Is Writing an Act of Courage, or a Leap of Faith?
Once Humans – Best Science Fiction & Best Science Fiction Romance
“What am I doing?” Is there anyone who at one time or another hasn’t questioned why he’s hitting keys of a hot computer’s keyboard?
Do you have to dig to find the strength to keep going when you reread your work and feel it might have been better if you had hit the keys with your feet?
You forsake an evening with friends because you want to finish a poem or a story only to have someone ask, “How much are you going to make from this?” Do you fantasize strangling the speaker?
Do you wake up in the middle of the night wondering if you can ever say what you want to say, how you want to say it, when you want to say it, and summon the same demons and lure the same angels?
All writers have down moments. Sometimes these last weeks and months. I’m not talking writers block, I’m talking stomach-churning doubts that you will not be good enough. It happens to new writers. It happens to published writers who take too seriously the statement, “you are only as good as your last published piece.”
How do we get the courage to keep fighting, to keep writing? With few exceptions, writers will not experience the financial rewards that many in our societies say is the mark of success. We have to have the courage to set our own benchmark for success that reflects our values, and not those of the society around us.
There are two situations for writers. Those who have a supportive environment, be it family members or other writers (or both), have it easier than those surrounded by people who do not understand our need to write: “Why are you wasting your time?”
A fellow writer giving constructive criticism is beyond value. A family that gives you time alone to write, maybe brings you a cup of tea when they feel you need it, is wonderful. If it is family making you doubt yourself, that is harder. Wives and children may resent the time you spend ‘daydreaming’. Parents, if they are not readers or writers, won’t understand what you are doing. Disowning family, although at times tempting, may not be the best solution. Don’t try and make them understand. Write when they aren’t around and don’t discuss it. It’s an old public relations truth not to waste time on those who are negative. Work with those who are positive or — at worse — neutral.
Writers need encouragement as much as flowers need water. Try and find people to encourage you the same way you search for the right word in a sentence to convey your exact meaning.
What about the rejections? Times are a-changing. Rejections doesn’t mean anymore that you will not have readers, and remind yourself of all the great writers who have been rejected. (Jack London alone some 600 times.)
All writers have started out making all the normal mistakes: too many adverbs, too many adjectives, too much ‘there was, he was, she was verb-ing’, and telling not showing, etc. But as writers gain experience, their work becomes crisper and cleaner. Some writers, even after their work has been published or have author-published and have adoring readers, still fight doubts. They were accepted in a minor not a major literary magazine, their book didn’t sell as much as they hoped, the Publisher Weekly didn’t review their book, or Kirkus just came out with a review that is nothing more than a synopsis.
Anyone who is creative enough to write can be creative enough to wallow in self-doubt.
The problem with doubt is that it saps the energy we need to make our work stronger.
Some always ask the same question: “How do I know when I am a writer? Do I have to be published?” To me a writer is someone who needs to write, and s/he’s also an author when s/he tries to write the best s/he can and is constantly looking for better ways to conjure the visions that haunt during the night.
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