Achieve Writing Goals Without Writing
My first book. You’ve never heard of it. But I did it.I seldom mention self-help books, because I think too many of us grab that genre as though it’s an anchor and we spend too much time trying to fix ourselves.
Writers especially do this. Only the soupcon of writers who are highly successful—nay, famous—are not included in that category. But even traditionally published authors with decent sales say, “if only my book hit like hers,” or “wonder why his book got so much attention, when mine actually said it better”?
The rest of us schleps know we’ve written till we feel like dry skeletons sitting at a keyboard or plotted so much we’ve forgotten how things work IRL. I often joke, especially when people ask, “Would I know your books?” the same ol’ line: “Most of my career, I’ve clunked around in the bargain basement of publishing.”
This is dishonorable to my self. Sure, it’s a handy get-out-of-this-conversation card when asked a dumb question like “have I heard of you?” That question is akin to telling someone, “Here’s what I’d do if I were you…” If you were me, you’d do exactly as I’m already doing. Because you’d be ME!
This one nonfiction writer, Sue Varma, MD, hit the spot with me. Her book, Practical Optimism, grabbed me with the word “practical.” I’m not into The Secret, see-it-and-be-it visualization magic, and it’s TL;DR for me with great deep thinkers like Bessel van der Kolk in The Body Keeps the Score.
One thing Practical Optimism teaches is looking back at your successes rather than measuring what you didn’t get, a common measuring stick for writers. I believe I have a vast canyon of failures, without thinking about that I once got a job as an assistant to a major literary agent. Sure, I was more of a secretary and only given the slop to read that the agent would never have liked anyway, but I did that.
And I became a literary agent. I sold books. To major publishers. I got a ghostwriting gig in the mid-1990s that paid $60,000. The book was a NYT bestseller and even featured on ABC-TV. I published my first book when I was 30, with a traditional publisher.
Usually when I think of these accomplishments, I season it with, “Oh, I was young and pretty then. It was easy to get up in the world.” I totally discount all the effort and finesse I put in to make those things happen.
Because the reality is, right now I have 37 subscribers to this blog, and I only think of today.
If you’ve been writing for several years, you compare your wishes from back then to the reality that is now. Many of us start out with such bright hope. Then we wither with cynicism and wrinkle with disappointment.
Take time to go back to your accomplishments. You are the same person! Allow your past victories of whatever size to be part of your life now. They’re not gone. Victories never die.
Take whatever you can from your past that helps your current self. Write down those successes and look at them daily. Keep them front of mind, instead of how much money you didn’t make or how many copies you didn’t sell or what you didn’t publish.
And if your following is only 37 readers, like me, smile at that success. I am grateful to that group of people.
