Vincent Zandri's Blog - Posts Tagged "godchild"
Biting the Nail: The Discipline of Writing
Biting the Nail: The Discipline of Writing
By Vincent Zandri
“Where do you get your discipline?”
That’s the question I’m asked most frequently about my solitary writing life. Most people who work according the programmed schedule of job and career find it inconceivable that a person can actually roll out of bed, face a blank page, and begin to make words. Yet, as writers, that’s what we do. We create and in order to create we have to have discipline. Discipline to work alone, according to our own rules, according to our own high standards, according to our own priorities and curiosities.
Acquiring discipline isn’t so hard when you are passionate about your work—when you have a desire not only to write well, but to do it better than anyone has done it before. At the same time you have to develop a skin of armor in order to feed the obsession. The first most important lesson of the disciplined writing life is learning that you’re not always going to be successful. Most of the time you will fail and must face the resulting rejection head on. That’s the most difficult thing about discipline: carrying on with your work unabated, even in the face of rejection.
So where does my discipline come from?
As clichéd as it sounds, I can only tell you that it comes from deep inside. It’s not something I have to work up, so much as it’s something I have to feed on a daily basis. Discipline means waking up early every day, day in and day out, and writing. It’s writing everyday in isolation no matter what’s happening in my life. Be it sick kids, angry spouses, insolvent bank accounts, a broken toilet, a terrorist attack… I write no matter what. Hemingway called this sometimes impossible but necessary process, “biting the nail.” And anyone who has the discipline to write every day no matter what, understands what biting the nail is all about. Writing, like the discipline it requires, can be an awfully painful process.
Back in 1992, I wrote in my published essay, A Literary Life, “In the morning, weariness begins with darkness. It surrounds me inside my kitchen like a weighted shroud, cumbersome and black. It continues as my fingertips search and locate a light switch next to the telephone, above my son’s hi-chair. White light stings my eyes when I flip it up. There is a clock above the sink…I interpret a big hand and little hand that have not yet made 6:00AM.”
Those were the days when I wrote in the mornings, worked a fulltime job and received rejections everyday. But still, I crawled out of bed and wrote. I guess all these years later, I can truthfully say, discipline is what I had in the place of sleep, in the place of comfort, in the place of security and success. Discipline was and remains the bedfellow I seek when I am at my most lonely.
Eventually the discipline would reap its rewards.
In the 12 years since I’ve earned my MFA from Vermont College, I’ve published three novels, with one on the way this winter. I’ve been translated into numerous languages. I’ve published almost two dozen short stories, countless articles, essays and blogs. I’ve traveled “on assignment” to China, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Africa and more. Along the way I’ve met wonderful people, seen wonderful things, witnessed atrocities, unspeakable disease, hunger and corruption. I’ve written about much of it. Some of it, I’ve simply stored away in my brain for some future story or novel down the road.
For all its rewards, discipline demands stiff payment.
Because of my priorities, I’ve failed at two marriages and many more relationships. I’ve lost friends and lost the faith and trust of family members who have come to think of me as unreliable or flaky at best. Because after all, I tend to use a holiday like Christmas as a time to work, and when family events like birthdays come up, I might be traveling or locked up in my studio with my significant other…Well, you know her name. It starts with a D.
I have managed however, to find a way to balance time with my kids. Not that it’s always been easy. Children are a distraction, no bones about it. But they are also fuel for your discipline. I’m not entirely certain that I could have achieved any kind of success without them. Children open up emotional vaults that would otherwise remain sealed shut. You need to expose the contents of these vaults in your prose.
My writing simply wouldn’t be the same without kids. Now that they’re almost grown up, I still keep them as close as possible without smothering them. When it comes to my children, my philosophy has always been, hug them, tell them you love them, and make them laugh once a day. You’d be surprised how well this works. Also, don’t be afraid to tell them the truth. They know when you’re lying. If you can’t spend time with them because you have to feed the discipline, be honest about it. They will appreciate you for it and come to respect you.
Case and point: it’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I’m writing this article. My children are home, just outside the closed door of my studio, where I can hear them engaged in some sort of friendly argument. I’m not doing anything with them per se. But I’m here with them, for them.
