What’s It Really Like, Being a Writer?
I got some great questions, last night, about the so-called writing life. I decided to answer them here, because they were such good questions that I thought, you know, I’m sure someone else would like to read these. And maybe share them with a different writer, for their answers. Because every writer, I think, is going to answer these differently. To some extent, at least. My approach to writing, as both a love and as a career, is reflective of a certain ethic and, let’s face it: there’s a reason my friends tell me that Clint Eastwood is my spirit animal. Is that ethic negative? I think no. To me, there’s nothing more empowering than honesty. With yourself, with others, and about your situation. Writing isn’t easy; in fact, there’s a solid argument to be made that this is the hardest profession you could possibly choose. But it can also be the best. Success, in any field, takes work. Work when you don’t feel like working, work when you don’t feel like doing anything at all. Every once in a while I encounter someone who’s convinced themselves that writing is “easy,” that it’s some kind of golden ticket. For them…my advice isn’t what they want to hear. But for everyone else: I’m honest, because that’s my nature. And because I want you to succeed.
How do you get started with a new novel?
Back when I was first writing, every page was a torment. Especially the first page. I’d obsess over it for hours. But writing is a lot like basketball: reviewing tapes can be helpful but, in the end, the only thing that improves you is practice. I’ve said before that I wrote a million words of crap before I wrote a single thing that I thought was worth publishing, and it’s true. Actually, I wrote more than a million words of crap. I completed numerous manuscripts. And the first time I did, oh boy, I felt like I’d just conquered the world. Of course, the prose was unbearable and the story it contained…what story?
Five completed manuscripts, plus dozens and dozens of short stories, half stories, manuscripts I started and abandoned…I’ve never gone back to any of them. They served their purpose, which was teaching me everything I didn’t know about how to write. Now, your mileage may vary; I have writer friends who’ve produced work they were really proud of much sooner. Although we all evolve as writers. If, that is, we’re doing it right. My first “real” novel was published several years ago and, working on the final edits for my thirteenth novel now I’m amazed at how much I’ve continued to evolve. Were I to sit down and write The Price of Desire now, I’d do it completely differently. What made me decide, though, that that novel was the one? That I was ready? I really have no idea; that’s just one of those things, like knowing when you want to date somebody. You just know. But, regardless, you shouldn’t expect to publish the first thing you finish.
Writing is a craft like any other; even if you do end up publishing your first completed manuscript, it’s not going to represent the apex of your abilities. No one’s a master right out of the gate. Moreover, pushing yourself to publish something, anything, in order to (hopefully) make money isn’t going to work. It’s putting the cart before the horse. Would you buy a piece of furniture from someone who didn’t know the difference between a chisel and an awl? Would you set yourself up as a master cabinetmaker if you’d never held either? People pay for quality; not to be guinea pigs.
If you want guinea pigs, the best thing to do–in my opinion–is create an account on Wattpad. You’ll get feedback, and lots of it. And, as with every other craft, the most negative feedback is usually the most helpful. When it comes to writing, your ego is most definitely not your amigo. The more you can put it aside, the better off you’ll be. And in many cases, of course, Wattpad leads to great things. Some of the most successful authors working today have begun by giving their work away for free, whether on Wattpad or some other site.
And finally, don’t polish turds. I know so many would be writers who are still, years on, editing and re-editing the same manuscript. And while I understand the temptation, this is a really bad idea. Going back to the basketball analogy, that’s like playing one game and then spending the next decade analyzing it. You may become an expert in that game, in that one tape of that game, but you won’t learn how to play basketball. You only learn to play basketball–to do anything–by getting out there. Try, and try again. Be willing to make a fool of yourself. If something doesn’t work, then scrap it and try something else. Coaching is really helpful, but only to the extent that you have an internal sense of who you are as a player. Lucius Annaeus Seneca said, if one does not know to what port one is sailing, all winds are favorable. And it’s true: knowing yourself is what’s going to help you separate the good advice from the bad. Or maybe not even bad, just not applicable.
Write every day. If you’re stuck on a story, start a new one. The specter of beginning grows less and less horrifying, the more you write. Having well over a million published words under my belt, at this point, beginning is no different than middling or ending. I’m so used to the act of writing that I can focus completely on my story.
