Growth And Change Made Me A Better Writer

by Pam Garlick
(Gilbertsville, PA, USA)

Genre: Inspirational Romance and Mysteries

I started writing as a youth with simple tales with silly titles, like “The Upside Down Statue.” These stories may have been considered only the scribbling of youth, but in reality they were the beginning of an imagination unleashed.

However, unleashed or not, I had to get my writing under control. In the seventh grade I started writing about things seventh grade girls are thinking about – if they are willing to admit it. I was just learning about such things, and sneaking a peek of books I’d found hidden in secret places, and listening intently to the tales of “older women” of fifteen. Ah, but I must have gotten something right, because I nearly was expelled when one of my short stories was found by a teacher and passed on the a principal who insisted I must actually be doing what I was writing. I had great difficulty not showing the pride I’d felt that I had created a fiction story that seemed so real.

I soon learned it was safer to write in third person rather than first, as this would help me maintain some semblance of innocense. At least that was what I’d hoped. My writing was getting better, but there was a funny thing happening during that time. I was living too much in an imaginary world. I actually wanted the love and romance I was writing about. I actually sought it out.

I would have been better to seek out a shrink. Not because of the end results – which I will never regret – rather because I was too young to understand consequences. My stories were fantasies, rarely having consequences. So, at sixteen I had my first son and four years later my second. My naivety about love and romance soon took a real beating.

Years later after a brief hiatus from writing I came to realize – without the help of that shrink I should have seen many years earlier – that I was allowing my writing to control me, not the other way around. Don’t get me wrong, writing has to flow freely. It comes from inspiration and from experience. I learned that when I stepped away from a work of fiction I was stepping back into the real world, not taking it with me.

At that point my writing took a turn. I was improving with practice, which is far better than getting worse with practice. While all this was going on I hadn’t submitted one story to be published. I soon took the courageous step to change that. And what do you think happened?

My ego took a huge plunge when I got my first rejection letter. But after a pity party that may have lasted a week or two, I tried again. And again. Soon I was papering my office wall with rejection letters hoping they would inspire me to work harder. One day a fellow writer was visiting and stepped into my wall-papered office and noted my decor. She also noted that right in the center of my many rejections was a sign which read, “God Answered Prayer.” She turned to me and asked, “Do you think maybe you’re asking for the wrong thing?”

That was, of course, meant as a joke, but it did make me think. I realized it was time to stop asking God to put my next novel on the New York Times Best Seller’s List. Instead, I asked Him to help me become a better writer.

No, there was no instant, “Poof!” that made that suddenly happen. It was rather the start of my mind opening to many things. First of all the fact that I needed to not just like to write, or want to write, or even write a lot. It was learning more about writing. I started attending workshops, seminars and classes on writing. And that was when things started to change.

I learned to write short articles to get the experience of getting published. I remember the first time a teacher red-penciled my work. It gave me a better understanding of what I was doing wrong and I was able to correct it. Soon I was writing free lance for local newspapers. Then articles for magazines, and the giant step to fiction when I started writing personal experience stories. Yes, they are written in first person, and no, they do not always really happen to the writer.

Fast forward 20 years and 200+ published short stories and countless articles and I was doing what I loved. I still worked other jobs, but less and less of them, until illness struck and I took some time off and concentrated only on writing. During those 20 years another thing had happened – my fiction writing changed from sometimes graphic erotic scenes to a more wholesome type of love and romance. I even pulled out some of the novels I’d worked on through the years and started heavily editing.

Someone from my church once asked, “How do you change an erotic novel into an inspirational one?” I replied with what I hoped was good humor, “You take out the love scenes and have the people pray for love scenes.” I realized the ears of our pastor, who just happened to hear the exchange, turned bright red. I don’t know who was more embarrassed, so I explained. “There can still be desire between characters, but they don’t act on it. They wait. Having good morals when there is no temptation isn’t very interesting. How one resists temptation is.”

I had another turning point in my writing in early 2007 when my beloved father passed away. They say never do anything drastic during those first weeks of grief. That was something I didn’t listen to. Instead, I decided life is too short to keep sending manuscripts to various editors and agents only to receive rejection letters offering little input, stating, “This just isn’t right for us.” Or, in a way worse, suggesting you try a different market, and when you do they suggest you try the one you originally targeted. You begin to wonder, “Where does my work fit?”

Yes, I decided life is too short. I pulled one of my manuscripts out of the drawer, blew off the dust – okay it didn’t actually get dusty in the drawer, but that sounds nice and dramatic, doesn’t it? – I started editing it again. Then I got friends to read and do some editing, making them promise to be thorough and not afraid of hurting my feelings..

Meanwhile I was helping my uncle with a book and found a “Print on Demand” publisher. I wanted to test run how it worked before I recommended it to him, so I used, “At the Pineapple Inn,” my novel that was inspired when my husband and I stayed at an inn by the same name. I was so excited when I held my first copy of my first published novel in my hand.

Five novels later I realize this, too, was a learning experience. I had much to learn from that first novel, and I believe every lesson has made my work even better. Of course, that is up to my readers to decide. I’ll know when I see how many repeat customers I have. So far, so good.

Many writers do not believe in self-publishing in any form. I believe I was led to it and it is the right thing for me, at least for now. But change does happen, my life proves it. When the time and circumstances are right, I can change course again.

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