Though he had a long, established career as a pediatrician, as a writer, rejection was inevitable and ordinary for Dr. Raoul Wientzen. It took Wientzen nearly four years to finally get published.

Wientzen graduated from Georgetown University and spent 40 years of his life as a doctor. As he reached the end of his career, Wientzen came to realize his true calling for writing.

The former physician and current author of the novel The Assembler of Parts made a visit to South Lakes to speak with aspiring authors in English teacher Yvonne Surette’s creative writing class.

Wientzen presented the class an outline on becoming an author, showing students that if one is truly passionate about writing, the steps to getting published are truly simple. He emphasized often that becoming an author was not easy.

“It is a marathon, not a sprint,” Wientzen said.

The first step after writing a book, according to Wientzen, is to get a literary agent. After finding agents who could potentially be intrigued by the work to be published, the writer should send a query letter to each agent. A query letter is a one-page letter about the author that contains a strong hook.

“I made 25 letters of query, all of them individualized,” Wientzen said. “Every agent wants something different.”

The doctor-turned-author stressed the importance of not giving up in response to rejection.

“I received four responses out of 25 letters and they were all rejections,” Wientzen said. “I kept those letters because each and every one of those letters was individualized and critiqued my writing and in the end made me a better writer.”

Wientzen added that reading also plays an important role in becoming a successful writer. “Someone that wants to be a better writer needs to read,” Wientzen said.

He also provided suggestions for authors looking for inspiration. “Writers always want to make up extraordinary things,” Wientzen said. “However, they do not realize the world we live in right now is full of extraordinary things.”