WRITE AND BE PUBLISHED

              by   DVORA WAYSMAN

“A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever” wrote 19^th  century writer Martin Tupper, a sentiment almost universally shared.

But what about the author?  Whenever I’ve had a new book published, along with some congratulations, you’d be surprised at some of the comments.  “You’re so lucky” from a fellow-writer, meaning that talent had little to do with it.  Several readers have told me that they have thought about writing a book “but I just don’t have time” as though that’s the only thing needed, and they are far too busy to waste it, as I have obviously been doing. I had one phone call from a lady who gushed: “I was delighted to read that you have a new book out, as I thought you’d died years ago!”

Such is fame!  But what about if you seriously want to write your first book.  What are the chances of having it published?  Think positively and remember no-one was a famous author before writing that first novel.  There is always the fear of “will I be good enough?” because writing a book demands an enormous commitment in time and energy, with no guarantee that it will be successful.  You do need an almost demonic compulsiveness to invest perhaps years in such a project.  You should choose a theme which reflects a way of life with which readers can identify.  If a book doesn’t move you, if its characters don’t arouse your compassion and the emotional progress of the story isn’t fascinating, then the writer has failed.

This applies to every genre, even to children’s books, where a lack of sincerity is immediately spotted.  Each book, like each life, is unique – the rites of passage of courtship and marriage; the birth of offspring; the onset of old age; personal tragedies and triumphs; the painful losses we accrue, and the people we meet and learn to love.  This doesn’t mean that every book we write is an autobiography, yet in a way it is for every work of creation is a self-portrait.  To be a writer, you must autograph it with excellence.

How do you get a book published?  In practical terms, you write it – or a large part of it – and then send it out in the market-place.  If you can’t do it alone, you try to find a literary agent to represent you, although for unknown writers, this can sometimes be more difficult than finding a publisher.  Study successful books of the same genre you are writing, and see who publishes them.  Then you might write to the publishing house, asking for permission to send them a synopsis and three sample chapters (never the whole ms. unless they ask for it).  Don’t send anything without a query letter first – if it just comes across the transom, it will be consigned to the dreaded slush pile.

If your letter, which should be very creative, triggers their interest, you may get a reply – either by e-mail, or if you send a stamped-addressed return envelope, or the equivalent postage in International Reply Coupons (obtainable at main post offices).

  With non-fiction, such as popular “How to….” titles, send a Book Proposal consisting of a cover letter outlining your idea and your personal expertise in the area, plus clippings of anything you’ve had published on the subject.  You should also include a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, with the title of each chapter, plus a brief summary of what it will contain.  Make the Book Proposal as attractive as possible, even using some computer graphics.

The bottom line for all publishers is how many copies they anticipate it will sell, for publishing is, after all, a business.  There are publishers, the so-called vanity press, who will publish your book for a price and you must decide if you want to follow this route, which may be the only possibility for a first novel if you are unknown.  However, there are some publishers who will take a risk if they see great potential and talent, or if they believe the author will enhance their prestige (it helps if you are a famous politician, military general or rock star).

With fiction, whether in the realm of novel or short story, to be effective you need a compelling plot, a hook opening, a successful and satisfying ending, and a middle that keeps the reader hoping, guessing and involved.   Don’t overlook short stories as a break from your novel. In American and British magazines they pay very well and are a good way to give yourself short term rewards while you’re working on that full-length novel.

Very few authors become rich from writing books, unless you’re another John Grisham or can invent a Harry Potter, who is a phenomenon. Usually after your initial triumph, your book will only have a short shelf-life – some of mine disappeared a few months after I finished a book tour across America.  Remember, there are thousands of new books coming out every year that you will have to compete with.

That said, being a writer is an exciting life.  You don’t need capital to begin; you can write at your own speed; you can work from home and, as a male colleague once informed me, “you don’t even need to shave every day!” 

