For the Writers: Are We Good Enough?

How many of us ask ourselves that question on a daily basis?

Artists, Writers and Performers, oh my.

The thing about creative pursuits is that, sooner or later, they should be shared with others. Yes, a person can write for themselves, but the magic happens when you share the story and other people can relate to it. Musicians can become masters of an instrument, but the magic happens when they share the beauty of that instrument and what they can do with it to the world. Actors can get together and read plays, but the magic happens when an audience member is held spell-bound at the intensity of emotion dramatized on the stage.

So the creative arts allow us to connect with others in a very unique way, but they also make a person vulnerable. Creators will receive external feedback at some point-sometimes good, sometimes bad. Or they won't receive any feedback (ie. no one will even bother to engage with their creation) and they'll wonder why.

Success?

I don't want to give a definition to what being successful as an artist is. Each person has their own definition, and maybe it wouldn't even include sharing their work with outsiders. However, the world's definition of success often involves significant social approval.

As a writer, it seems that popularity equals book sales  (if you're indie) and/or agent/publishing deals (if you're taking the traditional route), and so if those things aren't happening, you're not successful.

There, I said it.

And by that definition, even though I'm doing better than some, I am sooo not successful as a writer.

And there are lots of my writer friends who are feeling this pain as well. I'm seeing lots of blog posts about writer fatigue, how to deal with those depressive writer feelings (this one here, by Jan O'Hara at Writer Unboxed has some great advice), and questioning if they should continue or just quit.

How common are you?

On Monday, I was followed by @GritFire on Twitter, and saw the following tweet:

Don't be common. pic.twitter.com/XtdFpqbKOV

— GritFire (@GritFire) October 19, 2015

I retweeted it with the response, "I'm trying! But what do you do if "it" never happens?" Because that's what I've been contemplating lately, and what I think my writer friends have been contemplating.

As writers we're told that, if we just write a great story (being special and uncommon), your book will sell, or you'll get an agent, etc... Or we're told to market our books one way, or submit our books another way, and then you'll grab the golden writer ring.

But what no one talks about it is the element of luck involved. Well, no one but Porter Anderson (@porteranderson). Thank God for Porter and his reality-based publishing industry posts.

Yes, hard work is first and foremost. If you don't put in the work to develop and master the skills to write a good story, then you're sure to be a failure. But the message of the tweet, and of writer society in general is "Work hard and you'll become something (special). If you don't become something, it's your fault. You weren't good enough."

But I don't feel like that's true. There have been plenty of famous people who acknowledge the roll luck, or timing, or any of a number different variables besides hard work played in their success. And then there are the confusing monumental successes that cause you to question humanity's taste and ask WTF?

There have been several opportunities for my writing career to be different, but it's not happened - and those opportunities have been out of my hands. External feedback, be it positive, negative or indifferent, is not something I can control.

I'm coming to accept that my stories, my blog (me!) just aren't resonating with a large audience of people, for whatever reason. And what do I do now? Should I quit? Should I stop dreaming? Should I stop trying? Am I truly not good enough to succeed as a writer?

An Answer from an Unlikely Source

@GritFire was nice enough to favorite my tweet, but they didn't give me an answer. I did find one, though, in the e.e. cummings-like tweet from Luka Sulic of the 2Cellos. (When I got blown away by their music several weeks ago, I naturally followed them (both individually and the 2Cellos account) on Twitter.)

Serendipity is everyday magic. How funny that a random tweet would be a fitting response to my question of GritFire.

His instagram stated:

Be yourself.  Believe in yourself.

No, not rocket science, and definitely been stated before, but for some reason I heard the message differently this time.

We are writers - all of us struggling-to-persevere people are creative, wonderful people. Just by being human beings, we're already special and uncommon, and our stories are special and unique to us.

We are writers, and writing is what we do. Our stories can make a difference in the world, and deserve to be told.

We are writers, and we are good enough to not give up. To keep trying. And, maybe, to someday succeed.

For The Writers: It's Just Books

The idea for this post has been knocking around in my head for several weeks now. I've wondered if I'm brave enough to write it. I've wondered if it's something anyone wants to hear.

