Our guest today is Warren Adler, best known for The War of the Roses, his masterpiece fictionalization of a macabre divorce turned into the Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated dark comedy hit starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito. Adler’s international hit stage adaptation of the novel will premiere on Broadway in 2015-2016 (to be produced by Jay and Cindy Gutterman). Adler has also optioned and sold film rights for a number of his works including Random Hearts (starring Harrison Ford and Kristen Scott Thomas) and The Sunset Gang (produced by Linda Lavin for PBS’ American Playhouse series starring Jerry Stiller, Uta Hagen, Harold Gould, and Doris Roberts). In addition to the Broadway Production of The War of the Roses, in recent development are The War of the Roses – The Children (Grey Eagle Films and Permut Presentations), a feature film adaptation of the sequel to Adler’s iconic divorce story, Target Churchill (Grey Eagle Films and Solution Entertainment), Residue (Grey Eagle Films), and Capitol Crimes (Grey Eagle Films and Sennet Entertainment), a television series based on his Fiona Fitzgerald mystery series. Adler’s forthcoming thriller, Treadmill, is slated to be released in September.
[pullquote] I believe in big dreams. I believe, too, that one should confront them with courage and realism and beware of those who wish to take advantage of this hunger to create and share their imagined world with others. Stay inspired and keep up the good fight!”[/pullquote]
About today’s post, Warren says, “Considering that writing a long work of the imagination (a minimum of 70,000 words which traditionally defines a novel) is time consuming and labor intensive, and considering that a reader must consume many hours in reading such a work, one can only admire the tenacity and dedication of those who follow the path of writing and publishing. Most are convinced that their novels offer insight, enlightenment, awareness and psychic value to the lives of those who will take the time and effort to read their work. They strongly believe in their talent. Many dream of that movie deal or adaptations in other languages and many harbor the validation of honors, prizes and celebrity. Who would dare inhibit such glorious aspirations? Not me. I believe in big dreams. I believe, too, that one should confront them with courage and realism and beware of those who wish to take advantage of this hunger to create and share their imagined world with others. Stay inspired and keep up the good fight!”
Currently Warren is offering a big giveaway: an unlimited number of eBooks, for each of his five novels slated to be made into films/TV series/Play in 2015 and 2016. They include The War of the Roses: The Children (movie), Target Churchill (movie), American Quartet (TV series—“Capitol Crimes”), Washington Masquerade (TV series—“Capitol Crimes”), Trans-Siberian Express (Movie), and The War Of The Roses (Broadway Play 2016). Follow this link to the giveaway.
Connect with Warren on his blog, on Facebook, and on Twitter.
On Rejection and Renewal: A Note to Aspiring Novelists
You’ve spent months, perhaps years, composing your novel. You’ve read and reread it hundreds of times. You’ve rethought it, rewritten it, and revised it, changed characters, dialogue and plot lines. Writing your novel is the most important thing in your life. It has absorbed your attention, almost exclusively. Both your conscious and your subconscious mind have been obsessed with it. You have read parts of it to your friends, family, former teachers. Most think it’s wonderful.
You have finally considered it finished. Armed with optimism and self-confidence, you obtain from the Internet a list of agents and begin to canvas. You agonize over whether to send your precious manuscript to one agent at a time or to a number of agents. You choose the first option. Just in case, you send it electronically, unsure of whether or not this is now standard practice. You have high hopes. You are aware of the massive changes in the publishing business, but have chosen to take the traditional path as your first option.
Weeks go by, then months. The agents are, you believe, reading it in the office, passing it around, deciding to take it on. You live on such hopes. Finally you call the agent’s office. They haven’t a clue as to who you are. Somehow, they are reminded and search through the piles of manuscripts in their office, find yours and send you back a standardized letter, perhaps out of politeness made to look like an original.