The one quality you need to develop as a writer is the ability to accept rejection, because no writer can escape it.  Insults are also par for the course.  William Faulkner once wrote of Ernest Hemingway: “He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary”; while Hemingway replied: “Poor Faulkner.  Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”  But the greatest put-down I’ve ever heard came from someone called Moses Hadas:  “Thank you for sending me a copy of your book;  I’ll waste no time reading it!”

Happy writing! I am always glad to hear your comments, and am available for free help with any writing problems. To ask advice, or for how to obtain any of my 14 books, contact me at dwaysman@gmail.com.

T

We are each endowed with five senses …. sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell. Our most effective writing is when we bring them into play , and let our readers share one or more of them, to enhance the reader’s enjoyment.

I wanted a powerful ending for my first, and most popular book, “The Pomegranate Pendant” that was made into the movie “The Golden Pomegranate.” It was time for my heroine Mazal, who had started out in the book as a child bride from Yemen, to die; so I decided to make the final paragraph as strong as I could. I did this by employing all of the five senses:

“I looked up through the branches and saw the stars shimmering like a million diamonds, the moon golden like my pomegranate pendant. I listened to the wind sighing in the fir trees that pointed like sentinels towards heaven. I inhaled the fragrance of a magnolia tree in the garden, and rosemary, basil and thyme wafting down from the Judean Hills … herbs that my mother had grown in Sana’a and I had planted in my tiny plot in the Choosh. I stooped and took a handful of soil and let it run between my fingers. I was saying goodbye to Jerusalem and had used all my five senses but one, in this silent dialogue with the city I loved. I hoped that Paradise would look like Jerusalem. And then, I tasted it – the salt of the tears that were slowly trickling from my eyes.

Ezra had been right from the start: we had come to Jerusalem to be redeemed. And so we were.”

______________________

Happy writing. I am always glad to read your comments and to help you with any writing problems free of charge. You can also purchase any of my novels direct from me at discount. Just e-mail: dwaysman@g.mail.com

                                           WRITING SPACES

                                       by  DVORA  WAYSMAN

How do ideas form?  How do you transform thoughts into words that become stories and poems?  I have often been asked these questions, and my real reply is: “magic and miracles”, but it’s not an answer that would satisfy anyone but another writer.  Yet composers are rarely asked: “Where does your music come from?” as listeners hear a haunting melodic refrain or the awe-inspiring crashing crescendo of a symphony or concerto.  They may query an artist if it’s a “real” place when they see a magical landscape forming in oils on his canvas, but usually the questions are reserved for writers.

I taught“Creative Writing” for 35 years.  I always quoted a two-line poem I heard as a child  from my older sister (author unknown),

            “Writing is dreaming, head in the skies.

             Reading is sharing another man’s eyes.”

I was 7 when my sister read it to me, and at that moment, my writer’s soul was born.  I felt I had all these secrets I wanted to share, and I wanted my readers to be able to see, hear, smell, touch and taste them … to “share my eyes.”

I have written and published more than 5,000 articles in my life, and 14 books.  In one historical novel (“The Pomegranate Pendant” published first by Feldheim and later Chaim Mazo  Publishing, both in English, French, Braille and Hebrew)  I wrote in the first person as a 14-year-old child bride from Yemen who came to live in Jerusalem in the Holy Land 100 years ago.  For the duration of writing that novel, I WAS  Mazal ben-Yechiya even though I had never visited or lived in Yemen, and my Jerusalem is of a different era. That novel was made into a movie called “The Golden Pomegranate.”

In “Back of Beyond” (published by Pitspopany), I was a 12-year-old boy named Danny visiting Ayers Rock in Australia’s north and having all kinds of adventures with an aboriginal boy named Muri.  In my novel “Esther” (published by H.C.I. in Florida) I am a London journalist named Max involved with a three-decades- long love affair with Esther even though in truth I am a woman who was married for 65 years and have many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.    My “writing space” involves vivid imagination, nostalgia, reminisinces, dreams both fulfilled and unfulfilled; songs I sang; jokes I laughed at; the pain of loss; the joy of sharing.