After much internal debate, I've decided that what I want to write about was important for me to learn. If it might help someone else to read about my experience, I decided to give the post a whirl, and see what happens.

Now, as we know, some writers have (what appears to be) lucky success. I'm not saying they don't work hard, or aren't talented. But, how many hard-working, talented writers do you know? That's right. Quite a few, huh? And what makes any one writer who has that crazy-good success better than any of the others that you know? See what I mean? For every one lucky hard-working, talented writer there are many hard-working, talented authors who just didn't have the stars align in quite the same way.

Photo Couresy: Free Digital Photos

Here's a secret about me. I'm a very competitive person. I'm so competitive that I don't compete. I hate losing that much. Plunk me down in the middle of a competitive field like writing, and I'm sure to have some mental ticks.

Using this post by Leslie Ramey as a guide (Redefining Success for Self-Publishing), Finding Meara has actually done quite well when compared with the many other self-published books out there. But! I'm competitive. And each disappoint has the potential to cut me to the very depths of my writer's ego.

And the truth of writing is the majority of authors are going to be disappointed over something, sometime. Maybe even frequently disappointed. Heck, even those with crazy-good success blog and post on Facebook about how disappointed they are with something that would make 99% of other writers drool. (Can I just say how irritating that is...)

My point is that there are bound to be disappointments. Maybe forever.

Sometime this summer, I finally realized all of this. And then I realized something very important.

It's just books.

All of it is not life or death. Whether I sell a zillion copies or two copies, it really won't change the important things in my life. I'll still be a wife to my dearest husband, I'll be mother to two of the quirkiest, most-lovable kids in the world. I'll still have a job as a social worker if I want it. I'll still be a daughter and an aunt, and a friend. I'll still write and create the fantastical and magical.

It's just books.

I don't know if I'll ever have crazy-good success. There's lots of people who think so - and God bless them for being hopeful and carrying me through my dark times. But the truth is, I may not. And it doesn't mean anything more than the time didn't come. It doesn't mean that I was untalented. It doesn't mean that I didn't work hard enough. It doesn't mean I failed. It means nothing at all, because...

It's just books.

How to Access Your Intuition

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Have you ever had that flash of insight? That “Oh my Gosh, of course” moment?

In the book Flight Plan: The Real Secret of Success, Brain Tracy refers to such moments as the Super-conscious, which is the intuition that resides in all of us. As silly as this might sound, neuropsychology is beginning to back up that intuition is real and using techniques to activate the Super-conscious is effective.

Our brains are constantly working to make sense of our world, even when we are not consciously aware that it is doing so.  The brain uses patterns to inform our decision making process. Consequently, our brain will notice and assimilate patterns around us, without our conscious knowledge. All that information is in there, we just need to find ways to unlock the information.

If you want to put this idea to the test, pick a TV show that you enjoy and watch regularly. After watching the show, write down (you have to write it down) the following questions and your answers.

• How does what I’ve learned relate to what I already know?
• How might I use this new information in the future?  (If you’re doing the experiment, the answer to this one is always  “To predict what will happen in the next show.”

I haven’t actually done this experiment because I don’t watch much TV, but the presenter of the workshop I attended on brain function and executive skills swears that by the third or fourth show you will be able to accurately predict the storyline. (Things like which character going to be the focus of the next show, what their conflict might be.)  Once I have some time, I plan to use the two questions to study scenes of a book.  

Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Let's get back to Mr. Tracy. In order to activate the Super-conscious, he recommends writing down, in detail, the problem you are trying to solve.  This can be a situation with another person, a problem at your job, even a plot issue.  Then, when the time is right, your Super-conscious will give you the answer.  If you want to try engaging your Super-conscious further, he suggests calming your brain through relaxation techniques, meditation, etc…, which may lead to an answer quicker.

There are three ways we can know that an answer comes from our Super-conscious.

• The answer will be complete. All details of the problem will have a solution.
• The answer will be simple, clear and within in your abilities to complete.
• The answer will "feel" right. Since the Super-conscious comes directly from your intuition, the answer will create a happy and relaxed feeling, and you will be eager to implement the solution.

