What’s Your Brilliant Quote? – by susanne gervay

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Writing releases endorphins like an exercise fanatic racing for that hit. It’s so sweet when the words flow and there’s that sudden spurt of resonance.  That’s the moment you create the special quote. The one that you want to read at the bottom of those desk calendars.  Here’s my ‘brilliant’ quote from my novel The Cave.

War is not brave, but men can be brave in war and in life. ( Chapter 13, page 141)

I’d like that to be the ‘quote of the day’, one day. What’s the quote you’ve written that should be at the bottom of a calendar? Hey come on. Share. For the quote I like best (not necessarily the best one), you’ll get a prize. Hmmmm – what? My admiration or maybe lunch at the Hughenden when you’re in Paddington- Woollahra in Sydney.

A novel is more than one quote of course. It’s a long journey sucking you in, exercising demons, releasing angels. It’s scary, exhilarating, frustrating. I often don’t want to go there, but I crash down the rabbit hole or should I rework Lewis Caroll’s story, and call it its real name? (Swearing allowed.) No, I’m not telling. You’ll have to guess what that is. Meanwhile, just call me Alice.

Everyone knows that writing is different for each writer. For some it’s Jules Verne’s descent into the sea or the greatness of the human spirit in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird or the ridiculous humour of kid’s writer Dav Pilkey and his Captain Underpants. For some it’s a long planned process, for others a quick insight. Writing is as individual as Alice in Wonderland or  Tolkien or Harry Potter. JK Rowlings says that Harry Potter is her own life story. Symbolically of course.

Writing is hard. After the initial and intermittent creative spurt which is fantastic, there’s the discipline of getting it written. It can take years. Is it worth it? Personally, I sometimes just can’t face it. Other times I’m sleepless because I just want to write. My head splits – do I want to luxuriate in a cappuccino at Bondi Beach or sit in my study in pyjamas eating ice cream stuck in the middle of a novel?

Okay, the masterpiece is completed. The novel. Then comes publication. Yes, yes, I know there are the Tim Winton fairytales of instant publication. Good luck to Tim. He writes beautifully, has the deserved support of the Arts bodies, receives endless awards, has been afforded time and space to develop his style. This is all while, he lives on the beachside in Western Australia with his family. He’s lucked in, but there are lots of other authors who haven’t lucked it. They sadly dream of  writing set against the landscape of the setting sun on a windy beach, while entering the grueling world of  hope and despair called publication.

In the last few days I received these emails from talented creators:-

I’m becoming a little jaded with the market for illustrators over here, I don’t know if my style is just not compatible with what’s ‘happening’… I’ve had very little luck

After all the NOs, haven’t been able to write for months.

Publication is only for the brave. When you’re not Tim Winton, there are varied pathways. You can wait and wait to be judged, rejected, battered, face road blocks, armies, get lost on detours, carry injuries to face the dreaded words – ‘doesn’t suit my list’.

For those who get through, there’s the actual publication. You spend years crafting, submitting, living with the book until it’s finally published and on the shelves. For six weeks that is. Unless you’re one of the chosen few – an award, a film (we live in hope), you’re famous already, you just wrote the right book at the right time.

You see your book in the Discount Book Bin for $5.00.

You have to believe in your writing. Want to do it beyond anything else to weather the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.’ You want to reach readers, inspire some, share insights and/or laughter and story. Maybe you’ll get that brilliant publishing contract, or huge sales, or the major award. Peter Carey said that it took him ten years to become an overnight success. However writing has to be driven be more than publication and that dreamed ‘success’.

My young adult novel Butterflies has just been published in Bahasa in Indonesia and it’s a ‘best seller’ there, whatever that means. I’ll get virtually nothing in royalties, but I love the brilliant Indonesian cover about an Italian-Australian girl. I love reaching another country with the commonality of human experience. I consider my self privileged to be a writer after all.

So what does writing mean to you?

PS: Next week’s blog is the world of  kids and young adult writing and why even Tim Winton has ventured into it. Let’s talk about the secrets, community and the incredible energy and success of this writing.

Susanne Gervay www.sgervay.com, www.sgervay.com/blog

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Filed under Books, Critics, Manuscripts, Publishing, Quotes, Reading, Submissions, Tim Winton, Writing, YA