Graduating

Up late tonight for reasons I won't go into (other than to say my mouth loves Indian food. Other parts of me . . . not so much). Anyway, while I'm sitting here wide awake, I was thinking about the first day of my writers conference. And the biggest feeling I have from it is that I've graduated.

Not in the traditional sense with a cap and gown, but more that I've moved on from the beginning stages of being a writer. A year ago, I'd never been to a conference and didn't know much about finding an agent or even how to edit my book, really. However, this has been an intensive year for me in many ways. I've put myself through my own writing boot camp.

It started with a conference last August put on by author Shannon Hale, and it really opened my eyes to what it meant being a writer. Before that, I'd been working on my book for nearly four years and was only halfway done. After getting a taste of the writing life, though, I was addicted. I wanted to know more and do more.

Within a month I found out about Authonomy, a writing peer review site (among other things). I made some wonderful friends and received invaluable feedback on my first manuscript. That gave me the impetus to finish the dang book so I could go on to editing the thing.

Then came another writers conference in November, this time with SCBWI, and this time also involving agents and editors from New York. I got some one-on-one time with an agent and received more valuable feedback.

Soon after I finished several rounds of edits on my ms and began querying. I went through another boot camp of sorts learning about agents and the querying process. I should say I was rather successful for a first book that took four years to write considering I'm still waiting to hear back from four agents who've requested the manuscript.

And now, six months later, I've written another book, this one in three weeks. Through the laborious process of writing that initiall took me four years, I learned some incredible lessons about how to write. Or, more importantly, how I write.

So, that brings me back to the writers conference today. As I sat there listening to the presenters going over information I'd learned nine months ago, and people asking the editors questions I knew all the answers to, I realized I've graduated from the stage of beginning writer. Oh, there are still plenty of things I've yet to learn, but I really feel that I've gained enough experience that I can't call myself a beginning writer. I'm moving well onto intermediate, even possibly toward advanced.

The moral of this story: writing and editing are about the doing. As Martha Mahalick, editor at Greenwillow, said today, editing is something you learn by experience. You gain knowledge by working with a mentor who shows you the ropes and guides you as you move along. Writing is exactly the same. First you have to write, and then you can get needed feedback on your writing. But you will never learn unless you start doing.

So writers, get out there. Learn by experience and from the experiences of others. Keep moving forward and someday you'll get to the point where you feel like you've graduated from being one tinkering with writing to being a real writer. And that is a wonderful realization.