Well then, you tell yourself, it is only one agent’s opinion. You send it off to another agent. A letter comes back swiftly, similarly worded. You get bolder, send your manuscript to two agents at a time, then three, then every agent you can find. Nothing happens. “Good luck on getting published,” they tell you. “Not for us.” Sometimes there is a personal, scribbled note that says something nice and you live in its glow for days.
Years go by. You start another novel, but you are less optimistic now, less confident, unsure. You tell yourself you have not paid enough attention to the marketplace. You begin to analyze what is selling, what is not selling, what is being published. You read books on the bestseller lists and are certain you can do a lot better. You try to use these books as a guide to what is selling and you write accordingly. Nothing helps. You are continuously rejected.
You begin to read on various websites about how you can publish your own books and get them marketed on electronic venues. Some sites promise that they can get your book in front of movie producers for a price. Some say they have the magic to make you a successful career novelist, again, for a price. For even more money, you will be told how best to market your book. You debate the idea and as your pile of rejection letters mount, you give it a try.[pullquote]Still, you cannot shake the certainty or your talent. You write another novel. Perhaps a third. Perhaps more. You go through the same process. Again and again you are rejected. You begin to question your ability, your ideas and your talent. Is it a fantasy, an exercise in unrealistic aspirations? You are becoming embittered. Your dream is crashing.[/pullquote]
You spend money. A book is produced in print on demand format and an e-book is created and placed on every electronic sales venue on the net. Your family buys copies and sends them to friends. It is even reviewed in publications that review self-published books, yet again for a price. There is a word or two of praise in the review and you send it around to the media and everybody you know. Unfortunately, there is little or no sales, no afterlife. Despite your confidence in your ability, despite the fact that you truly believe your novel is certainly worthy of publication, you feel the full impact of rejection and failure.
Still, you cannot shake the certainty or your talent. You write another novel. Perhaps a third. Perhaps more. You go through the same process. Again and again you are rejected. You begin to question your ability, your ideas and your talent. Is it a fantasy, an exercise in unrealistic aspirations? You are becoming embittered. Your dream is crashing.
If you are fortunate, your wife, husband, partner and family stick by you, continue to encourage your dream, help you keep it alive. Other realities begin to chip away at the dream. You have financial obligations. Your kids are growing up. You are losing out in the job market. Others are moving up in their jobs, while you are falling behind.
You feel lost, adrift. Rejection after rejection has beaten you down. You see this as the end of your world, the end of your hopes and aspirations. Your high hopes and self-confidence in your own talent is petering away.
What now?
If you’ve read this far without your stomach congealing, I suppose you are awaiting some prescription offering a magic pill for coping. Sorry, there isn’t any available your corner drug store, and you won’t find it here. Luck–that strange, illusive, heaven sent, burst of good fortune–has not fired a missile in your direction. Not yet.
You have three choices. The first is personal surrender. You’ve been on a fool’s errand following an adolescent dream. Time to throw in the towel and concentrate on your day job. At least you tried.
The second choice is postponement. You weren’t ready. You needed more experience of life. But you continue to believe it will come. Some talented people are late bloomers. Give the dream a rest. Wishing won’t make it so. There are enough popular clichés to give you courage.
Now, for your third choice, the clincher. It is not recommended for the faint of heart. Never give up. Never, never, never. It may be impractical, unwise, foolish, pure madness, but if you truly believe in yourself, your talent, your ideas, your calling, your personal mission, why not, as Lewis Carroll wrote, “go on until the end, and then stop.”
To do this requires a monumental ego, total self-confidence in your talent, and an unshakeable belief that you have been anointed with the right stuff. You will require obsessive focus, singleness of purpose, a draconian ruthlessness and total devotion to a belief in your artistic ability. Fancy words, I know, but with the absence of luck, you will need these attributes to sustain you through the process.
What this means for the true novelist is that he or she must continue to soldier on, keep writing, keep trying, taking the increasingly painful hits of rejection after rejection until, well, until someone out there catches on…or doesn’t.