How thoroughly do you outline and plan before you start writing?
Not very. I’m not an outliner. Not because I don’t see the value in outlines, but because they just don’t work for me creatively. My characters tend to grow and change on me, and new characters tend to simply appear. At some point, I feel like, for every author there’s that moment when the story–for lack of a better term–comes alive. After which point an outline can become a hindrance. I don’t want to feel any divided loyalties between the story I’d planned on writing, a few days or weeks or months ago, and the story that now needs to be told. That being said, I am a notetaker. I always start out with a general idea for my plot; I know the beginning, middle, and end. I usually add to my notes, during the actual writing process, as ideas come to me.
I know people who’ve gotten so trapped in the preplanning phase that they’ve completely lost sight of their story. An outline, to the extent that you even want to use one, is a tool. Nothing more, and nothing less. Getting so bogged down in the minutiae of your proposed world that you end up creating a tabletop gaming manual is…not helpful. Whatever outlining you do, whatever world building you do, it should always be in service to the story. And people want to read stories. Recently, I was asked to beta read a manuscript that began with over ten thousand words of description of the flora and fauna on a hypothetical planet in a hypothetical solar system. Now, I knew that everything about this planet was incredibly important to the author; but readers don’t care. Readers want characters, and plots. Remember the iceberg rule: only about 10% of what you’re thinking should be visible.
I keep looking at my writing and feeling like it’s not quite good enough, not quite there, missing something. Do you ever feel like that? And, if so, how do you handle it?
I feel like that all the time. Every writer does. A career in the arts is an exercise in self-doubt.
I deal with it, honestly, by ignoring it. I’m writing for me; these are stories, inside of me, that I have to tell. I know, in my own heart, when I’ve gotten it right. Which still makes bad reviews disappointing but…hey. That’s what this fabled thing called work-life balance is for. I go for a walk or, if my son is home, play with him. According to Stephen King, you can write for yourself or you can write for other people but I personally believe that all good writers are writing for themselves. You have to have something you’re trying to say, that’s unique to you; that’s about more than wanting to be a writer. Write what you’d write if you were trapped, for the rest of your life, on a desert island and knew that no one else would ever read a single word.
And yes, of course, it’s easy for me to say all of this…now. Because my iceberg is my million words of crap. I practiced, and practiced, and practiced until my writing was good enough, was there, and wasn’t missing something. At least, to me. For hours, every day. For years. Does it take everyone else as long? Maybe not. Some people are probably “natural writers” in the way that some people are so-called “natural athletes,” meaning they need less practice time. But Larry Bird, famously, was told by coach after coach that he’d always be a benchwarmer. How hard you have to train has nothing to do with the potential you can eventually achieve.
What kind of income is realistic for a new writer, if I manage to publish a novel?
Most writing hopefuls look at getting published as the apex achievement, and equate the famousness of their eventual publisher with their chances of success. But how you’re published doesn’t matter and you shouldn’t plan on making any money at all on your first book. You might! But you shouldn’t plan on it. First of all, your publisher isn’t the gatekeeper: the reader is. A good book is a good book and readers care about quality, not name brand. I know a number of writers who scored excellent deals with Top Five publishers, only to find themselves back where they started a year or two later. And I know a number of writers who are self-published, and who do very well for themselves. More importantly, though, is that however you’re published you have to keep writing. Publishing one book and expecting that to be that is like showing up for your first day at a new job and asking where you sign to receive your retirement package. Writing is a career like any other; expect to put in thirty years.
And yes, there’s a handful in every field. Stephenie Meyer, E.L. James, Mark Zuckerberg. They, from the outside looking in, seem–and, again, I stress seem–to effortlessly dominate. But however adaptable these public personae might be to our private fantasies, their achievements (real or imagined) are irrelevant. Success is about being happy; no one should, in my opinion, choose any career out of a desire to amass wealth. At my advanced age of thirty-three I can tell you that Bob Marley is right: “Money is just numbers and numbers never end. If it takes money to be happy, your search for happiness will never end.” Do something for love, on the other hand, because you just can’t imagine waking up and doing anything else, and you’ll never regret your life.
But will you be able to eat?