I don’t  write at an orderly desk overlooking mountains or lakes.  I do finish up working at my computer, but  the Muse is always with me  –  in my dreams at night; when I glimpse a stranger with a beautiful face, or even one lined with broken commandments; when  a grandchild offers me a tiny hand with love and trust;  when I see a star in a black velvet sky or the dewdrop  that nestles in the heart of a rose.    I write out of love or of pain, out of tenderness or passion.  If I am breathing, I am writing.

So where is my writing space?   I guess it is in my heart.

Happy writing! If you wish to contact me directly, or are interested in any of my books, e-mail me at: dwaysman@gmail . will also help you with any writing problems free of charge.

Many people find just the idea of writing a book frightening.  I’ve heard it described as putting out to sea in a rowing boat, hoping you’ll eventually reach land but aware of the dangers of storms and disasters on the journey.

I don’t think of it that way.  If I had to make a comparison, it would be like an artist standing in front of a huge blank canvas.  He has a palette of wonderful colors that he can combine to create new and exciting shades.  He can paint with dashing, bold swathes or delicate strokes.  He can do anything he wants with the blank canvas, and his mind is filled with exciting possibilities.  So it is with starting a book, particularly a novel.

If you have a burning desire to write, don’t discourage yourself by believing “I’m too ordinary.”  No, you are extraordinary and unique.  You are the only person who can write the book inside you because, even if it’s fiction, it is still made out of your beliefs, your prejudices, the jokes you laughed at, the songs you sang.  You can create characters from the essence of people you loved or hated, admired or lost but still yearn for.  However to go the distance and write a complete book, you need an almost demonic compulsiveness.  There is no guarantee it will ever be published, but the New York Times Book Review estimates that first novels have a one in ten chance.  It’s a highly competitive field, but you may just be the one.

Writing a novel differs from writing a short story, which usually focuses on one particular incident and its ramifications, and perhaps the way it changes the hero or heroine’s life.  In the novel, with its 60,000 plus word length, you have the scope for a much more complex plot. You can span many decades or cover just 18 days as Tom Clancy did in “The Hunt for Red October.” My novel “The Pomegranate Pendant” covered almost a century in Jerusalem; and my novel “Esther” also spans close to 40 years.  The novelist decides what he or she will tell you about certain characters in a particular place, who live at a certain time. You get a rush of power to know that you can put any words or philosophy you wish into their mouths, any thoughts into their minds.

The act of writing a book need not take years. None of my 14 books took more than six months to complete, some much less, even when I still had a full-time job. You should aim for a minimum output of 3 pages a day … anyone can do that. With that quota, in just 90 days, you will have the first draft of an average-size book.

Be completely selfish about your writing time.Choose a place to be alone and undisturbed, at the time of day you feel most creative. I prefer writing with pen and paper and transferring it to my computer later, especially for fiction. I don’t like technology to interfere with the creative process.  Don’t wait for inspiration. Only 10% is inspiration; the other 90% is perspiration.

How is it done?  Sit down. Don’t doodle or dawdle. Don’t even go to the bathroom during your writing time unless kidney stones would result. Don’t take phone calls. Try to go into a trance in which your characters come to life. They’ll take over and tell you what they want to say and do. Keep the rhythm of work going until you’ve completed your word quota. Then each day will be a triumph.

        Writing is the best therapy. Use it to dissipate anger, to celebrate life and to express joy. Put conflict in your novel to keep the pages turning.  When it’s finished, try for a good agent – an ineffective one (which I once had) is useless. Actually I sold my first 8 books without an agent, but now that I have one in New York it has made a great difference in that I get better terms in my contracts.  If you can’t get an agent, don’t despair. Write a very creative book proposal consisting of a 1-page synopsis, a one-page letter about yourself and not more than 2 chapters to the publisher of your choice. If interested, he will ask to see more. Don’t expect a reply unless you enclose stamps or international reply coupons to cover postage. Or, of course, you can do it by e-mail.