Mr. Tracy cautions that you have to be ready to react in a timely fashion to the intuition. If you get the urge to call someone, call them. Don’t wait a week. You have to have faith in your brain and its ability to see patterns even when we aren’t aware of it.

Do you think you might try out any of these techniques? Do you believe in intution?

I'd like to say "Welcome" to Ty Roper, who has decided to join us! I'd also like to mention that Chapter One of Finding Meara is up on Wattpad, if you'd like to take a look. I'll be uploading Chapter Two on Wednesday.

Can Failure Be Avoided?

Of late I've been freaking out. I'm scared to death my book is going to sink, people are going to laugh at me and I'll have to slink away to hide in the shadows of the blogosphere. I also am afraid I'm not going to be able to write a decent follow up book to Finding Meara.

Photo Courtesy freedigitalphotos.net

In other words, I'm scared I'm going to fail.

"Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out." Benjamin Franklin

Thanks, Ben. Part of me seized when I read this quote. Does he mean me, right now? Am I going to know failure? But then I caught on to how freeing it can be to embrace failure. Sure, we'll all know failure at some time, which means we might as well get on with it all. If we fail, we just do something different next time. No biggie.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill

Excellent point, Winston. Even if we do succeed once, there is no guarantee that we won't ever fail again. And no one is going to take away our respective birthdays if we do fail. In the grand scheme of things, at least for me, the stakes of writing aren't all that high. My ego is at risk, but that's about all.

"Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure." Confucius

The courage to continue on and keep moving forward becomes the previous preparation Confucius is talking about. We get better, we learn new things and can try different methods to accomplish that for which we are working so hard.

So I guess the answer is no, the option of failure can not be avoided.  But we need to be courageous and try, anyway. Otherwise, it's guaranteed we will never experience success.

How do you handle the fear of failure?

Three Reasons Why Revision Make Me Nervous

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For those of you who have written novels and gone through the revision process, this might seem like a silly post.  Why on earth would revisions make a person nervous?

The answer (in my case) is threefold:

1.  It begins with my personality.  Besides the fact that being prone to anxiety runs in the Italian side of my family, I was informed several years ago by a colleague that I am an "external processor," rather than an "internal processor."  That means that I have to talk my thoughts out, often to another person, to give them form and structure.  (Thank God my husband is extremely patient.)

My problem is that I'm not to the point where I am ready to show any writer friends the manuscript, and my husband isn't versed in the craft of writing and revising fiction. I can't even use him as a beta-reader, because he hates reading in first-person.  This inability to really talk out my thoughts and concerns leaves me a little befuddled.  I can't seem to make a decision that I don't doubt.  Which leads to reason number two...

2.  I am no longer working on the first-draft.  That means I don't have permission anymore to make crap.   I am supposed to clean up the first draft "mess" and shine it and make it all better.  The problem?  I have never written a novel before.  I have never revised a novel before.  I must still rely on instinct as to the process of revising, as well as what I'm doing to "fix" my novel.  Which leads to reason number three...

3. Remember that risk post a couple of weeks back?  Well, I am stretching and growing, both as a writer and as a person. It feels uncomfortable.

The simple truth, though, is if I don't get going, I am going to fail.  I will still have the first draft of Finding Meara, as well as any number of other first drafts, waiting to be revised when I'm eighty.  I will never know if my work was publishable or not, because I didn't give it a chance, because I was too afraid to revise wrong.  How silly does that sound!

Last night, I decided to just dig in.  If I don't get the process "right" and it takes me forever, such is life.  If I don't get started, it's going to take me forever, anyway.  I might as well get on with it.  And who knows, maybe it will all turn out okay!

Which kind of "processor" do you think you are?  Is there anything about the revision process that makes you nervous?

What Risks Are There in Writing?

Risk is not the first thing we think of when we hear the word “writer.”  More likely, the vision of a person safely tucked away in an office somewhere, bent over a typewriter comes to mind.

There are risks within the writing life, though.

Photo Courtesy of digitalart

 “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” Jim Rohn

While writing, there may be the temptation to stick with what we know, or not to push past our boundaries of what is comfortable.  When we do so, we end up with the ordinary.  We must write “brave and free.”  We have to continually be on the lookout for the unusual, and sometimes the uncomfortable.

