The word profession comes to us from two Latin roots, pro and fess.  Pro means forth or in public, and fess means to acknowledge or confess.  Combining the two yields the verb profess, which means to declare or affirm openly and in public.  Thus, the professional writer is one who professes to be so, openly admitting that he or she writes in a serious and important way.  Inferior writers, sometimes referred to as poetasters, may also make declarations of profession, perhaps later feeling embarrassed at such premature disclosure.

A profession usually requires specialized training and advanced study, as with medicine, law, and philosophy.  Writing also requires advanced study, but life is the writer's university.  The writer must first learn a great deal about the world:  human behavior, the sciences, history, economics.  The broad and basic foundation provided by a good liberal arts education gives the writer research skills equal to any task.  In addition, the writer needs contact with people, not just university students and teachers, but also real people, waitresses, truck drivers, shoe salesmen, farmers.  The writer must also write, publish, and acknowledge his or her profession.  Three steps of initiation into the writing profession include being a writer, being an author, and making a living by writing.  For some people, the act of writing is enough.  Others want to share their writing with an audience, and a few take the risk of living on the earnings of their profession.

A writer in the most basic sense is a person who has written.  However, some people learn to think of themselves as writers long before they have written anything of consequence.  Poet Ted Kooser claims that in his college days he wore a beret and long muffler, professing to be a poet for years before writing his first poem.  He was more interested in attracting girls than in the reality of life as a writer.  I like to define a writer as a person who has written, is writing, and will write.  Thus, the first stage of becoming a writer is to engage in the act of writing over a period of time, months and years, so that you see your past work behind you, your present work at your fingertips, and your future work as the next step in your career.

This means taking on some new habits of thinking and behavior.  First, the writer should attempt to write every day.  Some people build into each day's plan one or two or six hours for writing.  Others require a particular goal of themselves:  five pages per day for a novelist, for instance.  Five pages per day, seven days a week, yields 35 pages per week, 150 pages per month.  At this rate, a sizable first-draft of a novel takes two or three months to complete.  Writers also mull over ideas and ways of writing them down while doing ordinary tasks such as washing dishes, driving, and even talking to others.  This dual requirement, to write and to think about writing, is the first stage of the process.

The writer should also faithfully keep a journal, a portable notebook in which to jot down ideas, bits of dialogue, odd wordings, images.  One of the truest signs of a serious writer is the ubiquitous presence of the journal.  Although computers have wrought wonders for writers, few of us carry our laptops around 24 hours a day.  A small, elegant notebook allows the writer to scribble down fleeting ideas before they disappear.

Another sign is the wish to save drafts and rewrites.  Get hold of a large box, perhaps a cardboard file box of the type sold in variety stores.  Into the box go all those scraps of paper, unworthy efforts, botched jobs, newspaper clippings, photographs, whatever becomes part of your writing life.  When the box gets full, duct tape it shut and write the date on the top with a big black magic marker.  Put the box in a safe, dry place, and begin to fill a new one.  The writer who saves odd bits of biographical material this way also saves items of historical value for the future.

The third characteristic of this stage in a writer's career is the willingness to revise.  The myth of the perfect first draft dies hard, and many people who show potential never grow as writers because they are either lazy or unwilling to see flaws in their work.  The perfect first draft does not exist.  A writer plays with words, moving them here and there, trying out new games without worry about losing some priceless version; the box of old drafts on the floor next to your desk insures you against permanent loss.  You can always go back and dig out earlier versions.

The word publication in its simplest sense means to make public, so that any sharing of your work with others can be viewed as publishing.  Find a way to share your work with other writers in a peer workshop group.  For some, this means taking a creative writing class at the local college.  Others help a librarian organize a writer's group at the neighborhood library, offer to serve as facilitator for a workshop at the Y, or simply gather with a small group of friends to share writing twice a month.  Writers should read their work aloud while group members follow along making notes on copies.  Then the group should talk about how the writing succeeds and how it could be improved.  Contact with other writers who will form an empathetic audience is a necessary stage in a writer's growth.  You need a combination of kind, critical feedback and praise for your work.

When you begin to publish your work, magically you become an author.  However, some authors acquire an overweening pride with this title.  Guard against a tendency to be too proud of your own success.  Remember, first you must be a writer.  All those good habits of daily writing, journal-keeping, saving drafts, revising, and working in a group should not be cast aside with your first publication.  These are the qualities which make you a writer, and being a writer is a profession one can choose.  Being an author is not a profession.