You will have rejections … all writers do. Just re-submit until someone likes it.  If finally your book is published, and you hold a copy in your hands, the thrill is like giving birth.  You have created this miracle and readers will be able to share your eyes.  And the long, lonely effort (for writing is a lonely occupation) is well-rewarded.

Thomas Wolfe wrote:  “If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed.  If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has failed.  If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has succeeded and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know.”

Happy writing. You can contact me direct at dwaysman@gmail.com if you would copies of any of my books.

                    THE BEST ADVICE I EVER HEARD

                                by DVORA WAYSMAN

I was only 14 at the time, but despite seven decades that have passed, I can still see vividly, that wonderful woman, Esther , fifty years my senior,  in her studio; with her inspiring words ringing in my ears:  “Always follow your dream.  Don’t let anyone else’s words deter you from it, and your life will be one of fulfillment.”

Esther Patterson was an artist, a member of the Royal Academy.  Her oil paintings – portraits and still life – were very valuable , even more so today long after her passing.  Scottish-born and a psychic, I met her in my birthplace, Melbourne, Australia.  My father was a Chartered Accountant, and she was one of his clients.  Even though I was a child, she invited me to visit her whenever I had free time, and she would talk to me while she painted.  She was one of the few people I knew who didn’t talk down to me because of my age, or patronize me in any way.  She was my heroine.

Her home, called “Inveresk”, was opposite Melbourne’s Albert Park Lake, and through the window, as she worked, I could watch small boats sailing there.  To me, it was Paradise.  It was a magic house, where there was always fascinating conversation, music and singing, artists and bohemian, creative people to talk to.  Her sister, Betty Patterson, was also an artist, who mainly painted small children and babies, and had a trained, soprano voice.  Esther’s husband was George Gill, the official Naval Historian.  He was the epitome of a gentleman – soft-spoken, courteous  and charming.   To me, everything about them was enchanted.

The day she gave me the advice that I have heeded my whole life, I was sitting next to her, watching a bowl of daffodils take shape on her canvas – watching her at work never failed to enchant me.  “What do you plan to do with your life? “ she asked me.

“I want to be a writer”  I replied.  She didn’t say “Take up a lucrative career, like a doctor, lawyer, architect -and write as a hobby” as many others before her had said to me.  She laid down her paint brush and took my hand.  “Follow your dream,”  were her words, with no embellishment and it was then I decided seriously, for the first time, that I would do it, and never forget her words.

My family was quite poor as Australia was still recovering from the world-wide Depression, so there was no money to send me later to University. In any case, in those days there were no courses in Journalism, Creative Writing or anything to launch one’s career.  In High School, I took sensible subjects that would help me earn a living, and shorthand, typing and book-keeping were part of the syllabus that would enable me to work as a secretary.  But my first jobs were in a bookshop, and in the advertising department of Australia’s biggest magazine at the time: “The Women’s Weekly.”  My first poems had been published in the children’s section of the newspaper when I was seven, and earned me my first income of two shillings and sixpence – a fortune to a little girl whose pocket money was a penny a week … every four weeks I had enough to buy an ice-cream.  Whatever job I did had to have some connection to the world of writing, however tenuous.  And then I started having short stories published … as Esther had advised me, I was following my star.

At 19, I decided I had to go to England.  In school, the literature we had studied had been Dickens, Shakespeare, Shelley, Byron and Keats and I believed only there would it be possible to hone my skills.  My parents were wonderfully supportive and said I could go for six months.  In actual fact, I stayed for three, magical years – 1951 to 1954.  In those days, traveling was by boat, and I sailed on the wonderful P. & O. liner “The Strathaird” for the sum of  ten pounds sterling, in a ten-berth cabin in the bowels of the ship.  We traveled through the Suez Canal, and the trip took six weeks – the most wonderful holiday of my life.  I loved everything about it – the exotic ports of call where we docked for a day; the games of deck tennis; the ice-cream at 11 o’clock every morning; the parties for which I wrote skits and songs.  The friends I made, some of whom are still alive, I am in touch with to this day.