There are a lot of writers who make a living as writers, but most don’t. Most writers have day jobs. The last time I checked, according to Forbes, the average yearly income for a traditionally published author was 10K USD per year. The average income for a self-published author was 5K USD per year. Now, these numbers are a little skewed; the self-published category is taking into account a lot of real drivel. More self-published authors earn 100K USD per year than traditionally published authors. Either way, though, these numbers can be depressing.
Before I started writing full time, I was an attorney.
As to how much money you can realistically hope to make…there’s really no answer to that question. Some authors do incredibly well right off the bat. Others struggle for years. How much money you need, to live the life you want, is a better question. If you’re fortunate enough to live in a country with socialized healthcare, so much the better. I live in Massachusetts, which is the best state in the Union for a lot of reasons, but no state–and no country–is exactly a utopia for the arts. Especially these days. Do you live with your parents? Do you otherwise have a solid social and economic support network? What are you looking at for costs related to things like healthcare? Even for those of us who do comparatively well, we’re still responsible for (in America) purchasing our own. How comfortable do you feel, realistically, with the idea of working ten or twelve hours a day for what might turn out to be less than minimum wage?
How much time do you spend writing every day?
I write for at least eight hours per day, six days per week. I write every day, but Saturdays or Sundays I often write somewhat less; usually around four hours. Then, I spend another two to four hours on writing-related activities–like this blog. Writing is a full time job, like any other. You can’t treat any job like a hobby, and expect it to remain a job much less expect to get ahead.
How do you find the time and energy and motivation?
Compared to the hours I spent working at jobs I hated to put myself through eight years of school, writing after dinner was a joy. I grew up poor, and that taught me discipline. I never suffered from the middle class expectation of “time off.” Everyone I knew had multiple jobs. I didn’t think about being tired, I was just grateful for the opportunity. An opportunity that, I knew, a lot of people didn’t have. I think, there’s a certain mindset out there that views time away from TV and games as “unfair.” The truth, though, is that success requires sacrifice. Expecting success to come without making any changes to your own approach, or lifestyle, is simply entitlement. When I was tired, or wanted to do something else, I ignored that.
My motivation came, ultimately, from the fact that there was nothing I wanted to do more than write. That’s still true, today. It’s not about the money, for me; I want to be able to eat but, more than that, writing is just something I have to do. If I knew I’d never make another penny, I’d be pretty discouraged…but I wouldn’t stop writing. The hardest thing for me, honestly, isn’t sitting down to write but getting up to do anything else. I’m exceedingly fortunate that my husband is willing to help out around the house! To succeed in this field, to succeed in any field this challenging, you really do need strong support. I can tell you honestly that I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am, I wouldn’t be anywhere at all, if it weren’t for my husband. And not because he’s willing to vacuum, although that certainly helps; but because he understands my dreams.
How do you get feedback while you’re working on something?
I joined Wattpad, because I wanted beta readers. Asking your friends is…a mistake. If they can even motivate to read your story which, in all honesty, they probably won’t, they’re not going give you feedback that might hurt your feelings. If you want real feedback, ask total strangers. Initially, it did hurt my feelings that most of my friends couldn’t be bothered to so much as read a blurb, let alone an opening chapter; and as for my friends (“friends”) who are writers…the jealousy is strong. This is a field full of needlessly competitive, talentless hacks who often spend more time trying to sabotage each other than actually writing. The fact that I manage to pay my bills with my books, at least most of the time, has made me enemies.
Your first goal, every writer’s first goal, should be to save enough money to hire an editor.
And then, over time, you’re going to want to build your own team: of people dedicated to your success. That team should ideally include an editor and a publicist, but it should also include the people attracted to your platform: your fans on Wattpad and Tumblr and Twitter and Facebook. Get out there, be friendly, be humble, and make connections. And realize that, even if every single one of your friends bought every single one of your books, it wouldn’t make a difference to your bottom line. Your success, just like your feedback, is going to come from without. You’re not selling Amway, here; to make 50K USD per year, before taxes, you’re going to have to sell 40 books per day. Every day. I’ve had writers (and hawkers of Scentsy and whatever else) tell me that I had to “prove” my friendship by doing or buying something. Which led to, when I refused, their ending the friendship. Keep your career separate.
Now I’m turning it over to you, readers: what question(s) should I answer next?