As you go over and over your writing, you find less to revise in each draft, until one day you read through a poem or story or article with the realization that you cannot find one word to change.  That is the point when you begin to think about a wider audience for your work.  One of the easiest ways to publish is to attend or sponsor readings.  A reading is a public performance during which writers read their own work and perhaps the work of others before an audience.  Local public libraries sometimes sponsor readings, as do bookstores and art galleries.  Your writers' group may want to organize a reading once or twice a year at a local coffee house.  Newspaper publicity should include photographs of the writers, as well as brief biographies, information about what will be read, and the time and place of the reading.  Invite all your relatives and friends.  When you read your writing in public, you profess your role as a writer, a role those who know and love you should respect.

The playwright should make contact with local little theater groups.  A year of painting scenery and running the lights may lead to a public performance of your play.  Contact with producers, directors, and actors is vital.  Have you written a play which might be adapted for a dinner theater?  Work in a dinner theater setting as a waiter and learn more about this possibility.  Do you have a funny one-act play you'd really like to see produced?  Get together with two other playwrights and offer a package of three one-acts to the local little theater.  Be willing to revise your play to fit the needs of the group which will produce it.

Print publishing remains the point of transition to author, but many writers carry unrealistic ideas and expectations about publishing.  Early in your career, just getting published should be more important than getting paid.  Work in print establishes your credibility and makes publishing additional writings much easier.  The first step is to analyze the market.

Who publishes what you like to read?  Who publishes what you write?  Your public library remains the best source for such information.  Ask for a copy of Writer's Market, a thousand-page compendium of advice from writers, editors, and publishers as well as lists of magazines, book publishers, and agents.  Writer's Digest Books brings out an updated copy of Writer's Market every year, and they also publish a series of smaller, easier to work with market guides for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Slick magazines like Redbook and Playboy sponsor yearly contests for new writers, but most magazines buy stories from established agents and writers they have worked with for many years.  A newcomer has little chance of breaking into such a closed market.  However, an alternative does exist:  the literary magazine.  You may have one at your local college or university, a student-edited arts magazine which publishes the writing, drawing, and photography of other students. A student literary magazine provides a safe place to publish your work.  Competition for publication, for no magazine can afford to print everything sent in by every writer, will be with your peers, and your chances of eventually being published are quite high.  The secret of success is to keep trying, even if your work is rejected the first year or two.

The next step after student magazines is the wider world of literary or "little" magazines.  Start with Writer's Market, studying the section on literary magazines carefully.  Each listing contains the name and address of the magazine, followed by information about what the editors are looking for and the format for submissions.  If you only write haiku poetry and the entry says "No Haiku", you know that magazine will be a waste of time and postage.  Example 12.1 shows an imaginary entry in the  style used by Writer's Market.

TIMBERLINE, Box 8056, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho.  (208) 236-2470.  Editor:  Kathleen King.
"Happy to see work from both new and established writers."  Quarterly, Circ. 1000.  Publishes ms. within 6 mos. of acceptance.  Buys first serial rights.  Pays on publication.  Photocopied submissions OK, no dot-matrix submissions.  Reports in 6 weeks with SASE.  Sample copy $4.  Writer's guidelines for #10 SASE.
Fiction:  "Stories may be on any subject, although the editor likes innovative writing.  Local writers preferred, but all submissions will be considered.
Poetry:  Free verse, haiku, traditional forms.
Tips:  "We receive many submissions for each issue.  Work submitted without an SASE will not be considered.  Use your own world as a source for vivid images, realistic characters, and tension-filled plots.  Quality is the ultimate criterion for acceptance or rejection."

Read through this example carefully.  Does the magazine want only the work of established writers?  What about book reviews?  How soon will you know whether your poem or story has been accepted?  Will a dot-matrix submission be acceptable?

When you come to a listing for a magazine which seems to publish what you write, xerox that entry and keep looking.  Then choose the best possibilities and write to them requesting a sample.  You may have to send a few dollars along to pay for the sample and postage.  Analyze that sample issue carefully.  What sorts of poetry, stories, and articles does the magazine publish?  If the sample issue you ordered turns out to be full of horror stories and you write romances, then discard that choice and continue your search.  When you find three magazines which publish your type of writing, prepare a high-quality, carefully edited manuscript original, one or two short stories or nonfiction articles, ten or more poems.

Original manuscript means laser-printed, pages numbered, no typos or errors of any sort.  Part of being a professional is turning out professional-quality work.  Send your manuscript to the editor of the publication along with a cover letter and a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) large enough to hold your manuscript and with the proper amount of postage for return.  Most editors will not return manuscripts without an SASE.  Enclosing an SASE is one way of hearing from an editor, even if your manuscript is rejected. Your one-page cover letter should tell a bit about you and your writing.

