Over the course of time I've observed many writers rise through the ranks
and achieve professional status. Some have gone on to make substantial incomes
and long-term careers. A number of them were students in my workshops, which
gave me a good opportunity to analyze what characteristics they have in
common.
I've spotted seven that dominate.
Seven that you can replicate in your own writing life.
1. Love
"You must want it enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay
the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any
other artist you must learn your craft—then you can add all the genius you like."
– Phyllis Whitney
An inner fire to make it as a writer is what will get you through years of cold
reality.
I'm of the opinion that you ought to have more than the mere desire to make
money. The majority of writers who make it to full-time status love what they
do. They have to, because the early returns are almost always skimpy.
Do you have that love? Is writing your calling?
When I was just starting out on my writing life I saw a photograph of
Stephen King, early in his career, with his feet up on his desk and his dog
underneath. He was dressed casually and going over a manuscript. I knew that
was the kind of working life I wanted. I put that picture up in my office.
I'd look at that picture each day and let the feeling sink in.
Then I would act on the feeling. I would write.
That's the important part.
When you feel the desire, turn it into energy at the keyboard.
Repeat this over and over, daily, weekly, yearly…and you will begin to get
the feeling of being unstoppable.
I must mention here that there is also a toxic form of love and desire (the
stuff of many classic novels, of course). That's when you want something so
much you get embittered if you don't get it, or you begin to envy others who
have what you don't.
It's a careful balancing act. I have more to say on that in the chapter titled
Make a Life, Not Just a Living.
For now, let positive love fuel your fire.
2. Discipline
"Even if there is a price to be paid, don't be afraid to use appropriate
discipline. It may hurt in the short term, but it will pay dividends in the future. I
believe one of the big lessons of sports for dedicated individuals and teams is
that it shows us how hard work, and I mean hard work, does pay dividends. The
great dividend is not necessarily outscoring an opponent. The guaranteed
dividend is the complete peace of mind gained in knowing you did everything
within your power, physically, mentally, and emotionally, to bring forth your
full potential." – John Wooden, legendary UCLA basketball coach
As a high school basketball player, I got to go to the John Wooden basketball
camp one summer. He was at the height of his fame then, the most successful
college coach, in any sport, of all time.
What was his secret? It was his disciplined approach to hard work and
fundamentals. You learned the fundamentals, and practiced them, over and over.
This was, quite often, sheer drudgery. We all wanted to get out on the floor and
play!
But the discipline paid off. When we did get out on the court we were much
better players. That's why Wooden had so many of his boys make it to the pros.
Even if they weren't stars, they could often have a long and respectable career.
Because of discipline.
Writers, you need it too, if you want to have a shot of making a living at your
vocation.
3. Perseverance
"The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep
us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want
something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it
badly enough. They're there to stop the other people." – Randy Pausch, The Last
Lecture
If you love to write, it's always too soon to quit.
If things aren't working out as fast as you want them to, don't give up. Figure
out what you can be doing differently, and then try that.
It may mean writing a different kind of book.
Or it may mean writing the same kind of book even better.
But the true writer puts this thought in mind: I am going to write and never
stop because that's what I want to do. I will keep learning and growing and
producing the words. I'll keep carving out time to write, even if it means giving
some things up. Because this is what I want to do. This is why it's always too
soon to quit.
4. A Sound Mind
By which I mean the ability to overcome emotionalism and see things
objectively. To take some of the hard knocks that are part of the writer's life and
turn them into opportunities to grow stronger.
One of the key mental disciplines to develop is the ability to slay
expectations.
It's okay to desire things and it is good to set goals and try to attain them. But
expectations are killers.
An expectation is an obligation you place on the future. But the future has its
own ideas and it's all out of your control. If the future doesn't meet your
expectations, you suffer. You are disappointed, even to the point of despair.
Try with all your might not to set up expectations. Concentrate on your
pages, your craft, and do your best. Then let your books out into the world to do
what they do.
The ancient Stoics got this one right. Epictetus said, "There is only one way
to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the
power of our will."
That's having a sound mind.
5. Business Savvy
"Drive thy business or it will drive thee." – Benjamin Franklin
If you want to make a living as a writer, you have to approach writing and
publishing as a business.
A successful business makes a profit. To make a profit you need a plan.
Many writers and other artists shudder at this notion. Some even rebel
against it. For them writing success is usually an accident.
I don't want you to be an accident. I want you to think like an entrepreneur.
Even if you work with an agent and/or publisher, do not leave all business
decisions to others. You simply can't afford to do that anymore. The successful
writer is the informed writer.
"Our general conclusion is that self-publishing is beginning to mature. While
it continues to be a force to reckon with, it is evolving from a frantic, wild-west
style space to a more serious business," said Beat Barblan, Bowker Director of
Identifier Services, in 2014. "The market is stabilizing as the trend of self-
publisher as business-owner, rather than writer only, continues."
The good news is that basic business principles are not hard to understand.
It's just a matter of putting them into practice.
I cover those principles in the next chapter.
6. A Support System
Writing is, by and large, a lonely life. As author Peter Straub once put it:
"Every writer must acknowledge and be able to handle the unalterable fact that
he has, in effect, given himself a life sentence in solitary confinement."
Thus, what every writer needs is support from other people.
Being with a writer can be tough, because our minds wander. We watch Being with a writer can be tough, because our minds wander. We watch
interesting people at a restaurant. We eavesdrop. Our brains tune out a
conversation as we suddenly start thinking about our WIP.
Whenever I go to a hospital to visit someone, I must confess that half my
mind is thinking, Hm, this would make a good detail in a scene….
So give a little grace to your loved ones and friends. Take time to hang out
with positive people and winnow out those who drag you down.
Seek the fellowship of other writers. A writers conference is a great way to
meet other scribes. Email makes it easy to keep in touch. Consider forming a
circle of such friends.
Use the law of reciprocity. You tend to get back what you give. Be a support
to others and you will be supported in return.
It's always good to know that while you may write alone, you're not alone in
life.
7. Talent
"Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb." – Calvin Coolidge
This is by far the least important item.
That's right, the least.
First of all, there's no real measurement for talent. It's a subjective thing.
There is no final arbiter of what constitutes talent. It's a little like what a
Supreme Court justice once said about obscenity: I can't define it, but I know it
when I see it.
You do have to have some ability to string sentences together in a coherent
fashion. This is a matter of education and the habit of reading.
Winston Churchill, one of the great men of the twentieth century, is mainly
known today as the Prime Minister of England during that country's darkest
hour, World War II. His steel character and stirring speeches helped inspire his
nation and keep the Nazis at bay. What is not so much remembered is that he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature!
To what did he attribute his ability to write the kind of prose that would win
the ultimate prize? His reading at a young age, when he was getting the sound"of
the English sentence firmly planted in his brain.
At the end of this book I have a suggested reading list, both fiction and non - fiction. Some of the books are challenging, but you need a challenge to grow
your ability to write.
One thing I suggest: both read and listen to books. Listening to audio books
puts the rhythm of the language in your brain by a different route. The more
routes, the better.
Further: do what many writers of old used to do—copy passages of books
word for word. Write them out in long hand.
Get words into your head!
Study vocabulary. Increase the number of words you know. Even though our
culture is headed downhill as far as reading comprehension, the more you know
the language, the better off you'll be.
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