I recommend Betsy Lerner's book, "The Forest for the Trees." Senior editor and publisher, Betsy Lerner, offers valuable advice to new authors.

A Voice That Is Nothing Short of Fierce

By Scott D. Zachary

Senior editor and publisher, Betsy Lerner, wrote in her book, The Forest for the Trees: "You must have a belief in your vision and voice that is nothing short of fierce." The instant that I read that, I grabbed my sticky pad and annotated those encouragingly directive words. Two years ago, I pinned that note to my bulletin board, and it’s still there in plain sight.

I recently completed my mystery/thriller novel, Scorn THIS, after nearly 3,000 hours of creating and polishing it. Spiritually, Betsy has been with me all along the way. Two more stickies that she inspired also remain prominent on the wall above my desk:

"Those who struggle with every line persevere regardless."
- Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees

and . . .

"And finally, the degree of one’s perseverance is the best prediction of success."
- Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees

I hope one day to meet Betsy Lerner so that I may thank her personally for the motivational thrust that her words ignited in the jet engines of my symbolic F-14, especially at those times when my semantic life was like a dogfighter’s graveyard. If you are a serious writer and haven’t read Betsy’s book, I recommend it.

It’s my conviction that Betsy wrote her book for novice writers like me, hoping to nudge, shove, coerce, inspire—you pick a word—all of the hesitatingly doubtful and self-deprecating writers that she had met along the way. She set my words on fire, catapulting my synergistic F-14 off the deck of my metaphorical aircraft carrier.

Excuse me. I must leave now. My F-14 is going vertical.


You may print and share this article, but please give credit to the author, Scott D. Zachary.

The writer of this article, Scott D. Zachary, is also the author of the mystery/thriller novel, Scorn THIS, available in October 2003. Watch for Scott's next novel, "The Green Dozer", available in 2004.