Mail your packet to the first magazine on your list and wait.  Simultaneous submissions are still considered somewhat tacky, but some publishers will accept them provided the manuscript is clearly marked as a simultaneous submission.  If your first choice rejects your submission, as is likely, consult your list for a new name and address and send the manuscript to your second choice, and so on down your list.  If your returned manuscript looks a bit dirty or dog-eared, print out a new, fresh copy to mail.  Persistence pays off.

The process for the book-length manuscript is similar, although the goal in this case is to get the attention of a book publisher.  Most agents will not take a writer who lacks a proven publication record, so spend your time contacting publishers directly.  After consulting relevant pages in Writer's Market, list publishers in rank order, based on the criteria listed in the entries.  Example 12.2 shows an invented entry similar to those in Writer's Market.

TIMBERLINE PRESS, INC.  Box 8286, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho  83209.  (208) 236-2470.  Editor:  Kathleen King.  Publishes hardcover and paperback originals of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Rejection can be especially discouraging for writers.  You work so hard, putting your whole self into your art, only to have others tell you that your writing is not good enough.  Some writers never risk rejection.  One young man has five unpublished novels in his desk drawer, but he feels so afraid of negative responses that he has made no attempt to send them out.  On the other end of the spectrum is the beginning writer whose scribblings truly need a great deal of revision.  This writer submits a poor-quality manuscript, refuses to consider revision, and expresses amazement when the work is rejected.

However, if you live with a piece of writing for a year or two and truly believe, after much thoughtful revision, that your writing deserves publication, then send it out.  But don't stop writing when you send something out.  Remember, writers have written, write, and will write.  Put yourself always in the middle of projects, new and beautiful tasks which will keep your mind centered on being a writer.  Then publication becomes a nice fringe benefit, and your goal remains the writing.  Being a writer is much easier than being an author.

Making a living as a writer, supporting yourself completely by selling your writing, remains difficult.  A few writers do make a good living selling their work, but the income is risky:  feast today and famine when the money runs out and you haven't finished the next article or book.  Because publishing your work is complicated by contracts, taxes, and the time it takes to prepare and mail manuscripts, at a certain point in your career, you may want to seek out the services of an agent.  Writers of screenplays should look for agents in Los Angeles.  Other writers may want to concentrate on New York agents, as New York City remains the center of the publishing industry.  After consulting your all-purpose reference, Writer's Guide, make a list of agents, and send several agents your query letter and some writing samples.

Ask for the agent's credentials by return mail:  writers represented, types and amounts of publications arranged, fees for services.  Look for experience, contacts, and sales when comparing agents.  Be sure that you choose your agent; make contact with several and decide who has contacts which will aid you the most.  You hire an agent to represent you in return for a percentage of your gross income; thus, you should select a good employee.  Usually you must amass a body of published work to demonstrate to potential agents that you are worth their time, and writers just beginning to publish their work probably do not need an agent at all.  Writer's Guide can aid you in choosing an agent, and Example 12.3 shows a sample entry.

KATHLEEN KING LITERARY AGENCY, INC.  Box 8286, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho  83209  (208) 236-2470.  President:  Kathleen King.  Estab. 1991.  Member of ILAA.  Represents 20 clients.  Prefers to work with new writers showing a great deal of potential.
Will Handle:  Poetry, fiction, drama, nonfiction.
Terms:  Agent receives 15% commission.
Fees:  Charges a reading fee for unpublished writers.  Charges for postage, telephone calls, duplicating.
Recent Sales:  Imaginative Writing by Kathleen King to Timberline Educational Publishing.

However, a number of funding sources exist for the serious writer wanting to take some time off from the real world.  Many organizations give money to artists through grants or contest prizes.  PEN, a writers' organization, publishes a guide, Grants and Awards Available to American Writers, which lists funding sources, basic requirements, and how to get in touch with grant administrators.  Beware of sleazy operators who prey on beginning writers with phony poetry contests which ask the writer to send in a few poems and a $20 entry fee.  Some contests are legitimate and the money is used for cash prizes and publication expenses; others exist only to get money from unsuspecting poets.

The academic world offers a safe and quiet life for some writers.  Many advanced degree programs in English provide fellowships or teaching assistantships for students.  An M.A. program (Master of Arts) usually offers a literature-oriented course of studies, but writers may take workshop classes and write a creative master's thesis which constitutes a considerable body of work, a collection of poems or stories or even a novel.  M.F.A. programs (Master of Fine Arts) center more on workshops and writing classes, with less emphasis on the study of literature.  D.A. programs (Doctor of Arts) prepare teachers for two and four year colleges.  The Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) degree is research oriented, with university teaching as an employment goal.  Obtaining such degrees can keep a student busy and writing and financially scraping by for many years, but the job market for people with advanced degrees in English remains poor.  An increase in the number of jobs available is expected in the late 1990s as veterans of World War II and Korea who studied under the GI Bill retire from university teaching posts.

