ALERT! Saturday, January 24th, is the winter 24-Hour Short Story Contest! Only 500 participants permitted so SIGN UP TODAY!

---

In 1985, I was 22 and renting a spare room from Harriet Wasserman, where she was living on the East Side of Manhattan. Harriet Wasserman was a hugely successful literary agent representing writers such as Nobel Prize-winning Saul Bellow, and Reynolds Price. Harriet and I didn’t spend much time together. She stayed in her room, and I stayed in mine. I knew that when she was in the living room of the apartment I was to keep out and leave her alone.

Once, when she went away for the weekend, I cooked a batch of chicken soup, smelling up the whole apartment with garlic, onions and celery. She returned and scolded me, informing me that she didn’t want me to make such elaborate meals in her digs. Our living situation lasted a couple of months until I was pick-pocketed on the streets and lost $600.00. Her only question to me was, “How do you intend to pay the rent?” I found that reaction to be harsh, so I moved out, finding another living situation.

I speak of this time of my life now because Harriet Wasserman gave me some of the best writerly advice I’ve ever received. Incidentally, she read my first novel, Duck, that I’d written in college at Oberlin in Ohio. I hoped that she would take me on as a client, but unfortunately, she rejected me (but cared enough about me to allow me to stay with her).

She took a while to read my book, and one day I said something youthful and stupid like, “My book is pretty good, isn’t it?” I followed that up with, “You are going to take me on, aren’t you?”

She shot back with, “Why are you so entitled?” I remember her expression. It was one of utter shock at my naivety. It was then that I knew that I wouldn’t find literary success with her.

But then came the premiere advice that is only making sense to me now, as a 62-year-old writer today. “Laura, it is important to realize that you never know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Even geniuses don’t know if what they’ve written is good.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. They can have a hunch that something is good, but they ultimately don’t know. It has something to do with the mystery of creating art. Writers can’t get too carried away with their own artistic gift. That’s for others to recognize.”

I know that WritersWeekly’s goal is to help writers create and market their work. How does my message (which was Harriet’s message to me) – You never know – aid you in creating and marketing your work?

The key is to stay humble. The key is to keep writing and not get too caught up in being successful, or brilliant, or a genius.

I’ve been a cancer blogger at CureToday.com since 2016. I’ve written many dozen blog posts for them. I’ve also sold several cancer stories to CancerWellness.com. Now that I think about it, it’s a big body of significant work. It took a friend at Gotham Writers Workshop, where I teach creative writing, to inform me of that; someone of note noticed me and thought that I’m doing something important. Does this change anything? It’s great validation, but I’m going to keep writing regardless. I can’t let my ego enlarge because then I may not work as hard.

Here’s the bottom line: We need to stay out of our own way and simply create.

The key is to stay humble, my friends.

And if you ever find yourself living in the home of a famous literary agent, keep your cooking to a minimum. Especially avoid chicken dishes with aromatic vegetables. Or if you do cook with those, be sure to offer your host a taste of the stew…

Over and out.

RELATED

• Increase Your Freelance Writing Income with Your Own Editing Group by Laura Yeager
• How I Turned One Vacation into Four Articles…and Sold Them All! by Laura Yeager
• 4 Ways That “It’s a Wonderful Life” Teaches Writers about Storytelling By Laura Yeager
• Elf: A Writer’s Fantasy! – by Laura Yeager
• It’s Now So Easy to Find New Paying Markets for Writers! – by Laura Yeager

Laura Yeager has been writing for over 45 years. She is a cancer blogger at Cure Today. She teaches college writing at Kent State University at Stark and online creative writing at Gotham Writers Workshop.

HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK?

Angela is not only the publisher of WritersWeekly.com. She is President & CEO of BookLocker.com,
a self-publishing services company that has been in business since 1998. Ask her anything.

ASK ANGELA!

>>>Read More WritersWeekly Feature Articles<<<