In this world of indie publishing, anyone and everyone is writing a book, but should they be?
I might be a jerk for bringing this up, but I’ll say it.
I see a lot of crappy books out there.
It makes me wonder—if all these writers think they’re good, and I am just as optimistic about my abilities, could I be mistaken too?
Of Human Bondage by William Somerset Maugham is one of my favorite books about this creative dilemma. Fed up with a dreary accounting job, our protagonist, Phillip, goes to Paris to become a painter. He does well, but never creates anything extraordinary.
After the suicide of a classmate, who for all her artistic passion was a lousy painter, Phillip reevaluates his reasons for becoming an artist. He wonders what his future will look like if he continues to pursue his dream.
Phillip finally works up the nerve to end the subject once and for all by asking one of his painting masters to give an honest opinion of his work. The teacher is perplexed by his request.
Monsieur Foinet: “I don’t understand.”
Phillip: “I’m very poor. If I have no talent I would sooner do something else.”
Monsieur Foinet: “Don’t you know if you have talent?”
Phillip: “All my friends know they have talent, but I am aware some of them are mistaken.”
After Monsieur Foinet evaluates Phillip’s collection of work, he respectfully tells Phillip that he will never be anything other than a mediocre artist. Phillip decides to give up painting and go to medical school. Just like that — his abandons his whole Bohemian dream.
Unlike Phillip, I won’t give up writing no matter how paranoid I am about sucking. Although I would feel foolish pouring all of my energy into something I lack the talent for, whether anyone likes my writing should be secondary. Phillip’s friend and fellow painter, Clutton, puts it perfectly earlier in the book:
“What happens to our work afterwards is unimportant; we have got all we could out of it while we were doing it.”
That doesn’t mean I don’t care if my writing is bad. Like Phillip, I‘m afraid I am not, and will never be, any good. But I have to remember that I am still learning and to be okay with that. You should be okay with that too.
You wouldn’t expect to shoot par on your first trip to a golf course. You will hack and slice and end up in bunkers covered in sand. You will be humiliated and discouraged and tested, so don’t expect to sit down and write a brilliant novel if you haven’t devoted yourself to learning everything you can.
Sure, writing, like painting, seems to involve a certain amount of innate talent. I read scores of writers who create beautiful, technically perfect prose but whose writing is devoid of passion. Then there are those who are great at inventing characters and plot lines but lack the ability to make it all mean something. I used to believe they were missing that “it” factor that makes a great writer.
But the “it” factor is not always a mysterious gift bestowed on few. It’s mostly doing what you need to do to get better, whether it be technical or intuitive. I believe that with the right tools, instruction, feedback, and hard work, anyone can become a good writer.
Are you frustrated? Unsure? Do you feel like something’s off but you don’t know what?
Then think about this…
How many years did you have to attend school to earn a diploma? How much training did you go through for your profession? Now, how many hours have you devoted not just to writing, but to actively learning how to become a better writer?
Imagine if you took your writing as seriously as your job.
What training do you need?
Where can you get qualified feedback?
Think about where you feel a lack of confidence.
Analyze the areas where you can improve.
Respect your creative compulsions. Invest in yourself. Make a plan and take action to learn all you can.
[et_bloom_inline optin_id=”optin_12″]
Christa Wojciechowski is a dark fiction author and the founder of writecatalyst.com/, a virtual Mastermind Community where writers will learn how to become successful authors through live video chats, critique swaps, monthly masterclasses, and featured experts. Sign up for the wait list here.
I love to watch virtuosos on YouTube — pianists, violinists, dancers, and singers that seem to have supernatural abilities. They make their performances look effortless, but no one sees what it took for them to reach that level of mastery.
What about the hours of practice, the hundreds of times they got it wrong, and how they pushed forward despite the criticism? We don’t realize everything they sacrificed — family, friends, sleep, and fun — to become what they are. They remind me of the investment I need to make to become the best writer I can be.
Until recently, I’ve been a self-taught writer. I always thought that if I read enough books, followed enough writing blogs, and kept working hard, that I would get better. I did get better, a little bit at a time. Still, I sensed I was missing something.
