Becoming a Master Puppeteer — From Writer to Published Author

Writing is a long and complicated process.

Most people think that you just have to sit at a table with a notebook and pen/pencil, or a typewriter, or a laptop and just word away the hours. And then get published.

But in reality, it’s so much more than that.

I never realized how much work went into writing a book and trying to get it published until I took up writing and went at it seriously.

Let me explain the process this way:

Pretend you’re a puppet maker. A grand idea for a specific type of puppet comes to mind and you create it, spending hours on designing it, carving the wood, assembling the pieces together. And you’re quite proud of it, even though it’s rough and not very nice to look at.

Then comes the challenge—will it dance?

You test out your work, struggling to hold all the strings together as you make it dance and then fix all the problems (and I assure you there will be many, first drafts are like that) and not do this process once, but many times. This painful process is also known as editing.

Then comes the real challenge: finding a theater that will allow you to perform your puppet show. You write many advertisements and receive many rejections. But you don’t give up. And then at last, one lucky day, you get something besides a rejection.

A theater producer likes your puppet and has an interest.

Maybe this interest falls through, or maybe you’ve finally found your fit. If the latter, than you sign a contract and you work on your puppet, adding the final touches, while artists paint your masterpiece and dress it in clothes that will catch the eye of your future audience.

And then the big day comes: in the performance, will it perform as well as you have hoped it would and spent all those hours on for?

It is a nerve-wracking day as you watch a master puppeteer perform your doll before the many faces in the crowd.

But the crowd erupts in cheers at the end and you know you have succeeded and that all those days working so hard on your piece have finally proved worth it.

Perhaps this is a strange analogy, but I hope it was understandable after all. The process is so similar, and just as nerve-wracking and hard to go from an idea to seeing that idea in public and being accepted by unknown audiences.

But whether you are just starting out on your writing journey, querying for publication, or are a published author, I hope this encourages you to keep going and to never give up. You never know how your writing will inspire someone.