Christy English

Sending the Manuscript Off

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 | The Writing Life, Writing Process | 2 Comments

Photo Credit: Google+, NASA images

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I know I am not alone in this. We writers slave over our manuscripts, our babies, until they are as perfect as we can make them. We give them to writing groups, to critique partners, to beta readers, and sometimes even to a freelance editor. And finally the day comes when we put them in the mail, or these days, in an e-mail to our agent or our editor. Some of us are still shopping for the right agent. Others have found their agent and are sending their manuscript to their editor for the first time. But sending the book out for the first time is always a daunting prospect, no matter who is waiting to receive it.

One thing I learned early on in my work as a writer is that fear is my friend. Every time I stand on a precipice, ready to take a plunge, a leap into the Void, I feel it. The thrill of fear that is almost an exhilaration, the knowledge that no matter what happens, for good or bad, my life as of this moment is changing.

Even now, with two book published and one book in edits, I still feel that way. That exhilaration of flying, that fear of crashing, but overriding both, the knowledge that, as a writer, I really don’t have a choice. My characters choose me, not the other way around. They bring their stories and I work hard to make them the best books I can. And when the time comes for my work to go out into the world, I feel the same fear of failure, the same elation. It is a good thing to leap into the Void. All the best things in my life have come to me because of taking that leap. As writers and artists, we live with that leap for good or ill, over and over again, for as long as we put pen to paper. That leap is worth it, despite the fear that comes with it. Each time, we close our eyes, and jump.

Tags: Mauscripts in the Mail, Nail Biting, The Writing Life, Writers

Quote of the Week

Friday, April 6th, 2012 | Quote of the Week, Quotes, The Writing Life | No Comments

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.  ~E.L. Doctorow

I laughed when I first read this quote about a year ago. Sometimes I do feel a bit like a mind divided against itself as I delve into the worlds my characters and I create together, as their voices rise to become as loud as my own. But I would not give it up, or change it. Muse, may my characters keep coming to me with their lives and their stories. I want to continue to embrace the “madness of art.”

Tags: Madness of Art, The Writing Life, Writing

Launch Day

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 | Book Launches, The Writing Life | 2 Comments

One of the most amazing things about being an author is launch day. At least, that’s what I always thought when I was working away at my desk, no agent or book contract in sight. I thought of how amazing it must be to hold a finished book in my hands, to smell the pages, to know that my story is finally going out into the world, touching people’s lives. And all of that is true. It is an amazing moment to hold a finished, printed book that I wrote, a wonder unequaled in the world.

But book writing is a business, too. Sometimes the business side of the publishing world can distract me from the beauty of creation itself. Working with bloggers and a publicist before a launch, writing guest posts and planning blog tours, worrying about whether reviewers and readers will like what I’ve done…all that can threaten to eclipse the joy of the book being born, of coming into print, coming into the world.

So on book launch days, I make an effort to celebrate the achievement with family and friends. I drink a toast to Eleanor, throw a little party for her and for me, savoring that moment that otherwise could seem a little anticlimactic after all the work of the publicity launch. I learned that, while there will be no marching bands in my living room to celebrate the launch of a novel, unless I hire one, of course,  I can and should rejoice.

So on this blog, I’ve started celebrating the launches of books I have read or have been waiting to read. Because launch days are an amazing moment in the birth of a novel. As writer, I cherish them, mine and other people’s.

Tags: Book Launches, Celebration, The Writing Life

More Mountians to Climb

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 | The Writer's Path, The Writing Life | 4 Comments

As I wrap up my edits on HOW TO TAME A WILLFUL WIFE, my Regency version of The Taming of the Shrew, I look back down the mountain of work I have done on this piece with pride and pleasure. This book started as a dream I had in 2007, and after countless re-writes and revisions (there have been so many that I have truly lost count) this novel has begun to take on the contours of a finished piece, a novel I can enjoy and be proud of.

Of course, one of the joys of this work as well as one of its challenges is that there are always more mountains to climb. The next book in the series beckons, as does Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Black Death, and so many other characters who want to tell their stories. I am grateful for each and every one of them. I look forward with joy to the next mountain.

Tags: The Writer's Path, The Writing Life

Art and the Self

Friday, March 23rd, 2012 | Random Thoughts, The Writer's Path, The Writing Life | No Comments

Archived Post, first published on Jan 13, 2012

I was fortunate enough to see an exhibit on Rembrandt, and one of the most fascinating pieces for me was the self-portrait of an older Rembrandt. Painted after his work had gone out of style, after his clients had left for new fads and other kinds of art, Rembrandt was still painting for himself. I suppose all artists ultimately create for themselves. When we sit down to write, or paint, or sculpt, in the end, we work alone in a room with no one standing by to love it or to hate it. At least at first, we work alone, for ourselves alone. Only later do editors, critics, readers, and art dealers come in to tell us if what we’ve done is good or not. Basically, whether or not they like it.

But in the beginning, in its purest form, the only critic we need is our own vision, our own eye. Without that, we have nothing. As we work to make our art for the consumption of others, we must remember that our art has to be for us, too.

Rembrandt had no idea that his work would last, that four hundred years later, I would stand in front of it,  inspired by it. He sat alone in a room with his canvas and a mirror, and painted his own face, for himself. And it is one of the best works he ever did. I wonder if he knew that, too, even as he did it. Perhaps the best work we do, the purest art, is the art we make for ourselves.

Tags: Art, Light, The Writer's Path, The Writing Life