I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the lackluster sales and rejection letters reaffirmed my suspicion. The feedback from family and friends said everything I did was great. So why was I stuck?
I figured what was needed was more effort. I wouldn’t become better just by wishing, right?
But working harder is not the answer.
As I browsed virtuoso videos, the algorithms directed me to a TEDx Talk, Become a Virtuoso by Mike Rayburn. I wasn’t planning to watch a Ted Talk, but of course I wanted to see if I could find out the secret not to becoming a good writer, but to becoming a writing virtuoso.
Mike Rayburn talked about how most of us coast, learning at a leisurely pace. We don’t actively seek out the most effective and efficient ways to develop our talent, so we hit a plateau and never discover what we’re truly capable of. It’s up to us to make the decision go beyond being competent to becoming the best.
Many of us pride ourselves on being self-taught. I always did. I thought I was making good progress, but what Mr. Rayburn says next was a bitter epiphany.
Here’s the problem about being self-taught: The teacher’s not that good.
Drop the mic right there. Would I presume to teach someone else how to become a virtuoso writer? What makes me think I’m qualified to teach myself how to become one?
The secret is, when you discover the stories of virtuosos, these geniuses didn’t do it alone. They had the best teachers and mentors to give them invaluable feedback and advice. This is what fast-tracked them to mastery, building a foundation on what’s already been done while cultivating the unique style that is each great artist’s signature.
It’s only after taking my first writing class that I’ve realized how much time I’ve wasted “teaching” myself. How would I know how to develop my strengths and work on my weaknesses when relying on feedback from everyday people who don’t even read in my genre? I’ve learned more in the past 2 months than in 7 years of struggling on my own.
My message to self-taught writers is this:
Invest in your dream. Seek out mentors. Budget for writing classes — online or in your local area. Find a tribe of knowledgeable writers in your genre.
You will be amazed at how quickly you improve, how confident you will feel, and how hopeful you’ll be about your future as a successful author.
Don’t waste another minute going it alone. You have no idea what a writing virtuoso you could be.
Anna David is a NY Times Bestselling and her new company, Launch Pad Publishing, is all about helping business owners position themselves as leaders in their industries by launching bestselling books.
Likewise, my goal for Let’s Get Published and the upcoming online Writer’s Mastermind is to help fiction writers position themselves for success in the fiction market.
But first, dear writers, you must get past everything that’s holding you back from realizing your best work.
I wrote this list for anyone who’s ever dreamed of creating something new but always talks themselves out of it.
(You’ll also get the scoop on how honestly scared I am about launching the Writer’s Mastermind!)
Where I live in the mountains of Panama, the only change of season we see is from rainy to dry. This begins to take place in November. There’s a shift in the wind and the town braces itself for the Fiestas Patrias (Panama’s Independence Days). Strings of small plastic flags crisscross the streets and flap as if applauding you whenever you drive beneath them. Grey clouds hover above the town as barjareque, (not quite rain, but heavier than mist) falls on the tourists and marching bands, covering them with a sparkling layer of microscopic droplets.
November also signals National Novel Writing Month, which I first participated in 2012. I had been wanting to write a novel my whole life, and the only thing that forced me to get a book started and finished was NaNoWriMo.
I completed my first ever book, surprising myself and triggering an addiction to finishing books ever since. Now when the winds of November change and I hear the echoes of the marching bands practicing for the Independence Day parades, I feel like a horse at the starting gate ready to race to my word count with all the other bucking writers.
I think anyone who’s participated in National Novel Writing Month start to look forward to it as a yearly tradition. It’s something to get excited about, and you are not alone in your enthusiasm and anxiety. You can connect with other writers who are on the same crazy train. NaNoWriMo helps to stop the usual procrastinating and put writing first for a whole month.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to participate in the last few years. My job consists of mostly writing now and my writing fuel and tolerance for sitting at the computer are wiped out by the time I finish my work for the day. I’m often traveling during this time for the holidays, which makes it difficult to scurry off to some quiet place to write.