If you have a writing project in mind and need a block of time and a quiet place to write, artists' colonies may be for you.  Some colonies charge a small fee, but others provide free room and board for residents.  In return, the writer works at a sensible and productive pace.  Stays in artists' colonies are usually limited to short periods of time, from one week to several months, but if you have written a first draft of a book which needs a revision and you just don't have the time, or if you have in mind a number of short stories or a collection of poetry but cannot make room in your schedule to write, then a writer's colony offers you time and space for creative work.  The PEN publication Grants and Awards Available to American Writers lists some artists' colonies, and magazines like Poets and Writers regularly carry ads and listings.  Check your library for these publications, and if you do not find them, ask the librarian to place an interlibrary loan order.

Other opportunities for help include gifts of goods and services.  For instance, if you need a new computer to write the great American novel, you may be able to obtain a computer or matching funds (you pay half) toward a purchase.  Other grants cover incidental expenses like paper, secretarial help, or money for making xerox copies of your manuscript.  Some writers' organizations offer free legal and accounting services to members.  Although looking for funding sources takes time, you may be able to combine an outright grant of money, time at a writer's colony, and a matching funds grant for writing expenses, thus supporting yourself long enough to complete a project.  Such financial support comes to you for being a writer, for engaging in writing rather than for publishing.

Funding sources include private individuals, foundations, corporations, and government agencies.  Do not overlook the possibility of a "husband or wife fellowship".  You and your spouse might agree on a certain time period during which your spouse supports you.  At some time in the future, the fellowship is reversed.  One couple arranged to share a full-time tenured job teaching creative writing at university, the husband teaching in the fall and the wife in the spring.  Their family had the security of a regular income, and both writers had eight months of the year free to write.

Because of changes in tax laws over the past several years, foundations and corporations find charitable giving less financially attractive these days.  However, foundations do continue to fund much of the artistic work done in our country.  In return, they receive public relations benefits through advertising, some tax breaks, and social status as patrons of the arts.  Foundations and corporations usually prefer to fund organizations rather than individuals because less paperwork is involved.  However, foundations and corporations sometimes have unused money, and if you investigate opportunities and apply for grants, you may very well receive financial support for a period of time.

State and federal government agencies offer another funding source.  State arts organizations give outright grants to many artists each year, although grant proposals must compete for funding.  Artist-in-residence programs pay a few hundred dollars for a few days work, a substantial amount if your income is zero.  In return, the writer goes to a community and offers workshops for school children and adults.  Most of the funding for state arts agencies comes through the National Endowment for the Arts, in recent years the object of heated attacks by Jesse Helms and other conservative legislators.  One type of NEA grant gives writers $20,000 to write for a year, but requires a substantial record of publication, so that many beginning writers do not qualify.  This is one reason why publishing is so important for writers.

The process of seeking financial support for being a writer involves organizing a search for sources, contacting sources for information, writing a proposal, and learning from success and failure.  Grants and Awards Available to American Writers provides a good basic list of sources.  Read through this 150 page listing, xeroxing relevant entries, or taking careful notes.  Example 12.4 shows the type of listing you might find in Grants and Awards.

The Timberline Award
Box 8286 Idaho State University
Pocatello, Idaho 83209
The Timberline Award recognizes outstanding new writers.  Entries must be postmarked on or before February 1 of each year.  An award of $100 is made to a writer of fiction, poetry, drama, or nonfiction.
Available to:  Writers who have not yet published a book
Deadline:  February 1 of each year         Apply to:  Above address

Send each potential source a query letter asking for guidelines.  Be sure to enclose an SASE.  If the guidelines don't exclude you, read the rules carefully, underlining key words and relevant points.  Then prepare your proposal in the exact format detailed in the guidelines, and send in your material well before the deadline.  The ability to follow directions counts heavily at this stage.  Your proposal will be reviewed by a panel which then accepts or denies your request.

Sometimes a grant proposal will be accepted on the first try, but more often you will get a kind but firm rejection letter.  The administrator may include reviewers' comments with the rejection.  If not, write to the director of the grant agency and ask for a copy.  Read these comments carefully, rewrite your proposal to respond to the critique, and resubmit the next year, again well before the deadline.  Do not be discouraged by rejection.  You will be competing with many writers, some quite experienced in putting together grant proposals.  The more you try, the more you will learn, and eventually you will get funded.