This month alone I will write and published 36 short architecture and construction articles, three major blogs, present a revised version of The Concrete Pearl (my fifth novel) to my agent, write one or two features, engage in pre-publicity for Moonlight Falls, and maybe, if there’s time, pen a new piece for my personal blog. In between all this, I’ll juggle time with the kids, time for exercise, time to tip some beers with friends, time for a few road trips, time to be by myself and read. Have I mentioned the discipline required to read books?
One word of warning, the discipline, no matter how beautiful a bedfellow, does not always respond lovingly. Even after you’ve scored a major book contract or two. During my second marriage, I suffered through a writer’s block that lasted five long years, a period during which I published not a single word. The block just happened to coincide with my oldest son’s nervous breakdown and the onset of severe depression (see “Breakdown,” http://www.blnz.com/news/2008/11/12/B...). At that time, as I came close to going broke (after receiving a mid-six figure advance for As Catch Can), I never once stopped working, never once veered from the discipline of waking up every morning and trying to write. “Trying” being the key word here.
Looking back on those difficult years, I realize I wasn’t writing so much as I was just typing, but the process helped me cope with some very difficult and serious issues in my life. If nothing else, the discipline to write can be a mighty powerful therapy.
Eventually the damn breaks, as it did in my case, and I made a return to good writing and publishing. I’m not making millions by any means, but I make a decent living as a freelance journalist and novelist, and that’s all anyone can honestly ask for.
The late great Norman Mailer also understood about the financial ups and downs of being a full-time writer. But more importantly, he understood about the discipline of biting the nail. He wrote 2,500 new words a day right up until the end when his kidneys failed him. It wasn’t the disciple or the talent or the mind that gave out, it was the 84 year old body. I’m told he died with a smile on his face. Not the kind of smile that accompanies peace of mind, sedated painlessness, or “going to the bright light.” But the kind of smile that only a disciplined writer can wear; the sly grin that means you’re about to embark on a brand new adventure, and that you can’t wait to write about it.
By Vincent Zandri
“Where do you get your discipline?”
That’s the question I’m asked most frequently about my solitary writing life. Most people who work according the programmed schedule of job and career find it inconceivable that a person can actually roll out of bed, face a blank page, and begin to make words. Yet, as writers, that’s what we do. We create and in order to create we have to have discipline. Discipline to work alone, according to our own rules, according to our own high standards, according to our own priorities and curiosities.
Acquiring discipline isn’t so hard when you are passionate about your work—when you have a desire not only to write well, but to do it better than anyone has done it before. At the same time you have to develop a skin of armor in order to feed the obsession. The first most important lesson of the disciplined writing life is learning that you’re not always going to be successful. Most of the time you will fail and must face the resulting rejection head on. That’s the most difficult thing about discipline: carrying on with your work unabated, even in the face of rejection.
So where does my discipline come from?
As clichéd as it sounds, I can only tell you that it comes from deep inside. It’s not something I have to work up, so much as it’s something I have to feed on a daily basis. Discipline means waking up early every day, day in and day out, and writing. It’s writing everyday in isolation no matter what’s happening in my life. Be it sick kids, angry spouses, insolvent bank accounts, a broken toilet, a terrorist attack… I write no matter what. Hemingway called this sometimes impossible but necessary process, “biting the nail.” And anyone who has the discipline to write every day no matter what, understands what biting the nail is all about. Writing, like the discipline it requires, can be an awfully painful process.
Back in 1992, I wrote in my published essay, A Literary Life, “In the morning, weariness begins with darkness. It surrounds me inside my kitchen like a weighted shroud, cumbersome and black. It continues as my fingertips search and locate a light switch next to the telephone, above my son’s hi-chair. White light stings my eyes when I flip it up. There is a clock above the sink…I interpret a big hand and little hand that have not yet made 6:00AM.”
Those were the days when I wrote in the mornings, worked a fulltime job and received rejections everyday. But still, I crawled out of bed and wrote. I guess all these years later, I can truthfully say, discipline is what I had in the place of sleep, in the place of comfort, in the place of security and success. Discipline was and remains the bedfellow I seek when I am at my most lonely.
Eventually the discipline would reap its rewards.