I got work very quickly in London, in an Advertising Agency. There was no television then, but I wrote advertisements for newspapers, magazines and radio.  I studied at night at the City of London College, and in my spare time I wrote scripts for the BBC.  With a girl-friend, I Youth-Hostelled my way around Europe for five shillings a night  when we had holidays – France, Italy, Switzerland,  Germany, Holland and Belgium.  And all the time, I was writing.!

My dream stayed with me my whole life and gave it lustre and magic.  I married back in Melbourne, and Esther and George came to my wedding.  Their gift was a beautiful painting of Esther’s – a bowl of golden chrysanthemums.  It hung in my salon for more than fifty years. Just recently, I gave it to my elder son who had always admired it, as I’ve started disposing of some of my possessions , realizing that, at 86,  my time is running out.  But what a life it has been!  I’ve published more than 5,000 articles, stories and poems.   I’ve also published 14 books and am still writing.  One of my novels is called “Esther” and is dedicated both to my daughter-in-law, also named Esther, and to Esther Patterson, who has been my inspiration for my whole life.  Of all my books, although not the most successful (another one “The |Pomegranate Pendant” was made into a movie “The Golden Pomegranate”), it is still my favorite and I will forever thank Esther for the words she spoke to my 14-year-old self:  “Follow your dream!”

Happy writing! You can contact me directly at dwaysman@gmail.com

(1,025 words)

Dvora Waysman  5 /; 5 Karmon Street, Jerusalem, 9630807    Israel

BE PART OF THE TRIBE: Writing can be lonely, so develop a circle of creative contacts. Getting high-quality feedback is important, so maybe join a workshop where you can get honest, useful feedback. Meeting other writers and going to events can help you discover publishing opportunities too.

VORACIOUS READING: If you don’t read, you can’t be a writer. It is essential.. Reading helps you keep up with what’s happening in your field. A wide knowledge of the market will pay dividends when you send out book proposals. You don’t need to like everything you read, , but you need to kn ow who is doing what in your chosen field.

BE SUPERSTITIOUS: An unusual thing is the odd selection of habits and rituals that creative people develop. Lots of writers have lucky charms and these objects or rituals act as associative triggers to help us get into the right emotional state to write. Today neuroscientists confirm what writers knew all along.

STOCK THE POND: Keep replenishing your stock of ideas. Keep feeding your imagination or your well of ideas can run dry. Go for a walk; visit an art gallery or museum; browse in an interesting shop. There you may find new ideas. Or re-read something wonderful.

ESTABLISH BOUNDARIES: Prioritize your writing time. Set aside special time to write, and then surround it with barbed wire! Don’t discuss your work until it’s done. Some people will beg you to tell them about your work, and then begin to criticise it. These negative comments are not what you need. If they insist on asking what your book is about, reply vaguely: “You know, the usual” or “I wish I knew.”

WRITE: You are not a writer unless you are writing. If you’re not ready to tackle a big project like writing a book, find a good writing handbook and work on small writing exercises.

Happy writing. If I can help you (free of charge) with any writing problems, contact me direct at dwaysman@gmail.com I am currently selling several of my books direct at discount: “Searching for Sarah”; “In A Good Pasture”; “Woman of Jerusalem”.

Is it possible, in this day and age, to write a romantic novel without sex?  Everyone told me it couldn’t be done, and when I sent a synopsis of the novel I wanted to write  to several publishers, it was rejected for this reason.

“Esther”, sub-titled A Jerusalem Love Story, is initially set in the 1950’s when life was very different.  The permissive age had not yet arrived, not much was known about contraception, and the widely-held belief was “Bad girls do, and good girls don’t.”  My novel is based on my life in London during the years 1951 – 1954 , before moving on to Jerusalem.   So although I was told no-one today would read a romantic novel without some graphic sex, I was determined it could be done.

