By Julia Jackson

When I was a senior in high school, a real live writer came to my English class. She was a successful novelist, a middle-aged woman who later went on to win a series of literary awards. After she spoke about her latest novel, my teacher opened the class up to questions. I raised my hand and asked, “What advice do you have for young people who want to support themselves as writers?”

The author, who has since gone on to become a renowned writer and somewhat of a local hero in my hometown, smiled grimly and said: “Marry rich.” I put my hand down and before I could respond, someone else asked a question. Class resumed and it seemed that no one else was bristling as much as I was. How could this be true? This was the twenty-first century! Surely there were better ways of being a professional writer and a healthy individual in the world. The author both crashed my confidence and instilled a lifelong desire to prove her wrong, all in one fell swoop.

Just how do you become a professional writer? And how do writers combine their technical skills with careers that support themselves? Well, there are a lot of ways to do it. Welcome to Writing Careers: Real Tips from Real Writers. Over the next few weeks, we will be profiling professional writers who work in various media.

Our first featured writer is April Halprin Wayland a farmer turned author. Her newest book, New Year at the Pier—a Rosh Hashanah Story, received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. Her novel in poems, Girl Coming in For a Landing, won Pennsylvania State University’s Lee Bennett Hopkins award for Poetry and the Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry. She has written three other books for children: To Rabbittown, The Night Horse, and It’s Not My Turn to Look for Grandma. She’s the co-founder of Authors and Illustrators for Children and of the Children’s Authors Network, has taught in over 400 schools in the United States and abroad, and has been an instructor at UCLA Extension’s Writer’s Program for over a decade. She took time out of her busy schedule to sit down with Eduify and answer some questions about her life as a writer.

What would you define as “good” writing?

AHW: Good writing is writing that tells the author’s deep truth—it’s the author-in-the-raw. I love Anne Lamott’s writing—it’s as if she is standing at the top of a mountain and rips off her shirt, shouting “Look, here are my scars!” As I read about hers, I reach up and touch my own.

It seems that the more embarrassed I am to share something (however disguised as it is in fiction or poetry), the more it strikes a nerve in my readers. My mentor, renowned children’s book author Myra Cohn Livingston, with whom I studied for twelve years, said “Tell me something new. Or tell me something familiar in a new way. Make it fresh.”  When poet Deborah Chandra wrote about a “storm / caught on a paper cone,” I could never look at cotton candy again.

What has been your favorite project? How did you achieve your objective?

AHW: My favorite is always the one I’m working on or the one I just sent off. I just sent off a novel in poems to my agent. My objective was to write something that touches young adults who are struggling with issues of fat, food, faith, friends or family. A pretty broad constituency! I hope I achieved my objective. How? By being honest, honest as I possible could be. Period.

Who or what inspires you?

AHW: I am inspired by great anything—by the layers of greens and grays on the trail I hiked last week, by great writing and funny writing and children’s authors and poets, and also by political cartoons because they are visual haiku; so condensed. I am inspired by the young adult novel When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I also just finished reading the adult novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett, a rich, satisfying read and her first novel.

Really wonderful mosaics, my mother’s command of classical piano music, original, playful landscaping, songwriters whose words move me, whimsical art, banjo players, business people who think completely outside the box and make me think “Wowee—what a great way to look at that!”

I heard former President Clinton speak recently; he showed me how to think about world problems from a completely different framework.

All of this inspires me.

What tips can you offer young writers?

AHW: 

1) Take a deep breath.

2) Dive down to a place where you’re most embarrassed to go.

3) Bring onto the page what you find there.

4) Turn things on their heads—find a new way of looking at them.

5) Hold nothing back. Be very, very generous to your audience, your teachers, and your  fellow writers.

Know that you’re not alone—we’re all scared. Who do I think I am? Why would anyone listen to what my insane brain is thinking? I’m a fraud and they’re going to pull all the covers off me. Believe me, we all think those same thoughts.

When I had writer’s block one year, someone said to me, “Aspire to be what you’re most afraid to be. I realized I was really afraid of writing something ordinary. So I put a sign on my door that read “Aspire to mediocrity.” And anyone can write mediocre stuff, right? It got me to write again. I do a lot of what I call circling-the-chair—working on everything but my current project—but eventually I settle down. BIC—Bottom-in-chair—is the only way I get work done.

What piece of advice do you wish someone had given you?

AHW: After my first book, To Rabbittown, was published, I discovered that children’s book authors make money by publishing…but also by doing school visits. I love doing school visits—teaching, traveling, and, let’s face it, getting treated like a movie star by teachers and students. So I did a LOT of traveling, speaking, teaching and PR stuff early on.

I wish someone had taken me by the shoulders and said, “Stay in your writing garden, plant more books, don’t jump into the speaking waters so quickly.”

Or, BIC for short.

There you have it—the best way to succeed is to keep your bottom in your chair! April has an excellent wealth of resources for young writers on her website at www.aprilwayland.com. While you’re there, check out her previous publications, as well as her links to literary and political organizations.

Credits:

Illustration: Upside Down: See the World in a New Way drawing by April Halprin Wayland

Photo Credit (top) for picture of April Halprin Wayland. Taken by: Webb Burns

Stay tuned for our next Real Live Writer!