Last week we talked about some of the misconceptions that surround a writing career, including the lie that only certain people have a compelling story to tell.
But there are more lies than just those that surround the actual pursuit of a writing career. There are also lies that surround the conditions of a writing career. We think we have to do it full time. Or we think we have to give it up when we have kids. Or we think we have to get out there and brush shoulders with all the important people, because we need to know somebody in order to make it in this business (sometimes that can work. But not all the time.).
So here are four more lies we tend to grab when the going gets hard.
1. You can’t build a writing career when you have kids.
I am a living testament to the fact that a writing career does not end just because you have kids. Now. It takes a lot of juggling. My husband and I split our days down the middle, and he’s the one making the money, which means he only has half as many hours to do what most men do in eight (he’s pretty incredible). He’s been supportive since the very beginning, which is what every writer needs—a supportive partner.
But even before we did it this way, when I was working a full-time job to support my family, I needed an outlet for all the passion and heartache and frustration and joy in my life. So I would write in the late-night hours, after the kids were in bed. I would find the time.
[Tweet “There’s always time to write. We just have to find it—and we will if we love it enough.”]
My kids give me great stories. They also help me better tell my stories, because I can read what I write to them, and the questions they ask are good questions about characters and plot and what this means. Because I write kid-lit, their questions are incredibly helpful in the revision process—which makes them fantastic people to have on my team. They’ve made me a much better writer than I used to be.
2. You can’t do it when you have a full-time job.
I started this business with a full-time job. It was tough. I was a mom of five and working full-time and there were all the house things that needed to be done, too. But you know what? If we want something badly enough, we’ll work hard for it.
So I would take my journal out, when my husband was getting ready for bed and my kids were already asleep, and I would jot down fifteen minutes worth of words, every night. I did that for a year, and at the end of the year, I had a book. Actually, I had the equivalent of three long books, with more than 300,000 words.
3. You have to work at writing full time if you want to go anywhere with it.
See the above answer.
Yeah, it’s hard to find time in all the spaces, but if we really, really want it, we’ll do it. We’ll do it however we can. We’ll write in the bathroom, we’ll write while the kids are taking a bath, we’ll write in the mornings before they get up. We’ll find the time somewhere.
If we’re not writing full-time, we’ll have to get really good at making a plan and sticking to it. We’ll have to get really good at putting a project down and picking it back up. We’ll have to get really good at learning to use the available spaces for whatever we can manage—and yet still have time to spend with our family. It’s not balance so much as it is integration. Our writing can be integrated into our daily lives in small ways that, over time, become large ways.
4. You have to know someone to make it somewhere.
I used to tell myself this one a lot—that those people who were successful writers just knew someone, and that’s how they got the awesome publishing deal. Or that’s how they got 10,000 readers on their mailing list. Or that’s how they made it to the top of the bestseller list. And it’s true that sometimes authors do know someone, or they are someone (celebrity memoirs sell better than others). But it’s all in what you do with your time, not all in who you know.
This is a difficult one to wrap our minds around, because sometimes it can be discouraging to actually do the work it takes to get published, and what we really want is a magic little pill that gets us an agent and a publisher and a great advance (or a successful indie book).
But if we’re not doing the work in the first place, whether or not we know someone won’t make the slightest bit of difference.
So let’s recap:
1. We can build a writing career when we have kids.
2. We can build a writing career while working full time.
3. We don’t have to be a full-time writer to begin our writing career.
4. We don’t have to know someone to make it in the writing business.
All we really have to do is do the work, which takes a commitment in and of itself. But if we’re willing to do it, we’ll watch our career leap to the next level.
Week’s prompt
Photo by Veeterzy.
