Writing advice from thriller author and former editor Alice Orr
Every writer I know has endured rejection. If you’ve escaped
that fate, you should be writing this, because my work has been rejected many
times. On the occasion of my first major rejection, the editor implied, or
maybe told me straight out, that I had no idea what I was doing.
My big mistake was agreeing to a sushi lunch. I didn’t know
sushi from tsunami, but, to appear cooperative, I replied, “Sure. Sushi’s
good.” Had I understood the purpose of the lunch, I’d have made a different
response. I didn’t have a clue, though I probably should have.
I was writing my second novel for this editor. The
first didn’t set the world afire. The second had dragged through two extensive
revisions, and I’d pretty much lost track of what the story was originally
about. As I took a wobbly chopstick grip on my third portion of something raw
wrapped in seaweed, my editor let me know she felt the same.
“This just doesn’t work for us,” she said. I plunged
into shock, but I was also suddenly no longer clueless. I was stone-cold certain.
There would be no more revision chances. Novel #2 had gone down the plumbing
and months of my work along with it. The sushi slipped from its precarious
perch between my chopsticks and plummeted to the edge of my plate.
“You seem to think a little bird sits on your shoulder
and tells you how to write,” my editor was saying. “Like you don’t have
anything to do with it.” I couldn’t respond. I excused myself, dashed to that
upscale restaurant’s upscale ladies’ room, and leaned my clammy forehead
against the cool tiles of the black marble stall, struggling to keep my insides
under control.
Bird on my shoulder? What was she talking about? I’d
never been aware of anything, with or without feathers, telling me how to write
a book. What I had always been aware of was my helplessness. Because of the way
the publishing world works, I had no control over the destiny of my writing
career. Now, I understood how perilous cluelessness can be.
If you’ve ever submitted a manuscript, you know what I
mean. You labor over your work, send it out into what feels like a void.
then wait for a thumbs up or down on your efforts, your ambitions, your hope.
You endure this because you have no idea what else you can do. You are as
clueless as I was in that ladies’ room with my forehead pressed against tile as
black as I believed my future to be.
A couple of years later, I became an editor myself. That
choice had a lot to do with power. I was determined to regain mine, and to
share it. As an editor, then a literary agent and teacher, I would be that
bird. I’d sit on a writer’s shoulder and whisper in her ear the words she
needed to hear to avoid demoralizing rejection scenes of her own. I could do
that because my years on the other side of the desk taught me a lot about
creating publishable fiction.
Now I write articles and blog posts to share that
knowledge. Still, the dread words are out there, “This just doesn’t work
for us.” Words that hit their mark hard for any writer. I wish I could
guarantee they will never be heard again, but I can’t. What I can offer is my
experience and expertise, and to be a bird on the shoulder with an empowering
song to sing.
About Alice Orr
Alice Orr is the author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir and
No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. A former book
editor and literary agent, Alice now lives her dream as a full-time writer. Her
latest novel is A Time of Fear and Loving: Riverton Road Romantic Suspense - Book
5. Alice has two grown children and two perfect grandchildren and resides with her
husband Jonathan in New York City.
Author Website: www.aliceorrbooks.com
Author Blog: www.aliceorrbooks.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E
Author Website: www.aliceorrbooks.com
Author Blog: www.aliceorrbooks.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E