In the 12 years since I’ve earned my MFA from Vermont College, I’ve published three novels, with one on the way this winter. I’ve been translated into numerous languages. I’ve published almost two dozen short stories, countless articles, essays and blogs. I’ve traveled “on assignment” to China, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Africa and more. Along the way I’ve met wonderful people, seen wonderful things, witnessed atrocities, unspeakable disease, hunger and corruption. I’ve written about much of it. Some of it, I’ve simply stored away in my brain for some future story or novel down the road.
For all its rewards, discipline demands stiff payment.
Because of my priorities, I’ve failed at two marriages and many more relationships. I’ve lost friends and lost the faith and trust of family members who have come to think of me as unreliable or flaky at best. Because after all, I tend to use a holiday like Christmas as a time to work, and when family events like birthdays come up, I might be traveling or locked up in my studio with my significant other…Well, you know her name. It starts with a D.
I have managed however, to find a way to balance time with my kids. Not that it’s always been easy. Children are a distraction, no bones about it. But they are also fuel for your discipline. I’m not entirely certain that I could have achieved any kind of success without them. Children open up emotional vaults that would otherwise remain sealed shut. You need to expose the contents of these vaults in your prose.
My writing simply wouldn’t be the same without kids. Now that they’re almost grown up, I still keep them as close as possible without smothering them. When it comes to my children, my philosophy has always been, hug them, tell them you love them, and make them laugh once a day. You’d be surprised how well this works. Also, don’t be afraid to tell them the truth. They know when you’re lying. If you can’t spend time with them because you have to feed the discipline, be honest about it. They will appreciate you for it and come to respect you.
Case and point: it’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I’m writing this article. My children are home, just outside the closed door of my studio, where I can hear them engaged in some sort of friendly argument. I’m not doing anything with them per se. But I’m here with them, for them.
This month alone I will write and published 36 short architecture and construction articles, three major blogs, present a revised version of The Concrete Pearl (my fifth novel) to my agent, write one or two features, engage in pre-publicity for Moonlight Falls, and maybe, if there’s time, pen a new piece for my personal blog. In between all this, I’ll juggle time with the kids, time for exercise, time to tip some beers with friends, time for a few road trips, time to be by myself and read. Have I mentioned the discipline required to read books?
One word of warning, the discipline, no matter how beautiful a bedfellow, does not always respond lovingly. Even after you’ve scored a major book contract or two. During my second marriage, I suffered through a writer’s block that lasted five long years, a period during which I published not a single word. The block just happened to coincide with my oldest son’s nervous breakdown and the onset of severe depression (see “Breakdown,” http://www.blnz.com/news/2008/11/12/B...). At that time, as I came close to going broke (after receiving a mid-six figure advance for As Catch Can), I never once stopped working, never once veered from the discipline of waking up every morning and trying to write. “Trying” being the key word here.
Looking back on those difficult years, I realize I wasn’t writing so much as I was just typing, but the process helped me cope with some very difficult and serious issues in my life. If nothing else, the discipline to write can be a mighty powerful therapy.
Eventually the damn breaks, as it did in my case, and I made a return to good writing and publishing. I’m not making millions by any means, but I make a decent living as a freelance journalist and novelist, and that’s all anyone can honestly ask for.
The late great Norman Mailer also understood about the financial ups and downs of being a full-time writer. But more importantly, he understood about the discipline of biting the nail. He wrote 2,500 new words a day right up until the end when his kidneys failed him. It wasn’t the disciple or the talent or the mind that gave out, it was the 84 year old body. I’m told he died with a smile on his face. Not the kind of smile that accompanies peace of mind, sedated painlessness, or “going to the bright light.” But the kind of smile that only a disciplined writer can wear; the sly grin that means you’re about to embark on a brand new adventure, and that you can’t wait to write about it.
Southern City Mysteries Interview
This is from the latest interview I did this week with one of the hottest mystery/thriller blogs in the states:
http://southerncitymysteries.blogspot...
Moonlight Falls
http://southerncitymysteries.blogspot...
Moonlight Falls
New Years Resolutions for an Old Dog!