We are all waiting for Godot. Sometimes he comes.
What are some ways you keep hope alive while you wait?
Warren,
I can think of only one way to keep hope alive, and that is to keep writing. And also to read, read, read in order to stay inspired. Lately I’ve been ferreting out interviews of respected (by me) writers to read about their struggles with rejection and self-doubt. This amazing website helps an awful lot, too. I always find what I need here. Today is a case in point. Thanks so much.
Susan, this is a touching comment to read. I am happy I could have some positive influence in your life. Writing has been my savior and has always been one of the most vital ways for me to feel like I’m truly alive.
I went through all of this–years of rejection, writing to a trend (never do that, once you see a trend it’s already too late), and self-publishing a book.
Then one day I had the biggest attitude change of my life. I went from wishing it could me to thinking, “Why not me?”
I couldn’t come up with any answer as to why it shouldn’t be me. I’d reached an age where I was no longer intimidated by “the industry” or people in general. It’s an age where I became clear-sighted enough to acknowledge truths like: plenty of people are more talented than me, but plenty are less; plenty of people are smarter than me, but many are less. I’m not at the top of the pile, but I’m not at the bottom, and since not everyone can be the BEST–surely publishing is made up of many middles.
Well, I can be a middle! That I have confidence in. I’m as good as any average person except that I’m about a million times more determined–that’s where I excel.
So I wrote another book, my fifth, and pitched it with simple confidence, letting the book speak for itself, a book that followed no trends and is not anything I’d ever heard about on an agent’s or editor’s wish list. Of course, I immediately landed an agent and then a four-book deal with HarperCollins. That’s how these things go sometimes.
I encourage all writers to never give up, never stop dreaming. I think true failure is giving up on your dreams. If you decide to stop writing, don’t stop dreaming. But please, don’t stop writing because it can be you. Why not? It takes just as much ego to believe you’ll never break in as it takes to believe you will–so flip you’re thinking upside down and do the work. Write that book you’ve always wanted to read. You know the one–it’s right there, just do it.
Warren, you have described me in your post today. Especially that bit about friends getting ahead while I still chase a dream. But I’m for option 3: “It may be impractical, unwise, foolish, pure madness, but if you truly believe in yourself, your talent, your ideas, your calling, your personal mission, why not, as Lewis Carroll wrote, ‘go on until the end, and then stop.'”
Thanks for the words of encouragement. Being connected here at WU is one of my biggest ways of keeping hope alive.
Write in the moment. Write to solve the riddle of the passage before you. Write for fun. Do you solve a crossword puzzle every day? Do you feel guilty if you don’t? Do you plan to be a wildly successful crossword puzzle expert? (Ok, some do, but not most). When you treat writing as a passion, like gardening or cooking or Sudoku, your talent and joy build. Stay an amateur in the truest sense of the word, for the love of it. If publication happens, wonderful. If not, life is still wonderful.
Those are really wise words worth sharing and remembering. :)
Thank you for writing this article, Warren.
There is no magic recipe that will suddenly yield an author. We all must make our own way.
To maintain hope, I read and I write and I submit my work.
All professions require years of study. These are my years. The culmination of this study will result in the achievement of my goal: I will be a successful, well-established author. I won’t stop until I this goal has been realized.
Write for yourself, to follow your passion. The rest will fall into place.
Denise Willson
Author of A Keeper’s Truth and GOT
I’m going through this right now. My first novel is finished, beta read by my writing group and others, and wrangled into as good a form as I can do by myself. I sent a query to one publisher who wanted to see the manuscript immediately; two weeks later they replied with a glowing review but a rejection saying “this will be a bestseller somewhere, but it’s not something we can market to our readers.” So I sent a query to two agents and three publishers. One publisher requested a manuscript but it’s been nearly six weeks with no response. From all others, silence, some for over two months.
