband’s.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:55 am
Kathryn, I wrote Sci Fi–teenagers in space!–all through my teen years. We probably wrote whatever we were reading at the time.
And yes to matching my schedule to my husband’s. Now that our kids are mostly gone, we’re really enjoying doing things together.
September 1st, 2009 at 10:19 am
Hi Gayle! Congrats on your new release! I loved hearing about your pursuit and determination to be published! I’m so glad you did because I get the joy to read them. I discovered your book when my hubby and I took a day trip to PA and I was in the bookstores looking at the romance section. I love finding new to me author and I picked out one of your books and loved the blurb and saw others that went with it and one was autographed from a signing you had there recently that I didn’t know about. So I got the joy to discover your books as well as to have one that signed! This was like about 5 years ago.
I’ve gone through my job where so many changes with the upper management and then there being changes with how things would run and I remember that I would complain and realized after time that they worked out for the best. So I always try to go with the changes in a positive attitude, that this will be for the improvement. It helps to think about the change as a positive outcome too.
I so feel for you with the empty nest! Both my children are at their young adult age with their own schedules and I try to get us all on to one schedule now and then to be together!
Again happy 20th release!
September 2nd, 2009 at 6:33 am
Caffey, thanks for letting me know how you discovered my books!
And yes, I try to get my kids together too. We were lucky this summer, able to spend an entire week together at VA Beach with my husband’s family, too.