Ok, it's time for the Vincent Zandri totally unoriginal New Years Resolution blog. I actually just wrote like 1,000 words and my Firefox crashed and I lost the whole freaking blog. So here it all is again, in a nutshell, and yah, I'm entirely pissed off right now:
-I have two new books coming out this year that are traditionally contracted with StoneGate Ink: Godchild and The Concrete Pearl. I'd like to add at least two more books to this starting with plans for Aaron Patterson and I to combine our bestsellers, The Remains and Sweet Dreams in a E-Book only special edition. The Innocent and Godchild will also be combined in a special "Jack Marconi" series edition.
Get the rest at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Innocent
The Remains
Moonlight Falls
-I have two new books coming out this year that are traditionally contracted with StoneGate Ink: Godchild and The Concrete Pearl. I'd like to add at least two more books to this starting with plans for Aaron Patterson and I to combine our bestsellers, The Remains and Sweet Dreams in a E-Book only special edition. The Innocent and Godchild will also be combined in a special "Jack Marconi" series edition.
Get the rest at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Innocent
The Remains
Moonlight Falls
X-Mas Day is D-Day (Digital Download Day)!
It's Christmas Eve 2010.
D-Day for the digital E-Book Revolution. On this day and in particular, tomorrow, Christmas Day, more Kindle, Nooks, E-Readers and more will be unwrapped and put to use than on any other single previous day. Not only will there be a rush to purchase E-Books, but more will be sold tomorrow than ever before.
The good news for authors: there is an infinite supply of your books on the virtual shelf. Even if thousands of them get uploaded tonight and tomorrow and during the week, your book will always be available to the reader. And even if it doesn't sell all that well, it won't be pulled off the shelf to make room for the new Patterson or Brown. It will always be there, right beside the new Patterson and Brown. Not only do authors make more money on the e-book sales, but so do the publishers. Not only are independent publishers pushing sales on Xmas, so are the majors like my former NYC boss, Random House. Check out this article in PC Speed:
Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
The Innocent
D-Day for the digital E-Book Revolution. On this day and in particular, tomorrow, Christmas Day, more Kindle, Nooks, E-Readers and more will be unwrapped and put to use than on any other single previous day. Not only will there be a rush to purchase E-Books, but more will be sold tomorrow than ever before.
The good news for authors: there is an infinite supply of your books on the virtual shelf. Even if thousands of them get uploaded tonight and tomorrow and during the week, your book will always be available to the reader. And even if it doesn't sell all that well, it won't be pulled off the shelf to make room for the new Patterson or Brown. It will always be there, right beside the new Patterson and Brown. Not only do authors make more money on the e-book sales, but so do the publishers. Not only are independent publishers pushing sales on Xmas, so are the majors like my former NYC boss, Random House. Check out this article in PC Speed:
Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
The Innocent
When the Kindle Will Be No More!
Last night I watched The Book of Eli on Netflix. It was about a man who must walk across the US in a post apocalyptic period in which a great war has ravaged the world, decimating its populations. What's also apparently happened is that books were burned. Lots of them. Especially Bibles and all manners of scripture no matter their religion, since it was religion that sparked the great final conflict in the first place. Go figure.
There is only one more King James Bible left on the planet and our man, Eli who is played by a bad-ass but entirely spiritual Denzel Washington, is the one selected by God to transport that printed "Word of God" to the west, where a group of survivors await him. In the meantime, the world has become mostly illiterate, written words holy or not, being the root of all evil.
It was while watching this movie something funny struck me.
Lately I've been blogging a lot about having run-ins with bookstore owners and readers who choose to ignore change even in the face of change, about the staying power of the Kindle and most E-Readers for that matter. One bookstore owner put her feelings succinctly when she called the Kindle a "toy" and a "fad."...
Grab the rest of this thrilling blog at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
There is only one more King James Bible left on the planet and our man, Eli who is played by a bad-ass but entirely spiritual Denzel Washington, is the one selected by God to transport that printed "Word of God" to the west, where a group of survivors await him. In the meantime, the world has become mostly illiterate, written words holy or not, being the root of all evil.
It was while watching this movie something funny struck me.
Lately I've been blogging a lot about having run-ins with bookstore owners and readers who choose to ignore change even in the face of change, about the staying power of the Kindle and most E-Readers for that matter. One bookstore owner put her feelings succinctly when she called the Kindle a "toy" and a "fad."...