I’m waiting the full amount of time indicated on their website, and have a few others marked to query afterwards. I have a particular problem with being trapped between genres; too Christian for some, not Christian enough for the genre publishers. As an entrepreneur and a techie, self-publishing does not completely intimidate me, but I believe an agent/publisher will be the smoother path.
My question is, how long should I be patient? Is self-publishing an “ender” for the other options? Tough decisions in today’s world.
Chris, while you’re waiting on your first novel, I assume you’re working on your second novel?
Most first-published novels are not the first novel written by the author.
The best way to forget about your first novel is to focus on writing/polishing your second while the first is roaming the world. Also, don’t just query one agent/editor at a time. Multiple queries is acceptable practice. If you query one at a time, you’re going to be waiting a long time.
Thanks Heidi,
Thanks for the encouragement. Yeah, I’m working on the next one – and it does help. I’m querying five at a time right now; when one expires I send out another. My book is a bit specialized, so I’m trying to target publishers that make sense, and the list seems to be shrinking rapidly. I’m not frustrated yet, but I’m anticipating it. :)
I often wonder what I’d do if I were stuck on an island by myself … I would find a way to live and write. AMDG. Thank you for this wonderfully encouraging post.
I started out bright-eyed and completely convinced of my talent.
My skill and mastery of the craft, however… I don’t care what anyone else may say of talent, but every single one of us has to put in the chops to master the craft. The only advantage to talent is that those chops are easier. But they must still be practiced.
What helps me to go on is striving to understand WHY I am rejected. Many authors don’t do this, and they should.
Understanding why you are rejected goes a long way to unravelling that rejection knot.
I asked myself, why are editors/agents rejecting my mss with form letters? (A good critique group can help with that.) Is it your voice? Is it your style? Is it your issues with grammar? Is it your characters are boring? Is it your plot is dull or goes nowhere?
It might hurt to learn these things, to discover you were blind where this was concerned, but take heart. These are things that are in your power to fix.
Solution: go learn how to make things better. Classes, workshops, study, critiques, etc.
Form letters are a very good sign that your work is not yet up to scratch. Learn how to scratch.
So what if you’re getting encouraging rejection letters from editors/agents? I get a lot of these. They’re a step beyond the impersonal form rejections, in that they’ll often offer a clue. “I love your characters, but this needs a line edit,” or “I love this, but it doesn’t fit our needs at this time.”
The former I can fix. It tells me I am weak on line editing, and that’s something I can improve on. The latter tells me it’s not me, it’s them.
Sometimes something may be perfectly publishable, but just not suitable for that particular editor/agent.
Now, while it may seem like this is a dead end, it’s not. If anything, it’s an in. You’ve found an editor/agent who likes your stuff. Now, it’s simply a case of persistence. Submit again, and again, until they either say yes to something, or they will tell you, eventually, specifically, why they aren’t taking any of your stuff.
The more you know about why you’re getting rejected, the better you can tweak things so that you are more likely to get a yes.
Awesome post! I love “go on until the end and then stop.” Pretty simple and straightforward, even if it does require some patience and tenacity. I guess I’ve decided to be in it for the long haul. :)
Hi Warren,
I love Jennifer’s comment, “Why not me?” I definitely choose option three… actually, I have no choice as I’m addicted to writing :) It’s a healthier addiction than some others I can think of. I self-published after querying my first novel for a little over a year (it subsequently won an IPPY award in the best adult fiction ebook category!). I’m about to launch my second and a third is in the outlining stage. I’ve got some grassroots momentum going with the first so I’ll continue to build on that and see what happens. I’m 50 years old and have enjoyed a long PR career so don’t feel I’m being ‘left behind’. This is a new phase and my dream is to one day be a famous novelist… even if it’s in my own mind. If you say it often enough, it just might happen!
Congratulations on the broadway premiere of War of the Roses!
Happy Writing!
