By Nava Atlas | On September 25, 2016 | Updated December 28, 2018 | Comments (0)
Dear Literary Ladies,
Sometimes I wonder if I really have what it takes to be a successful writer. The desire is definitely there, but I’m not sure I have the talent. For those of us who don’t feel particularly “gifted,” what hope is there?
I didn’t have any particular gift in my twenties. I didn’t have any exceptional qualities. It was the persistence and the great love of my craft which finally became a discipline, which finally made me a craftsman and a writer.
The only reason I finally was able to say exactly what I felt was because, like a pianist practicing, I wrote every day. There was no more than that. There was no studying of writing, there was no literary discipline, there was only the reading and receiving of experience . . . Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On September 15, 2016 | Updated March 25, 2026 | Comments (0)
Dear Literary Ladies,
Like most writers, I want to be published, and truth be told, I’d love to be successful. But I’ve heard so many stories of long years of toil, false starts, and tons of rejection. Isn’t there an easier way? I’d prefer to become an overnight success, earn fame and fortune, and avoid all the struggle.
I can only say to you as I do to the many young writers who ask for advice—There is no easy road to successful authorship; it has to be earned by long and patient labor, many disappointments, uncertainties and trials. Success is often a lucky accident, coming to those who may not deserve it, while others who do have to wait & hope till they have earned it. This is the best sort and the most enduring. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On September 9, 2016 | Updated March 25, 2026 | Comments (0)
Dear Literary Ladies,
While in the midst of writing, how can you gauge if your work is any good? It’s so hard to be objective, and see the forest from the trees. Should I compare my writing with that of other writers I admire?
Since we must and do write each in our own way, we may during actual writing get more lasting instruction not from another’s work, whatever its blessings, however better it is than ours, but from our own poor scratched-over pages. For these we can hold up to life. That is, we are born with a mind and heart to hold each page up to and to ask: Is it valid? Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On September 5, 2016 | Updated March 25, 2026 | Comments (0)
Dear Literary Ladies,
A book that I’ve toiled on and believe in with all my heart has been rejected by more than a dozen publishers. Am I delusional? Maybe it’s no good after all. I need to hear a great story of a book that was rejected over and over but then became a smash success. Do you have such a story for me?
A Wrinkle in Time was almost never published. You can’t name a major publisher who didn’t reject it. And there were many reasons. One was that it was supposedly too hard for children. Well, my children were 7, 10, and 12 while I was writing it. I’d read to them at night what I’d written during the day, and they’d say, “Ooh, mother, go back to the typewriter!” Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On July 7, 2016 | Updated April 8, 2018 | Comments (0)
Dear Literary Ladies,
I write and write, sometimes getting compensated for my efforts, but more often not, my efforts are unpaid. I do feel an incredible urge to keep putting words to paper, whether I get paid or not. Am I being foolish or naive? Should I try to do the kind of writing that might bring in a few bucks? Read More→
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