Your writing is your garden.
You tend to it, nurture it, show up with the hope that something beautiful will bloom. But the thing about a garden? Not everyone will get to appreciate it. Maybe your family will see it, or a few close friends. But the joy is in the cultivating — the patience and labor it takes to help a small seed explode with life.
So give yourself permission to tend to your your garden, whether or not the world will ever walk through it.
In publishing, nothing is guaranteed, and imposter syndrome can be relentless. But when you write simply to see what blossoms — when watering your own garden is enough — you’ll be amazed at what starts to grow.
In today’s interview, author Liza Tully shares the truth about publishing timelines, the importance of not pushing through, and the experience that allowed her to write fearlessly.
OUR SPECIAL GUEST TODAY IS…
Liza Tully
Author
Available Now: The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant
What is the most memorable writing tip or technique that you have heard, and how did it influence your process?
"Do not whine. Do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone." Joan Didion wrote that in Blue Nights, and it's the writing mantra I live by. Turn down the noise in your head. If you just sit with yourself and listen, sometimes the answers come.
What’s been the toughest moment in your publishing journey, and how did you get through it?
My toughest moment was when it appeared that my second novel would not find a home with a publisher. My first novel had also gone unpublished, but I was okay with that for some reason. But my second novel was very close to my heart. I'd spend three years stealing time away from my job and my family to work on it, and I believed it had something important to say. So I was devastated when it didn't sell and thought about giving up writing. After all, I was spending a lot of time and energy on a "hobby" that obviously wasn't going anywhere. My self-esteem was getting low, and I worried that my kids would think their mother was crazy because she spent so much time pecking at her keyboard with nothing to show for it. Around this time I spent an afternoon with a friend who had a beautiful garden in her backyard. Truly, it was gorgeous. She had even built a short retaining wall with big rocks that she had dug up from a riverbank and loaded into the back of her car. She was proud of what she'd done, and I respected her hard work and skill. As I was walking home that afternoon, it occurred to me that no one could see her garden but her family and the friends who visited her, like me. A new thought came to me. I remember it exactly: "If she can have a garden, why can't I have a novel?" I never looked back after that. My writing would be my garden, and if the only people who ever read it were the three women in my writing group, that would be enough.
What’s one thing about the publishing process no one tells you, but should?
It takes a long time — sometimes more than a year — between acceptance and publication. And the peak selling season lasts about three months at most. After that, your book survives on word-of-mouth, which no one can control. It's best to keep expectations low and hope to be surprised.
Ready for feedback that takes your story to the next level?
“Having Alyssa edit my manuscript was truly one of the best decisions I could have made. Her suggestions absolutely made my story better. Then, the very first agent I queried requested to read the whole manuscript after reading the revised pages we worked on!”
—Laura Geraghty, historical fiction author
When life gets busy, how do you protect your time to write?
I keep a schedule most days, but when life gets busy, it goes right out the window. Time management is something I've struggled with all my life. I've found that when I'm starting something new, the best thing I can do is go away for a few days where no one can reach me except in emergencies.
What’s the best piece of feedback you ever received? How did it change your story?
Best and hardest suggestion from an editor: "Take 20,000 words out of this novel."
What’s one thing you do (creatively, mentally, or physically) that helps you stay in it when writing gets hard?
Writing is always hard, but if I'm really, really stuck, I don't keep going. I go back to the beginning, re-think, and re-write. This is not the usual advice: most experienced writers will say "just keep going." But I believe that if my story is stuck it's because I lost the thread along the way.
ICYMI…this week, I dug into an experiment that tested whether 1,000 readers could differentiate human and AI-written stories. The results were…concerning.
I have never thought about writing as a garden, but I think in a similar manner. That even if I never get published, at least I will achieve self-improvement, and I learn a lot as I do my research.
Great interview and great way to reframe our way of thinking about our writing. Thank you!