Anne
Thanks for a great post. I love never give up! Even when I’m giving up, I’m plotting the next move. However, I write because my book is always calling to me, even when I’m busy and enjoying the other things I do.
I consider myself so fortunate that my book is very patient with me and hangs around until I find a spare hour. Then we hang out together and have a great time.
If one person or 100,000 people read my book and it helps them in some way in their life, I’m happy. There is a a bit of me that would would prefer the 100,000 though!
Mr. Adler: “If you’ve read this far without your stomach congealing….” I have, and no, it hasn’t, because you come close to describing my personal experience.
But at the end of your post you fail to remind your readers of something important: one definition of insanity is to keep doing something that doesn’t work over and over again. If you accept this definition, then your admonition to “never give up!” is really aimed at crazy people. Being such a person, I accept your advice.
A million kids had polio, and no one has ever written the life saga of one family’s battles. A sure hit, I thought until no agents answered my query. I guess they want tried and true stories. I understand their logic.
But a writer knows what a writer knows. Thank God for Amazon and Ebooks. TOO EARLY FOR FLOWERS: THE STORY OF A POLIO MOTHER is available online, and now a movie in development!
Kurt–
So much depends on luck and timing. You aren’t the first to write on what polio meant in personal terms. Assuming you’re not familiar with it, you might take a look at Philip Roth’s fine, unsparing novel, Nemesis.
I had polio at age 2. This is the struggles my young widowed mother had with it for the rest of her life. Thanks for replying!
Warren,
Your post spoke to me! I won’t go into my writing odyssey that’s lasted twenty years. I’ve got to the point where I can’t give up but I don’t have the time or energy to go the agent-publisher route again. My age is against me though at the same time it’s a motivating force to get published before it’s too late. I don’t have a monumental ego but I do have an unshakable belief in my talent and in my books. So I’ve decided to go the self-published route and see what happens. My expectations are not great though I believe one of the books, if promoted, may find a comfortable niche. The important thing is to fulfill my commitment to myself and to all the people who have believed in me as a writer for over fifty years. Thanks again for a post that speaks to all of us as yet unpublished authors who don’t give up after years of almost making it but never quite there.
“…total self-confidence in your talent…”
Somehow I missed this one. After being crushed, flamed, booted, ignored, and generally disdained as a writer for decades, I have little self-confidence in my talent. I am pretty sure, in fact, that I am a talent-less git.
So why do I keep writing?
1. I am too dumb and stubborn to quit.
2. The stories won’t leave me alone. Even if I have to give the damn things away, I’m going to get them out.
I think that boils the business down to its essentials– stubbornness and stories that won’t go away. It’s good to be focused….
“2. The stories won’t leave me alone. Even if I have to give the damn things away, I’m going to get them out.”
I identify with this 100%
Thanks for keeping it real, Warren!
Love your work, BTW.
I choose door #3. Because life is too short NOT to do what you believe you were meant to do.
Eleven books and one amazing agent later, I am inching ever closer…on calloused hands and knees, but still moving forward!
And I don’t mind saying I am proud to be part of The Phoenix group. Up from the ashes!!
Leslie Tall Manning
1. I write for myself. To better understand my world. To better understand me.
2. I don’t feel bitter about the success of others because they don’t write what I write and I don’t write what they write. Each artist and his work are a unique tandem, and so I remind myself that such comparisons are impossible.
3. I don’t write because of my dreams. I write towards my dreams.
4. I write different things. Though my current novel is taking beyond forever, I have finished and sold some short stories. Though only Alice Munro and two or three lucky others can make careers out of selling short stories, the fact remains that I have sold some, and this gives me confidence–which is invaluable, and can’t be taught.
5. I think, “Why not me?” Stephen King used to work in a laundry. He lived in a trailer and typed Carrie on a laptop–a typewriter on his lap. J.K. Rowling was a single mom on welfare with three kids.
6. I remember that it’s a business. Dreams don’t sell. Good writing does.