But do you have what it takes to be a professional writer?  You must have the gumption to sit down and write every day, the dedication to make writing a central activity in your life.  In addition, you need the courage to send your writing to editors and publishers.  You must have the wisdom to understand that even very good and much-published writers expect to receive many rejections for each acceptance.  While writing and submitting your work, you must be willing to work at a real-world job or make a business of searching out grants to fund your writing habit.  Only you can decide whether the struggle is worth the reward.

1. Define the term profession, then use your definition to discuss what it means to be a writer.

2. What behaviors help a writer achieve success?

3. Why should writers save their journals, drafts and revisions?

4. What does the term publication mean in its simplest sense?

5. How can participation in a writers' group help you?

6. Describe what happens at a reading.

7. How can the playwright bring his or her work to the public?

8. Why should a writer analyze the market before sending out manuscripts?

9. What is a literary magazine.  How do these publications help writers?

10. How does a writer go abut publishing a book?

11. What should you do when your writing is rejected by an editor or publisher?

12. When do you need an agent?

13. Why do many writers teach for a living?

14. What good is graduate study in creative writing?

15. You have almost finished a first draft of your novel.  Where can you stay while you finish and then revise the draft?

16. Are grants of money or in-kind grants of goods and services available to writers?  Where can you get information about such offers?

Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down, relax, and concentrate on your breathing.  Breathe slowly and deeply, and as you focus on your breathing, relax, feel yourself becoming quiet and centered.

When you are ready, begin thinking about the writing you have done this semester.  See yourself writing in your journal, keeping a record of your life and experiences.  Remember each of your drafts, how you struggled to make your words reflect your thoughts.  Take time to appreciate how hard you worked, how much your writing improved.

Then imagine yourself bringing your drafts to class, engaging your workshop group with your writing.  Think of how frightened you felt at first, and how much their positive responses helped you grow as a writer.  Imagine reading to them, look up at their faces and see their interest and attention, how you have captured their imaginations.

Next think about reading to a larger group, a public reading in an unfamiliar place.  You arrive at the reading, and people are standing in small groups chatting.  Some of these people are familiar, your classmates, and others are not, but they all have friendly faces.  Rows of chairs face a podium at the front of the room.  The audience drifts to their seats, and then one by one the writers are introduced.  You listen to their words, interested in what each one has to say, and yet you feel a little anxious about your own reading.  Will the audience like your work?  Perhaps your palms sweat, maybe your heart pounds for a moment, but you know that such body sensations result from excitement rather than fear.

Then it is your turn.  You walk to the podium and turn to face the audience, their friendly faces, your fellow writers and the visitors.  You look at your pages, then begin to read, slowly and with emphasis, looking up at the audience, meeting their eyes.  You see the interest of others as you read, how your writing touches them.  Too soon, your reading is finished, and with a sigh of relief, you resume your seat.  The next writer begins, and you are drawn into that person's special world, as others were drawn into yours.

Now think about preparing a poem or story or article for submission to a magazine.  Imagine reading the submission guidelines and preparing your manuscript.  You correct any mechanical errors and then print out a dark, beautiful copy.  You feel proud of your work.  Address the envelopes, one to the magazine, and a second for return to you, then go to the post office and have your packet weighed.  You stick the stamps on the envelope, lick the glue on the flap of the outside envelope, and slide your submission into the mailbox with a sense of hope and excitement.

Each day you hurry to the mailbox, even though you know it will be several weeks before you hear from the magazine.  Then one day you see the return envelope, addressed to you in your own handwriting.  You want to open it, and then again you don't.  Finally, you rip it open.

You see a form letter, thank you for your submission.  Read your work with interest.  Does not suit our needs now.  Disappointed, you walk slowly back to the house.  Then you sigh, choose another magazine, and send your manuscript off once again.

One day, an envelope comes back, but it feels surprisingly light.  Inside you find a letter.  Thank you very much for your submission.  We would like to publish in our fall issue.  You let out a yell, run to tell family and friends.

And then you go back to your journal, back to your drafts, back to the endless writing and revision.  Imagine a lifetime of writing, the daily concentration on new and unfinished work, the weekly chore of sending out finished manuscripts.  Think of yourself as a writer, always with work in progress, the constant flow of new ideas and words.

When you are ready, take a deep breath, then another.  Open your eyes and rest quietly for a few moments, remembering your meditation.  Then record in your journal your thoughts and feelings about your writing life.