Discouragement haunts every writer at one time or another. We're all looking for that "magic formula" to success. When we come to realize that there is no easy path to publishing, some of us give up, fall by the wayside. In researching this topic, I discovered a letter written by John Steinbeck back in 1963. This letter was published in a book, "ON BEING A WRITER," edited by Bill Strickland and published by Writers Digest Books in 1989.
The letter is addressed to, "Dear Writers." and I want to share some of this great writers thoughts with all of you. Steinbeck says while in a class in Story Writing at Stanford he learned a valuable lesson.
"I was bright-eyed and bushy-brained and prepared to absorb the secret formula for writing good short stories, even great short stories.
"This illusion was canceled very quickly . . . I learned only after the story is written can it be taken apart to see how it was done.
"The basic rule given us was simple and heartbreaking. A story to be effective had to convey something from writer to reader and the power of its offering was the measure of its excellence. Outside of that, there are no rules.
"So there went the magic formula, the secret ingredient, with no more than that, we are set on the desolate, lonely path of the writer."
Steinbeck goes on to say that he received hundreds of rejection letters as he learned that a writer rarely knows if they've succeeded. "I still don't know how to go about it," he says, "except to write it and take my chances.
"If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced that there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader . ..
"It is not so very hard to judge a story after it is written, but after many years, to start a story still scares me to death. I will go so far as to say that the writer who is not scared is happily unaware of the remote and tantalizing majesty of the medium."
Steinbeck's letter says it all. It says why we writers work so hard to learn the various aspects and skills of good writing. No one has secret formulas, no short cuts to publishing fame. What it does offer are guidelines to light your way, inspiration, and the hope that if you do not give up on your gift, you will find your own magic deep within your writer's heart.
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(Jones is a book critic for The Tulsa World, Tulsa, OK, and The Camden Times, Camden, New York.)
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