In 1999 my novel was accepted, and published a year later in 2000, by H.C.I. in Florida, home of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” best-selling series, for their Simcha Press fiction imprint.  I was thrilled although they appointed an editor  who, of course, wanted me to heat up some of the love scenes.  We fought quite bitterly at first, but in the end I won. I wanted it to be a tender story of love over three decades that remained unconsummated… that was the whole point.  In the voice of the man, it expresses a yearning for a woman he could never possess due to various circumstances, although they each married other partners.  There is a bit of “off camera” sex but not between the hero and heroine, Max and Esther.  I didn’t want it to be the same as all the other romances and I knew that such a love, impossible as today’s youth might find it, is indeed a possibility.

In 2001 I did a successful book promotion tour to many cities in the U.S. with book-signings at Borders and Barnes & Noble stores.  “Esther” had some wonderful reviews.  Publishers’ Weekly wrote: “Readers with a taste for tragic romance should clear their calendars for an evening, grab a box of tissues and enjoy this haunting story of a love that could not be.”  Another critic whom I shall love forever described it as: “A veritable ‘Bridges of Madison County’ with a Hebrew accent.

I broke the rules but achieved the novel that is my favorite of the  14 books I have so far published.

                      __________________

Recently I read about a group of seven ex-patriate British women, living temporarily in the Far East.  They were all facing new challenges, meeting new people and having new adventures.  They had something else in common …. they were all experiencing a sense of loss for what they had left behind.  For some it was friends and family, for some it was the familiarity of places that were as comfortable to slip into as the folds of an old overcoat.  They were all feeling vulnerable.

They wanted something more than the superficial expatriate relationships.  They decided to form a writers’ circle.  It began casually after they heard a talk by a writer on the benefits of speedwriting, or what is known to writers as “stream of consciousness”.  The speaker explained how this kind of writing can be used to free inspiration and find out who you really are.  Sometimes, while writing on one topic, another will come into your mind as if by accident.  Natalie Goldberg, in her book “Writing Down the Bones” explains it as:  “Shake the apple tree and you get oranges.”

You don’t need to be a professional writer, or even have ambitions in that direction, to benefit from this kind of writing.  You just sit down with a pen and some blank pages and start writing about whatever comes into your mind. Let it flow without worrying about grammar, spelling or syntax.  When you write in this uninhibited way, your internal critic and censor doesn’t get a look in.  You can write on a particular topic (the women I mentioned chose “home”) or you can make up a heading like “Morning Pages” and see what happens.  Random thoughts will flow on to the paper and some of them may surprise you.  You’ll find that you peel away protective facades and allow yourself to express your vulnerabilities.  Whether you decide to do this on your own or with a group of friends as the women in the Far East did, you’ll discover honesty  and maybe it will be cemented in tears, letting you come to grips with sorrows you had buried in your subconscious that needed to be expressed before you could move forward with your life.

If you form a Writers’ Circle, to meet for this kind of speedwriting, it can develop into a closely bonded group.  Members can take turns to think of a topic but it should only be disclosed at the last minute when everyone is ready to write.  I tried the experiment once with a group of my students and the subject was, believe it or not, “door handles.”  It was amazing what they came up with when they let their imaginations flow unimpeded.  Door handles were turned to enable them to step into magic gardens; to new and better lives; to entering places that were forbidden to them until then.  The important thing to remember is confidentiality must be assured when you open up your secret imaginings and fantasies, judgments are never made, all emotions are admissable and both laughter and tears are held in equal esteem.

To those who want to write and are just taking their first steps, “stream of consciousness” writing is a wonderful way to overcome writers’ block.  It lets loose intense emotions that can come to the surface and provide inspiration.  In such a safe environment, it is easy to be honest with yourself.

Many authors, like Virginia Woolf, have even published their stream-of-consciousness writing.  Psychologists have often used it in therapy for anxiety-ridden patients or those experiencing traumatic nightmares.  The very act of writing down one’s secret fears helps to banish them.  You should not try to do it on a computer, because the technology interferes with your unimpeded flow of words.  I have tried this kind of speedwriting sometimes, and when I’ve read it over later, have occasionally found an unexpected poem hidden among the words.

