BLANK PAGE TO PUBLICATION: One Writer's Experience

My first novel began as a blank page on a yellow legal pad at a Winchell's donut shop in Wichita, Kansas. As I savored my coffee and nibbled on a plain-cake donut, I decided to write a young-adult novel, primarily for boys. I hadn't written so much fiction as a short story since the eighth grade, and wondered where to begin.

I had heard that new writers are encouraged to write about what they know, but I'm a banker, and I didn't think a novel about banking would interest teenagers. I was also the Scoutmaster of my sons' Boy Scout troop and was accustomed to camping in the boondocks each month. The first thing I wrote on the blank page was "What if a campout turned into a disaster?"

From that basic question, I sketched out some notes for what I had in mind. Since I intended to write primarily for boys, I assumed the main character would be a teenage boy. The "What-if . . ." question suggested that the plot would involve action and survival. For the setting, I selected the vast rolling prairies of the Flint Hills in Kansas, a place where you could really get lost. I wanted to write a novel that would move the reader, maybe even teach something, without being preachy. Since I was writing for teenage boys, many of whom are reluctant readers, I decided to tell the story using plain English and a fast pace. Looking back, I now realize that I had roughed out all five of the elements of fiction: character, plot, setting, theme, and style.

Over the following years, I filled pages and pages with scribbled writing as I wrote chapter after chapter of the story. Along the way, I studied "how-to" books about writing novels, and I read Writer's Digest magazine. As I learned more about how fiction works, I re-wrote the story again and again. My first drafts were handwritten, but I gradually switched to writing on a computer.

When I thought the story was good enough, I began entering it in contests. When it failed to win, I learned more and re-wrote the story. I asked several writing experts to critique the manuscript, and then I revised it. I began sending query letters to agents who expressed interest in young-adult novels. I sent queries and sample chapters to publishers of young-adult novels. As rejection slips accumulated, I hired a self-employed editor to critique the manuscript. I revised the manuscript again and sent out more queries. Eventually I accumulated three-dozen rejection slips from agents and another three-dozen rejection slips from publishers.

I was just about ready to shove the manuscript into a drawer and forget it. Besides, I was putting the finishing touches on my second manuscript, and I needed to focus my marketing efforts on that one. Then one cold winter day I received a letter from a regional publisher in the Northwest offering to publish my novel. The book hasn't hit any bestseller lists, but sales continue to grow.

I have a full-time day job. I can only write a little each day, but I write a little almost every day. From the day I started with a blank page to the day my copies of the newly printed novel arrived was ten years.

My second novel took a lot less time to write and to be published. My third and fourth novels are well underway, and when I get up each morning I still look forward to writing. Some people might call it persistence and patience-some might call it nuts.

Learn more about this author, Mike Klaassen.
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