Navigating the Writer’s Journey

January 2021 Gimme Five: Navigating the Writer’s Journey

By Jen Collins Moore

Tracy Clark, author of the celebrated Chicago Mystery series, makes writing look easy. She’s published four books in four years, been nominated for numerous best novel awards and won the G.P. Putman & Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award. This month, Tracy shares her tips on how to navigate the writer’s journey. 

1) Take time to learn the craft

No one is born knowing how to write, and it takes time to learn the craft, no matter how many books you’ve read. When Tracy first set out trying to write, she had a main character and she had the supporting cast; everything else was up for grabs. Tracy wrote and re-wrote the story, changing the backstory, the setting, and even the killer. She says the book took years to finish, and more years to get right.

“I knew practically nothing and had to learn by trial and error, mostly error. I stubbornly plowed my way through for years, the light slowly dawning, but looking back I think that was kind of an okay way of doing it. I certainly learned a lot that way. The struggle was real, and I’ll never forget the lessons learned.”

Tracy says the best thing she’s done for her writing is to take the writing process seriously. “I had no idea what the heck I was doing, but I kept at it. The more I wrote, the more I could feel things coming together. The more times I wrote myself into a corner and found my way out again, the more confident I got that I could write an effective beginning, middle and end.”

2) Keep writing, no matter what

The only way to learn to write is to write. But some days (or weeks or months) it feels hard. Tracy says she just keeps going. 

“The best writer advice I received was given to me by my friend Eleanor Taylor Bland, who told me simply to KEEP WRITING. She’d read my stuff, I’d sweat while she did it, then she’d come back and say, ‘This bit’s good, that bit’s not so strong. What if you did this, or that? Go back. Try again. KEEP WRITING.'"

She keeps that mantra top of mind, so if she hits a brick wall in a story or is writing a chapter she knows she’ll have to trash, or even if she’s doing well and tempted to bask in her successes, she keeps going. 

“This is the advice I always give to writers, and will likely always give: KEEP WRITING. Write badly until you teach yourself to write well but keep doing it. Hold your nose if you have to but KEEP WRITING. Write until it works. Write until you cannot possibly make what you’ve written any better. Then start again and write something else.”

3) Don’t let rejections stop you

It’s easy to look at the authors around us and think they’re overnight sensations. And maybe some are, but for most, there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears behind the scenes. Tracy’s first book, Broken Places, was ultimately nominated for the Anthony, Lefty and Shamus Awards for debut novels, but when she first brought it to market, publishers weren’t interested.

“At that point, I had two choices, I could give up and move along defeated, or keep writing. I kept writing.”

Tracy wrote the second and third books in the Chicago Mystery Series while the first one sat in the proverbial desk drawer. 

“I was under no time constraints. No one wanted the first one, so they weren’t waiting with a ticking clock for the second or third. I just kept writing them, getting better, working my way out of story ditches. I had no expectations about any of it, though I did harbor the secret desire to eventually become a published writer.”

4) Embrace the challenge

Tracy says writing is hard even after all she’s learned. And that’s OK. “If writing were easier, there would be little challenge in it. I’d much rather take a victory lap at the end of a harrowing marathon than take one after just ten easy paces.”

But knowing that she has four books under her belt does give her confidence. “It’s gotten easier to disregard that internal monster who creeps into my brain at 2 a.m. to say I can’t write my way out of a paper bag, that I have no talent, no skill, no business putting words to paper. That monster taunts every writer at some point, I think. He’s still there at 2 a.m., but he’s a lot smaller than he used to be.”

After four books in a series, Tracy is working on a standalone novel. 

“Writers are always looking for opportunities to stretch themselves, to plumb new depths, explore new characters, new ways of telling a story. I’m using an entirely new set of skills with this book,” Tracy says. “It’s frightening and unchartered, but also exciting.”

5) Pay it forward 

Like many authors, Tracy’s an introvert, and says it took her a long time to feel like a member of the writing community. Now that she’s there, she’s generous with her time. She is secretary of the Midwest Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and a director of the Chicagoland Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

“I’m all about offering new writers coming along the same support and encouragement I was given. Paying it forward. That’s the best thing.”

Jen Collins Moore is the author of  Murder in the Piazza from Level Best Books. Her short fiction has appeared in Masthead: Best New England Crime Stories and Mystery Weekly, and she is the editor of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest newsletter.