When asked why I write (and I write a minimum of 5,000 words a day) I usually reply that I do it to clarify things for myself, to help me understand my life and put things in perspective.  I find this happens even when I am writing fiction and different events are happening to characters I’ve created in my mind.  My motto, printed on my letterhead, has always been: “Every act of creation is a self-portrait. Autograph your work with excellence.”

Godfrey Howard, speaking to the Authors’ Club in London, said: “Writers write because they love language, because they want to share their visions, and because they want to throw a bridge across the void.”

I believe writing is one of the most therapeutic things you can do.  If you have never done more than write letters, try it.  If you want to get rid of writers’ block, try it.  Lose your inhibitions and let the words pour out unimpeded.  You may be surprised and delighted where they will take you.

To those who want to write and are just taking their first steps, “stream of consciousness” writing is a wonderful way to overcome writers’ block.  It lets loose intense emotions that can come to the surface and provide inspiration.  In such a safe environment, it is easy to be honest with yourself.

Many authors, like Virginia Woolf, have even published their stream-of-consciousness writing.  Psychologists have often used it in therapy for anxiety-ridden patients or those experiencing traumatic nightmares.  The very act of writing down one’s secret fears helps to banish them.  You should not try to do it on a computer, because the technology interferes with your unimpeded flow of words.  I have tried this kind of speedwriting sometimes, and when I’ve read it over later, have occasionally found an unexpected poem hidden among the words.

When asked why I write (and I write a minimum of 5,000 words a day) I usually reply that I do it to clarify things for myself, to help me understand my life and put things in perspective.  I find this happens even when I am writing fiction and different events are happening to characters I’ve created in my mind.  My motto, printed on my letterhead, has always been: “Every act of creation is a self-portrait. Autograph your work with excellence.”

Godfrey Howard, speaking to the Authors’ Club in London, said: “Writers write because they love language, because they want to share their visions, and because they want to throw a bridge across the void.”

I believe writing is one of the most therapeutic things you can do.  If you have never done more than write letters, try it.  If you want to get rid of writers’ block, try it.  Lose your inhibitions and let the words pour out unimpeded.  You may be surprised and delighted where they will take you.

If I can help you (free) with any writing problem, contact me at: dwaysman@gmail.com

Happy writing!

                                           WRITING SPACES

                                       by  DVORA  WAYSMAN

How do ideas form?  How do you transform thoughts into words that become stories and poems?  I have often been asked these questions, and my real reply is: “magic and miracles”, but it’s not an answer that would satisfy anyone but another writer.  Yet composers are rarely asked: “Where does your music come from?” as listeners hear a haunting melodic refrain or the awe-inspiring crashing crescendo of a symphony or concerto.  They may query an artist if it’s a “real” place when they see a magical landscape forming in oils on his canvas, but usually the questions are reserved for writers.

I was a teacher of Creative Writing for 35 years.  I always quoted a two-line poem I heard as a child  from my older sister (author unknown),

            “Writing is dreaming, head in the skies.

             Reading is sharing another man’s eyes.”

I was 7 when my sister read it to me, and at that moment, my writer’s soul was born.  I felt I had all these secrets I wanted to share, and I wanted my readers to be able to see, hear, smell, touch and taste them … to “share my eyes.”

I have written and published more than 5,000 articles, poems and essays in my life, and fourteen books.  In one historical novel (“The Pomegranate Pendant” published by  Chaim Mazo  Publishing, both in English and Hebrew)  I wrote in the first person as a 14-year-old child bride from Yemen who came to live in Jerusalem in the Holy Land 130 years ago.  For the duration of writing that novel, I WAS  Mazal ben-Yechiya even though I had never visited or lived in Yemen, and my Jerusalem is of a different era.

