Becoming a Professional Writer:

I was writing full time.

2004

¨ I met with two writing groups weekly to work through Running Away chapter by chapter. Their comments exposed problems from sentence structure to character development. I was re-writing full time.

¨ In November, I contacted an old friend to find a mutual friend. The old friend was now an indie film maker with a problem script. He sent it to me for my opinion; I replied with a detailed analysis.

¨ He asked if I could revise the script with an altered storyline and specific budgetary requirements and have it done in four days. He’d pay me. “Sure,” I said.

¨ He had Final Draft software and two screenwriting texts sent overnight.

¨ I delivered the screenplay on time and he liked it.

¨ I knew I was a professional. Friends and family began to think so, too.

¨ I finished the Running Away re-write.

¨ I gave it to two readers from the critique groups to assess as a whole.

2005

¨ The check for the screenplay arrived in January 2005.

¨ One of my readers loved Running Away without change.

¨ The other came back with a copy of Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel Handbook. “I think you can get it published,” she said. “But you’re a good writer. You should take it one more step.”

¨ I read the workbook, then literally cut out lumps of backstory, throwing away items the reader didn’t need and taping single bits throughout the novel where they could be worked in unobtrusively.

¨ But 2005 was most notable for providing me with more material: My father died in February, I broke my collarbone skiing in March, and filed for divorce in April when I found out my husband of two years was addicted to and stealing drugs from his workplace. In May, my kids and I took the train to NY for my father’s memorial service. In July, I went to Arizona to relax. In one week, I bought a cabin, lined up a teaching job (yes, in that order), and enrolled in Hassayampa Writer’s Institute.

¨ I spent the next week in a poetry workshop with Simon Ortiz, learning to make the most of each word. Somehow I had finished re-writing Running Away. I read some at open readings; they wanted more.

¨ I returned to California to relocate my youngest near his college. I rented a truck and packed to move. I nearly died from the drug my husband was stealing when he “accidentally” switched drinks with me. By mid-August I started my new life in Arizona, teaching again and living by myself for the first time in twenty-five years.

¨ I was back to writing part time, but I’d been paid for that screenplay.

¨ It was my first year in the black as a writer.

¨ The rest is all material.

Professional writers write to make money.