Making a Decision to Write

I’ve made three crucial decisions to write.  One was leaving Kinko’s to move to Malaysia to write full time (or until my money ran out).  Another was deciding to go to Maui Writers Conference at a time when I was in between teaching positions and my wife was pregnant (had been planning this for over a year).  And a third was to leave teaching at Unimas last year, without a net, to write full time.

To be successful they say, all you have to do is make a decision and then to back that up with consistent action that will take you in the direction of your goal.  Publishing novels was one of my goals, one of the reasons I decided to move to this tropical island.  But you can’t write in a vacuum; you need to get out in the world to see what the real world is really like, and I thought by going to Maui (I know, hardly the real world) I would get a huge dose of some writing reality--the good news (it’s possible) and the bad (there’s a lot of talented competition).  It was at Maui where I met Graham Brown, who at the time, was just like the rest of us, had a dream to write and publish his books.  Unlike many of us, he kept attending other writing conferences where he eventually met an agent who believed in his talent and then last year his first two novels were published, Black Rain and Black Sun.

Prior to going to Maui, I worked with a pair of novelists in Penang, one of whom this year found an agent and her book went to auction.  (Until the book comes out, for privacy reasons, she wants to maintain a low profile.) So I blogged about another writer, that a friend of mine had met, Amanda Hockings, who the week before had broken out in a huge way.  As I wrote about before, when you meet writers who break out, it expands your own belief system.  Instead of buying into all of the naysayers (even the ones residing inside your head) that the publishing industry is impossible, especially now that it’s in such a state of flux (upheaval by some accounts), so it’s best to avoid altogether until things settle down.  Obviously that’s not true for the people I just mentioned and a whole lot of others.

Then a year ago, I made the decision to walk away from renewing my contract to teach creative writing (and general English) because I felt, in more ways than one, that even though it was paying the bills, it was holding me back from ever achieving my dream to publish my novels.  Or maybe I was just using that teaching position (and marking all those papers) as a handy excuse.  Either way, I knew it was time to leave if I’m ever going to achieve my original dream.  I decided to just go for it.

Two weeks ago, I got a flash of insight to change the title of a third novel (the third novel title I changed this year—one for each of my three novels), and everything seemed to click.  The title change, as with the other two books, made me think of the novel in a whole new light and gave it a new focus.  Suddenly for this 23^rd draft, I thought, this could work, and the title also doubles as a cool metaphor.  (**The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady.  The previous title was The Lonely Affair of Jonathan Brady.)  

I hadn’t worked on this novel in over a year, and I had been holding back from it in favor of the other two novels, each requiring massive rewriting for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. But when the new title idea struck, I knew it was time to act on it that very day.

So once I made the decision to rewrite this third novel for the Faulkner-Wisdom Novel Contest, where it was an almost-finalist for their 2008 contest, I wasn’t sure if I had enough time, other than line-editing it and making those corrections.  Then I got the news that the deadline, which had already been pushed back from 1 April to 1 May, just got pushed back to 15 May! (Is this an example how providence moves for you once you make a decison?)  Thus now I got plenty of time to complete it, so long as I remain focused and cut out all distractions, like the Internet TimeThief.

It all began with a decision.  In this case, it’s a culmination of decisions that I’ve been making draft after draft going back far too many years, but I like to think, that each decision I made with this novel has been a natural progression that will ultimately lead to the goal I set back in the US when I made that first decision to leave a safe, secure position for the life of an expatriate writer, now living in Borneo.
                      --Robert Raymer, Borneo Expat Writer

* By the way, shutting down that Internet when you don't need it has been a life saver this past week.  I was able to crank!

**update:  The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady is short listed for 2011 Faulkner-Wisdom Novel Contest

***Update: The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady just advanced to the Quarterfinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2012!

 

Another Writer Breaks Out!

Yesterday, I blogged about Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, and before breakfast this morning I got some impossibly good news from a writing friend and that made me feel really good.  At the beginning of February, she had no agent and then in March, shortly after she acquired one, her novel sold via an auction! I felt particularly proud because I was one of her early readers.  I not only read the whole book, but also provided detailed feedback on her opening chapters. So did at least one other person.  We both feel proud!

Last week, I also felt really good when I heard the whole Amanda Hockings story about her huge breakout thanks to her immense e-book success. This was a nice slap-in-the-face to all those who have been sounding the death knell for the whole book industry as we know it.  Well, it looks like the verdict is still out on that one.  Just ask Amanda Hockings.  True, she did make her name in e-books, and that’s good, too!  There’s a place for both in this world, and that’s really good news for writers.

Just two weeks before that, I was meeting with my writing friend Tom here in Borneo and we were just discussing e-books and Amanda. Tom met Amanda several years ago at a writing conference.  He's also met on several occasions (and interviewed) Nora Roberts, who lived in the same area.  He wasn’t bragging.  When you personally have met writers before they break out, as I mentioned blogging about Graham Brown, or have met other writers who are fabulously successful (maybe you met them at writing conferences or book signings, hundreds of thousands, millions, of people have ), it makes this whole writing game seem more and more possible.

Writers, you soon realize are not demigods; they’re just normal, though talented, persistent people (hopefully, like you and me), who have been honing their craft for years. They’ve even struggled with their first novel, filled with self-doubt, trying to get it just right, even having to deal with their share of rejections from agents, publishers, including close calls that have turned into disappointment. 

Sometimes it’s a matter of timing.

Of course, as writers, we all hope that such Amanda-Hockings-type deals come our way.  For me, it gives me hope than one fine morning, before breakfast, I, too, will get some impossibly good news.  Occasionally, I do wake up to find I got a hit from an agent.  I’ve had several recently from one of my novels, The Boy Who Shot Santa, but so far nothing has materialized.  Maybe it’s the writing, maybe the timing isn’t right, or maybe America has changed too much since I last lived there. 

Rewriting another novel, The Expatriate’s Choice, gives me hope because I do know something about expats and this part of the world, where I’ve been living for over 25 years.  Perhaps the timing will be right soon.  Maybe not in America; they really don’t know Malaysia very well, but in the UK or Europe; they do.  Having one of my books reviewed their last week and having another getting published their later this year, it does appear that’s the direction I should be looking.

In the meantime, I’ll keep writing, and you should, too.  Good things happen to good people; good things happen to friends, and I find that doubly cool.       

                             —Robert Raymer, Borneo Expat Writer

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I