In “Back of Beyond” (published by Pitspopany), I was a 12-year-old boy named Danny

visiting Ayers Rock in Australia’s north and having all kinds of adventures with an

aboriginal boy named Muri.  In my novel “Esther” (published by H.C.I. in Florida) I am a London journalist named Max involved with a three-decades- long love affair with Esther even though in truth I am a woman who was married for 65 years and have 1 8grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren..    My “writing space” involves vivid imagination, nostalgia, reminisinces,, dreams both fulfilled and unfulfilled; songs I sang; jokes I laughed at; the pain of loss; the joy of sharing.

I don’t  write at an orderly desk overlooking mountains or lakes.  I do finish up working at my computer, but  the Muse is always with me  –  in my dreams at night; when I glimpse a stranger with a beautiful face, or even one lined with broken commandments; when  a great-grandchild offers me a tiny hand with love and trust;  when I see a star in a black velvet sky or the dewdrop  that nestles in the heart of a rose.    I write out of love or of pain, out of tenderness or passion.  If I am breathing, I am writing.

So where is my writing space?   I guess it is in my heart.

I am always happy to hear your comments, or to help you (free) with any writing problems. Contact me direct at dwaysman@gmail.com

There is a beautiful Chinese quotation: “Keep a green tree in your heart, and maybe the singing bird will come.”  For me, the green tree stays alive because of the joy I get from writing – a gift that took root when I was a little girl of seven and had my first poem published in a children’s magazine.  Now, eight decades later, I have nurtured it through 5,000  published articles, poems, stories and 14 books.

If you have an ambition to  be a writer, you should realise that talent alone is not enough. Determination is necessary, but what you really need is compulsion.  Writing must be such an integral part of your life that if you are breathing, you are writing. You want to share your eyes with your readers, and all your other senses too, enabling them to hear, smell, taste and touch the world you have created for them.  If your words speak to them and you can make them feel joy and pain, smile and weep, feel empathy and compassion, then you are indeed a writer.

As a teacher of Creative Writing, I also taught my students to be salespeople because you need to learn how to get your words out to the reading public.  They must learn, as you did, sometimes to face rejection and not give in to despair.  My way was always to give myself periodic encouragement rewards.  When I write a book, the time to complete it and find a publisher can be awesome, so during the writing I have always submitted short stories or magazine articles.  These are easier to sell, and the temporary triumphs are confidence-boosters for the stamina you need to keep working on much longer projects.  Usually with articles, I suggest that students do not invest time in writing and researching the whole piece until they have  sent out a few query letters.  Only when an editor indicates that he/she likes the idea, should you complete the work.  However you must make your query letters as creative as you  can, and give the projected article a title as irresistible as you  can make it. I tell my students that the only way  that they will never be rejected is never to submit anything, and that every achievement in life begins with two small words: “I’ll try.”

Joy in writing also springs from joy in reading. They are inseparable.  Time and again I travel back to the leisurely, masterful narratives of Somerset Maugham and Evelyn Waugh; revel in the humanity  and poetic descriptions of John Steinbeck; chuckle at the rapier wit of Noel Coward and Dorothy Parker; and dream with yesterday’s poets who didn’t write of politics and technology but were lyrical – Byron, Shelley and Keats; W. B. Yeats,  Rupert Brooke and A.E. Housman.  All these authors probably date me (my grandchildren have never read them) but their works are timeless and remain an inspiration.

Sometimes our own words disappoint us. Edith Wharton wrote: “I dream of an eagle, I give birth to a humming-bird.”  So we try and try again, sometimes managing to capture just a little bit of heaven in our quest to be crowned with stars.

And when we do, there is nothing to compare with the joy of accomplishment. Our spirits soar along with our words, and the singing bird builds its nest in the green tree we have kept alive in our heart.

Be in touch at dwaysman@gmail if you want help (free) with any writing problems. I am always available to encourage and advise. My latest novel “Searching for Sarah” is available direct from me at discount. Happy writing!