I also don’t allow myself to participate because have to stop piling up manuscripts. It’s becoming a problem. I wrote three novels in a mad dash and they are still left rumpled up and tossed aside like piles of dirty laundry on the floor. I have no business writing more Nano novels until I clean these up, right?But I wonder… just because I wrote them, does that mean they should be published? Is it worth salvaging them? These were my first practice novels, before The Sick Series, when I had no idea what I was doing. Hell, I still don’t know.
Then, I decided to revisit the books to do a damage assessment. The story is about two artists – Antoni, who can’t stop the creative outpouring of his soul, and Ona, who is creatively stunted. They frequently talk about the reasons behind making art and what it means to them.
Their wisdom baffles me (did I actually write that?). In the very book I was going to chuck to the side, I received message from my characters. My voice came through them to tell me that maybe the world doesn’t need these books, but that doesn’t matter, because I do. I must finish what I started.
NaNoWriMo has taught me to get the book out. I’m so used to making the 50K a month word count that to this day I write in 1,667 word spurts. But it’s time to face reality and learn how to clean up the messes. Those of you who’ve followed this blog are sick of hearing it. I know a few of you are ready to clobber me over the head if I keep dragging on about The Sculptor.
Believe me, I attempted to revise several times. I did a lot of work and still didn’t get the desired results. I’ve realized that the most important part of writing is rewriting. No matter how experienced a writer is, no one writes a perfect first draft (or second … or third).
All the rewriting and revising methods I’ve tried helped so much, but they still left something missing. Even worse, sometimes I over-rewrote and the story it lost its raw core. That’s because I was trying to control it. Then I ended up completely lost.
Update Nov. 2019:
Another two years has passed since this original post above. November is here, with its cloudy, breezy days and the sound of snare drums ricocheting through the valley.
And no, my NaNoWriMo Novels are still not published.
And yes, I have new ideas for books that I’m dying to put on the page.
But I am restraining myself from NaNoWriMo this year again. No more new novels until my work on The Sculptor, which will resume in 2020.
In the meantime, I completed three new short stories which I am happy to announce will come out in an anthology with three other super-talented writers. It’s called Lost Voices and will be published by The Writing Collective.
As writers, we all have times of confusion, self-doubt, and setbacks. The important thing is to adapt as circumstances change, keep moving forward, and never give up on a story you believe in.
Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year?
What are your plans for the NaNo novels you wrote?
Let’s Get Published is community of writers, and we’d love to get a conversation going. That’s why we’ll be posting a Writers Share every now and then to keep a pulse on the writers working their wordly magic all over the world.
Today we want to know about what you’re working on right now.
Tell us about yourself and your work-in-progress by responding by email, leaving a comment, or posting on our Facebook page.
Tag or share with your writing friends so they can join too.
1. What have you written?
2. What are you working on right now?
3. What do you plan to do with your current work-in-progress?
4. Where are you feeling good about your path to becoming a successful writer?
5. What are you struggling with?
As for me, I’m in the middle of Richard Thomas’s Contemporary Dark Fiction Class. Since the beginning of September, I have finished 8 short pieces of fiction, two 3,500-word short stories, and 2 essays analyzing books we read for the class. I have crammed more short fiction writing in the last two months than I can believe.
Yes, my brain hurts, but I’ve realized that I can make things happen even when I’m pressed for time and feeling uninspired.
I also feel empowered. I used to wonder why my work is not getting accepted. Rejection letters rarely come with an in-depth report about what’s not working in a manuscript. It’s a writer’s job to know that themselves. This class is teaching me the secret language of good writing (there is a language under the language).
Of course, now I want to take down everything I’ve ever written and rewrite it.
My article about author platform mistakes was featured in The Writing Cooperative, a writing community and publication focused on helping each other write better.
I develop author platforms for a living and have worked with all kinds of writers — from paranormal romance, to literary fiction, to children’s picture books. No matter the genre, the same basic rule applies.
The goal is to be found by your readers, and your author platform must make it easy for fans to engage with and share your content.
The issues I’m going to share with you might seem obvious, but I come across them daily, even with established writers. The smallest holes in your author platform cost you big time. The worst part is, you won’t even realize the connections, opportunities, and sales you’re missing out on.
Go through this checklist and make sure your author platform is working for you…
