from PxHere
All of us on our novel writing journey are frantically writing as much as we can in the best way that we possibly can to give ourselves the best chances of being published.
It doesn’t matter if we’re poets, short story writers or full length novelists who create worlds in our heads. It’s a dream that one day the story that currently luxuriates in our heads becomes something that people can hold in their hands.
So, what do we need in order to get there?
In the middle of our Australian lockdowns – yes, we’re still having them – I’ve been intrigued by what happens BEHIND the creative pursuits that we enjoy. I’ve been researching how movies get made, and how bands come to the attention of record labels and produce albums. I’ve been looking at how big name novelists get from no name to household name in a short space of time. Their journeys aren’t linear, they aren’t predictable and they certainly aren’t what other creatives think them to be. Easy.
For example, I found out that Ghostbusters – the global megahit movie from 1984 – got made because the right person joined a movie studio at the right time and greenlighted the movie. Or that Forrest Gump nearly wasn’t made because only the woman who bought the movie rights believed in it, and Tom Hanks and Robert Zemekis (the director), took pay cuts to cover for a movie studio who wanted to spend as little on it as possible.
And of course there’s the well-known story among authors of JK Rowling’s 12 rejections before her manuscript fell into the hands of a publisher who had a small child who ended up reading it one night and couldn’t put it down.
One thing that stood out to me was there were two things that are in play in almost every single occasion.
The first one is being in the right place.
I’ve heard a number of interviews from creatives where they’ve acknowledged that one of the biggest issues when it comes to being published, printed, filmed or recorded is luck. Now please don’t think that I’m suggesting that there is no divine hand in this or that it’s simply a case of luck that everybody gets to where they are. It’s simply to acknowledge that there are issues out of our control sometimes that don’t necessarily that we can’t necessarily control.
Let me share a personal example. I launched my third novel in 2020 – Where the Road Bends – on the exact same day as the black squares went out on social media, in support of Black Lives Matter. That’s not something that I could have put in my marketing plan, or even thought was part of what was going to be part of my process at all.
But that’s not the encouragement I’d like to share with you, or the reason I’m reading this blog post. You need to BE more than in the right place at the right time.
Every one of those examples happened because those creatives were something else. They were ready.
So what do you need to be? BE … ready.
It’s one thing to be in the right place at the right time, but you have to BE ready for it.
While these other decisions are out of control, each of these creatives was prepared. They had a finished script, song or story so that when the moment arrived, they were ready for it.
What can we take away from this? Keep. Going.
So this blog post is not so much a lesson on writing or planning or marketing, it’s more an encouragement to hang in there, that when your moment comes along you can take it. Keep your head down. Keep your stories coming, keep your fingers moving, keep the words flowing. Ideally, when your moment comes, you will be able to react to it because you’re ready for it.
Four friends reconnect fifteen years after graduation on a promised trip to the Australian outback. Time has changed them. At graduation life was all about unfulfilled potential. Fifteen years down the track, it feels a lot like regret.
As they get lost in outback Australia they find more than harsh beauty of an unspoilt land… … they discover how the road of life delivered them to where they are now.
And getting back requires them to determine where they’ll go from here.
Based in South Australia, David Rawlings is an award-winning author, and a sports-mad father-of-three with his own copywriting business who reads everything within an arm’s reach. He writes that take you deeper into life, posing questions of readers to explore their own faith and how they approach life.
Where the Road Bends – a novel based in outback Australia – is out now! Why not take a virtual vacation during your time at home?
David’s debut novel – The Baggage Handler – won the 2019 Christy Award for First Novel. His second novel – The Camera Never Lies – focuses on honesty in relationships and is now available.
He is currently signed with Thomas Nelson and represented by The Steve Laube Agency.