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anais Nin

We risk exposing our inner selves to the world through our writing, thereby exposing ourselves to rejection.  We know that “it’s not personal,” but sometimes it is difficult to separate the person from the writer.  However, there can be greater pain in not finding our own voices, but in trying to play it safe, hiding our voice, and writing for other people’s approval.

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” TS Eliot.

We risk our sense of security every time we stretch ourselves and reach for our dreams.  When over seventy-five percent of the nation has stated they dream of being a writer, the odds can look pretty small that any one person will make it far enough to be called a success.

If we don’t stretch ourselves, though, we can never know if we could have been in the small percentage that did make it.  It would always be a question in the back of our minds, an itch we couldn't scrath.

While writing can be very risky to our stability and sense of self-worth, what are the risks of not being a writer?  Which risk do you choose?

First Draft Done! Now What?

This has been a great writerly week for me. 

It started on Tuesday, when I got an e-mail from Hogglepot, a fantasy webzine, that they did indeed want to publish my story, Bear Hug, in February.  Yay! 

Bear Hug is the first contemporary fantasy story I wrote, and I really wanted people to read it - not because I think it's the best story I ever wrote, but because I genuinely like the story.  The ending came with a flash of inspiration, not planning. I think that is when my muse introduced herself to me.

I will post when it is up over at Hogglepot, in case you want to take a peek!  I have been reading their webzine since I found the listing on duotrope and I've enjoyed the stories they have run.  If you like quirky fantasy, I suggest you check them out!

Then, on Wednesday, I finally finished the first draft of Finding Meara.  Yay!

However, my reaction when I put down the final period baffled me.  I don't know what I expected to happen, but I can tell you what didn't happen.

A choir of angels did not come down from heaven to sing the hallelujah chorus.

A marching band didn't parade through my living room, playing kick-you-know-what music.

President Obama didn't call me from the Oval Office, offering congratulations on a job well done.

What did happen:  I sat very still on my couch, and thought "That's it?"  And then my next thought was, "Now what?"

I wondered if there was something wrong with me.  I still don't have the need to do a happy dance.  I could analyze myself to death about why I am feeling... well... nothing, really, but I think it would be a waste of time.  This week I read an excellent post at The Write Practice called Your Successes Will Never Be Successful Enough, so I'm just going to link it here.

I'm not whining, mind you.  Finishing the first draft of Finding Meara is a milestone on the journey to becoming a novelist, for sure.  I am happy to have finished, and proud of the work I have done so far.  But it is only one of those action steps every writer must take on the path to publication.  

The answer to my "Now what?" is, of course, revisions, writing more stories, and learning how to write query letters, a synopsis, a "blurb," a pitch, and so one. Already I am planning my next few months, fitting my writing goals into the cracks of time left over in my everyday life.

But, I am going to take the lesson learned from Joe Bunting at the Write Practice, and enjoy this successful week for what it is. 

Because I finished my first draft, I am going to take a four day holiday (instead of just two days) from writing, and enjoy my Christmas, and my family, and not worry about the novel.

And I am going to wish you all a very merry Holiday Season!  I hope it is filled with peace and contentment and all the important things!

An Unrecognized Positive of Platform Building

I have a confession to make.  I have been platform-building obsessed.  The fact that last night, when I started talking with my husband about this blog post, my four year old asked me if I had any new followers is proof of it.  Both of my children are knowledgeable about Twitter, tweets, and Tweetdeck.  They know the logos by sight.  But my need for a self-help group is not the subject of this blog post, so I'll continue one.

As a beginning writer, I put platform-building off because it seemed a silly idea.  I hadn’t had any success, none of my writing had been published anywhere, and who would I be talking to, anyway?  However, after it became clear I was hooked on writing, I decided to join in and began platform-building.  I started a personal Facebook page, and then a blog several months later.  My last holdout was Twitter, which I started in August.  Over time, and as my platform has grown, I have begun to recognize some positives to platform-building, the biggest two being support and motivation.