Grab the rest of this thrilling blog at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
Competing with the Living and the Dead
That title is misleading since in the world of E-Books, there's infinite room for everyone, right? Nothing gets remaindered due to lack of shelf space, nothing goes out of print because the publisher is either board with promoting your work or not enough pennies are coming in to support the support of your published novel. No book ever goes away. Nothing ever dies. Your spot in the E-Book store is just as prominent as a major A-list writer like James Patterson.
Or is it?
Lately I've noticed something funny happening. As the E-Book versions of my novels like the special edition "Sweet Dreams"/"The Remains" enter into the Amazon bestseller lists and/or the Amazon Hot New Bestselling Release lists, that a competition of a sort truly does exist. Real competition. And not just with other bestselling independent and established authors. I find myself competing with a whole bunch of dead guys.
Get the rest of the story at the Vincent Zandri Vox!
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
Or is it?
Lately I've noticed something funny happening. As the E-Book versions of my novels like the special edition "Sweet Dreams"/"The Remains" enter into the Amazon bestseller lists and/or the Amazon Hot New Bestselling Release lists, that a competition of a sort truly does exist. Real competition. And not just with other bestselling independent and established authors. I find myself competing with a whole bunch of dead guys.
Get the rest of the story at the Vincent Zandri Vox!
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
GODCHILD Reviewed!
The first of what will be many GODCHILD reviews....we hope!
Head on over to the Vox to catch it:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
To grab a copy for you Kindle or Nook or whatever.....
http://www.amazon.com/Godchild-ebook/...
Cheers
Vin
www.vincentzandri.com
Head on over to the Vox to catch it:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
To grab a copy for you Kindle or Nook or whatever.....
http://www.amazon.com/Godchild-ebook/...
Cheers
Vin
www.vincentzandri.com
Feb Virtual Tour Dates Announced for THE INNOCENT
Head on over the Vincent Zandri Vox
for Details (HINT: there will be free giveaways....or is that redundant?):
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Innocent
Godchild
for Details (HINT: there will be free giveaways....or is that redundant?):
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Innocent
Godchild
THE REMAINS Remains a 5-Star Breakout Thriller
Here's the latest review from Cafe of Dreams Blog Critics Reviews....
get it at the Vox:
http://www.cafeofdreamsbookreviews.co...
The Remains
The Remains
get it at the Vox:
http://www.cafeofdreamsbookreviews.co...
The Remains
The Remains
The Art of Writing! The Business of Selling!
Back in 1922 a young writer who decided to move to Paris in order to pursue his muse was shocked to learn that many of the writers and artists who lived inside the famous city weren't really writers and artists at all. They were simply posseurs. Or posers.
People who sat about the cafes and pontificated upon the world of the arts, what was wrong with it, how they were going to somehow make a difference and turn everything that existed up until that moment onto its head. They would smoke and drink and drink and smoke, and talk and dress all in black and grow goatees and mustaches and they most certainly looked like writers and artists, but in the end they were a bunch of do nothing nobodies. Yet it was these same posseurs who came to hate the new eager young writer. In him they recognized something they lacked. He possessed drive. He possessed energy. He possessed ambition. And most of all, he possessed a talent that would only come to fruition from both hard work inside his writing studio and hard work selling himself as an adventurer and fearless sportsman to the general public. He was the real deal and for a long time, arguably "the most interesting man in the world." That young writer's name was Ernest Hemingway.
....Get the rest of the story at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
People who sat about the cafes and pontificated upon the world of the arts, what was wrong with it, how they were going to somehow make a difference and turn everything that existed up until that moment onto its head. They would smoke and drink and drink and smoke, and talk and dress all in black and grow goatees and mustaches and they most certainly looked like writers and artists, but in the end they were a bunch of do nothing nobodies. Yet it was these same posseurs who came to hate the new eager young writer. In him they recognized something they lacked. He possessed drive. He possessed energy. He possessed ambition. And most of all, he possessed a talent that would only come to fruition from both hard work inside his writing studio and hard work selling himself as an adventurer and fearless sportsman to the general public. He was the real deal and for a long time, arguably "the most interesting man in the world." That young writer's name was Ernest Hemingway.
....Get the rest of the story at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
