What Writers Want

Being a Writer is all about giving play to your passion. About creativity, being self-motivated and staying focused. About learning to deal with the bad days when writing seems more difficult than climbing Mount Everest. About struggling with a hundred chores when you're all inspired to nail that bothersome scene if only you could get to the god-damned computer!

Being a Writer is also about being an Emotionless Automaton. That's right. Once you  have stopped agonizing over the plot, the scenes, the grammar, every punctuation mark and formatting glitch you decide to send it out to the world. Sure, you are prepared for a few hard knocks. And they come hard and fast.

Being a Writer is  about handling rejection, about indifferent reception to your hard work, about taking it all in your stride and carrying on. Moving on to the next project and building up the enthusiasm afresh. Never mind that your work got a few condescending remarks from literary agents/executives from publishing houses/film professionals looking for the next script, etc. about your talent, your creativity, blah-blah. "We like it but we don't love it!"

Yeah, we get it...we are brilliant but not brilliant enough!

So, how do you strike a balance? A balance between being this passionate person who is wringing out every bit of emotion into her words and the emotion-less automaton who is supposed to grin and bear it when marketing people tell her that her work is good but not great?  When I come across articles from literary agents and assorted other "industry" people who write snarky pieces on do's and don'ts for writers, I grit my teeth and give them a wide berth.

So here's my rant for the day. What do Writers Want?

Literary agents are so full of "advice" when it comes to how writers should function. For instance, do not ever make the mistake of addressing agents in a non-personal way when querying them. Writing "Dear Sir or Dear Madam or Dear Agent" is akin to committing writing harakiri. Believe me, a Writer would be a total moron not to spend a few extra minutes to google the name of the agent she is querying! But even if she does commit the god-awful crime of not getting the spelling of the said agent right, what does it say about the Professional? Isn't it her job to find the next Stephen King or Diablo Cody? Or would she  rather ride on her ego than be excited about reading new material?

Oh, and while they are all hot and flustered over not being addressed correctly, how about sending a personalized 'rejection letter' to the Writer whose hard work you are just about to trash? Would it be so difficult to write a few lines of feedback or a few words of encouragement?

While there are those diligent professionals who work extra hard; are genuinely excited to read through the 'slushpile' (there should be a ban on use of that offensive word, btw!) to get to the hidden gems, you definitely would need an extra large dose of good karma to find just such a brilliant agent/publishing executive.

If you think published authors are treated with a little more "respect", think again! Most of the publishing "professionals" are too busy to get back to even the authors they have contracted to write. So, after you have sent in your email, left half a dozen text messages and hounded them on social media, they are under no obligation to return your calls. You see, they are slaves to their printing schedules and politeness and good etiquette are non-existent words in their vocabulary!

As for striking the right balance between Passionate Writer and an Emotionless Automaton? Well, if you find the formula for that, do let me know. Meanwhile, I shall alternate between my two personas! Amen!