When I started writing, I concentrated on short stories.  I learned Heinlein’s Rules early on, and once I had a finished story that seemed to make sense, I started sending them out onto the submission trail of tears.  Having stories in submission, even if they were ultimately rejected, gave me the feeling of being a “real” writer.  I was engaged vicariously with the writing industry, and on occasion editors gave me favorable feedback, even if they ultimately rejected the story. 

Then I began writing my first novel.  I no longer submitted short stories, because I didn’t have any new ones to offer.  Without submitting, I also lost the sense of engagement with the writing industry and/or community.  That’s when my blog became important.

I moved my blog from tumblr to Blogger last November, about the same time that I started my novel.   I felt pretty sad about the whole blog thing because I had no followers, except my husband, one of my best friends from high school, and my cousin, who also writes.  I sincerely appreciated their kindness, but it did feel like pity-following.  At my cousin’s wise counsel, I soldiered on, and eventually got two non-related followers.  Then I was in business.  The knowledge that there were two people out in cyberspace who expected me to deliver my writing to them on a regular basis kept me blogging, even if it seemed useless because I didn’t even have a book to offer them.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, when I received a rejection from a big-name webzine.  The typical “what the heck am I doing” started running through my mind.  I thought about giving up, but the knowledge that I now had a few more than twenty followers on my blog and a little under a hundred twitter followers held me accountable to my dreams.  How could I just close up shop when all these people were watching?  I didn't want to be a quitter in front of an audience.

No, the numbers aren’t large, but they are my numbers, and quite honestly, I feel pretty convinced that the followers I do have are meaningful.  Yes, on Twitter especially, there are the people I know followed me because they want to sell me (and my friends) their book, but many of the people I have gotten to know through blogging and tweeting are people that I enjoy hearing how their lives are going.  They are people who have similar thoughts and ideas, hopes and dreams.  I have found support through platform building that motivates me to continue down the writing road.

Have you recognized any positives from platform building in your life?

Three Magical Quotes Supporting Writing Regularly (whether you feel like it or not)

Over the last year, I have mentioned in my blog posts, on forums and to pretty much anyone who would listen how writing daily has been one of the best bits of advice I received when I first started writing.  While I was researching this post last night, I read a post-repeat from James Scott Bell about the Ten Commandments for Writers (read it here) where he stressed again coming up with weekly word count goals.  Whether it be writing daily for ten minutes or creating weekly word count goals, regular writing is key to improving your writing skills and exercising your imagination muscles.

Quote 1.  "Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it.  Action has magic, grace and power in it."   Johann Wolfgang

By sitting down daily and creating, a door is opened which allows the magic, grace and power of the imagination (or what some call the muse) out for a little exercise.  Each time the door is opened, our muses venture a little further into the creative realm.  Instead of having to wait for Inspiration to smack us upside the head, our muses bring Inspiration to us.  But first we have to act, we have to open the door.

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Quote 2.  "Love and magic have a great deal in common.  They enrich the soul, delight the heart.  And they both take practice."  Unknown

I am a firm believer in practice making things better, if not perfect.  Two of the toughest things I am trying to teach myself in my life are how to love well and fully, and how to write engaging stories that bring magic to my audience.  I don’t think it is possible to ever reach the pinnacle of either pursuit.  The joy is truly in the journey.  In the case of writing, continuing the trip each day allows progression down the road.  With regular practice, we will find success much sooner than if we sit on the couch and wait until we feel called to write.

Quote 3.  "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it."  Roald Dahl

Have you ever written something, felt it was totally uninspired and dull, and then when you re-read it the next day or the next week, you were able to take the sentences, polish them up, and they turned out to be crucial to your story's next steps?  That happened to me this week.  I was feeling terribly dried up last week when I hand wrote about three pages of my novel in a notebook.  I was totally convinced it was crap, and I was dumb to think I would ever write something other people would want to read. 

At the beginning of the week, I pulled out the pages and grimly started typing them into the computer.  (Because, dammit, I’m going to finish a novel!)  As I typed along, I added some things, took out others, and suddenly I was kind of digging where the story was going.  A cool idea how I might incorporate a dragon arose from the unlikely place of those dried-up, uninspired words.  Charles de Lint says it perfectly.  “That’s the thing with magic.  You’ve got to know it’s still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible to you.”