Writing Without Holding Your Finger to the Wind

When I go to conferences and people ask me what the latest “trend” is, I have to admit, I kind of turn off and decide that these people don’t really want to hear the truth about writing. I mean, what’s the point of going deep and telling people the hardest lessons of my life if all they want to hear about is what is selling right now not because it is good, but because it is a trend? Do you want to know how to write well or do you want to make money? There are a lot of ways to make money that aren’t as hard as writing. Porn, for instance. Why not go do that?

But then I try to calm down and remind myself that a lot of writers are confused, and that I used to be one of those writers. I used to think to myself that hey, I’m flexible, I am a great writer and if I need to steer myself a little in this direction to get published, well, I can do that. I can write to a trend and still write well. Yeah, like I said, I was deluded. Or maybe I just became a little less patient with the world and decided that I was right more often than other people are.

I certainly give different advice today than I used to. If you want to write to trends and you think that you’re going to feel better about yourself if you make money writing, who am I to tell you that you’re wrong? Maybe that works for you and if so, go for it. Figure out all the trends, write a computer program to tell you where to make money this year and next year. Maybe you can plug in book titles, movie numbers, and current events and be able to get out hot topics to write about.

For me, I spend most of my time trying to keep people from looking over my shoulder while I’m writing. That means that I don’t share my ideas for books with other people until they’re written. I don’t ask my agent or my editor what they think about my latest idea until I know myself what I think about my latest idea and am ready for critical feedback on how well I achieved my goal with words on the page. I literally close my computer if one of my family members comes to sit by me on the couch because I don’t want any feedback at all while I’m writing a precious, vulnerable first draft. And I certainly don’t talk about my drafts on social media on-line.

The hardest work of being a writer is, in my opinion, the mental work of keeping at it. It’s telling yourself that your words matter. Because there are too many other things that are easier to do, and really, who knows if they aren’t just as fulfilling? One of the best writers I ever knew gave up after years of publishing because he decided that he had better things to do with his free time. And that idea just keeps niggling away at me. There are a lot of things to choose to do besides writing and plenty of people find them satisfying. So why am I doing this very hard thing again? Oh yeah, it matters. It matters to me. It matters to my soul. So I don’t take it lightly. I don’t sell myself short.

Looking at what this writer is doing is a distraction to my work. Obviously, I don’t mean you shouldn’t read books by other writers. I read a lot, for pleasure and also to see how other people do things. There are great lessons in other authors’ works. But I feel that’s distinctly different than peeking at someone else’s work, so to speak, comparing my work to theirs and seeing if I measure up. Letting myself imagine that maybe I should be doing what that person is doing, because look, they’re having a lot of success. That’s the point that you need to stop reading and get on with your own work.

I’ve stopped caring about what’s hot and it’s done something to my work that I think is extraordinary. I used to think that as a writer, you should listen to feedback from readers about what you’re doing. You can learn from that feedback, right? Make a better widget. Well, I’m not making a widget. I’m not writing a book to fit into someone else’s niche of entertainment. I’m writing out my heart and soul, and I’m really the only one who can decide if I’ve gotten it right. I don’t think this makes me a narcissist. I think this makes me an writer, and a damned good one.