Page 6 - Boca ViewPointe - October '21

Page 6, Viewpointe October 2021
To Write Or Not To Write, That Is The Question

By William A. Gralnick hits paper,” needs to know the why of writing something. Ok. The book is written. Step two is dealing with the
Without that, knowing where one is going and why, the answer to the question “what now?” Now is finding an agent
My latest book has just process is hellish, laborious, and unforgiving. Once that or publisher. This is worse than, as crushing as, receiving
been published. Writing is has been dealt with, one has to put one’s butt in the chair. rejection letters from colleges. There’s only so much nice
a process with grins and There are many approaches to doing that, sort of like when one can put into “we’re not interested.” That’s if you get
groans. It brings to mind the Cramdon was teaching Norton to play golf and said, “You a response at all. I won’t regale you with the varieties of
title of the wonderful Doo start by addressing the ball.” Of course, Ralphie gives him publishers out there only to say that some are pure thieves
Wop classic, “Step by Step.” Let’s walk through it together. a weird look and then with a sweeping arm of gallantry praying on people’s egos. I have a publisher. A nice Jewish
It is said that everyone has a book inside them. I am says, “Helloooooooo ball!” boy from Brooklyn. He understands me.
blessed or cursed with a bunch of them taking up room Some say start with an outline. It can be minimal, and The first thing I learned about step two is that publishers
in the attic of my mind. Even so, a writer, before “pen your task is to let your thoughts spill out into it, the outline are done when the book is. Before that is the editing process.
keeping the writer from wandering all over the place. Some, I and one other person read and re-read my manuscripts five
Attention especially those wishing to find an agent first, begin with times. It is a process that is maddening, depressing, and
exhausting. It’s hard because the writer’s mind knows what
what is called a proposal. This is sort of like the complex
Boca Pointe Harvard Outline. What goes in it is what research tells you should be on the page therefore the writer’s eye doesn’t
agents want in it. It’s a lot of work, almost like writing a small
always see a mistake because of the mind’s interference.
Residents! book before you write your bigger one. Yet, it serves as the How people edit for a living I don’t know. I wouldn’t want
to live with one.
old AAA trip-tik, a road map to follow as you plod along.
Some say just sit down and write. Even here there are
The publisher comes up with a cover, tells you to
Flatten All Your Boxes! multiple options. Some say pick a time of day, a block of get some previews to go with the cover art that has been
Our recycling trucks do not pick up your cardboard boxes time for every day of the week and sit in the chair even if developed, and then pretty much says goodbye unless your
if they are not flattened. Instead, they go to trash and are burned nothing comes to mind. Seems dumb to me. Some say do books are possibles for the NYT’s best seller list and/or
with regular refuse....lost revenue for residents of Boca Pointe.  that but if nothing about what you want to write comes to your name is known to most literate people in the world.
mind and something else interesting pops up, write that. It We have arrived now at step three—marketing.
greases the wheels. Some write until they drop. Some say This is where one leaves a lot of rubber on the road. If
that produces brain fatigue; stop before the fatigue hits. you have a nice publisher he/she will guide you through
Mind you this is all before tapping the first letter of the what’s to be done next. He or she is not going to do it. You
On behalf of The first sentence on the computer. are. Nor is he or she going to pay for it. Now comes the
Then comes the writing. It may surprise you to know,
Club at Boca Pointe we of the steps involved this is the easiest. I am blessed with decision of how much the writer believes in the work and
how much there is in the budget to back up that belief. Let’s
would like to remind a gift, or so says an Evangelical minister friend of mine. say the short answer for me is two words, “Not much.”
our residents that NO When I get an idea, it goes from my head to my hand and Advertising is expensive. One must take the promo material
walking, running, flows onto the paper in a most orderly fashion. Writing has that my publisher was kind enough to produce and figure
bicycle riding or dog never been a struggle for me. On the other hand, journalist out how to spread it around. For an ad one needs to think
closely about target audiences, the closest being family and
Gene Fowler once said, “Writing is easy: All you do is sit
walking is permitted on staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form friends, then spheres of potential interest. My book about
the golf course or golf cart paths. For safety on your forehead.” growing up in Brooklyn is timeless with a huge potential
reasons, the paths are for golf carts only. Another tip is to write what you know. I know me best. audience. This book has a much narrower bullseye on the
Remember the Jackie Mason bit about the psychiatrist? He target. Facebook. Instagram, other social media. You bet.
says, I know me better than you do, so why should I pay If one is to receive results, one has to work hard and long
Thank you for cooperating with The Club's you to tell you what I already know? Ba da boom! I am and intensively. Next comes step four—making a living.
policy.  into book two of a three-part memoir. My brother of blessed Thank goodness I don’t have to do that. There’s more, but
memory, a journalist, said I was a natural storyteller. That’s that’s enough.
how I talk; that’s how I write. For reasons laid out in the If you are curious, the book is “George Washington
books’ introductions, I have chosen to write on the light Never Slept Here.” If it’s prequel, about the growing up
side, with humor but also pathos. I don’t think the world years, my version of the Wonder Years, then “The War of
needs “heavy” right now. the Itchy Balls and Other Tales From Brooklyn” is for you.
So, you write. The first book in the trilogy was 87,000 By the way, ‘nothing to do with gym fungi. ‘both available
words. And that was after editing and leaving a whole bunch at Amazon.com.
of stuff out. The second is a mere 68,000 words and that’s
only because I was sure it was longer, decided I had enough, Columnist and author Bill Gralnick was born and
and wrapped it up. I had easily another ten or twenty “thou” raised in Brooklyn. His latest book, titled “The War of
I could have hammered out. Writing can be fun. It can also the Itchy Balls and Other Tales from Brooklyn,” offers
be labor. I have digital arthritis, so it is also painful. It really more memories. His writings can be found at https://www.
tests how committed to writing one is. williamgralnickauthor.com/. 

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