Pro Tip: When scheduling a blog post double check the YEAR it’s scheduled. This post was meant to go live last Wednesday but since I accidentally scheduled it for November of 2020, you’re getting it a little late.
I watch a lot of YouTube channels and read a lot of different blogs. My interests vary from writing / publishing to homesteading to zero waste. I have goals for all of those things and I’ve found that my goals don’t usually meet what others thinks my goals should be or what they consider a real writer/homesteader/zero waster to be.
When it comes to publishing, I want to be able to write books and share them with others without letting publishing take over my life. I would like to be able to consistently make 30,000-50,000 dollars a year—after taxes and expenses. I see things online where others will say something along the lines of… in order to be a real writer, you must do X, Y, or Z. None of which I’m doing or plan to do.
One of my favorites is that in order to be real writer you must write every day. It’s right up there with in order to write a book you have to plot.
I don’t write every day. I’ve never plotted a book and don’t plan to. And I’ve yet to publish a book under this pen name. Yet none of those things make me less of a writer. It’s Wednesday now as I write this. On Monday I wrote over 12, 000 Words. Tuesday I wrote 500. Today I haven’t written anything on any of my three works in progress. I don’t write consistently and I don’t plan to spend a ton of time on social media or going to conventions. Some people would say I’m not a real writer or I’m not serious about my career.
The truth is that we just have different goals. We want different things and that’s okay. I learned some hard lessons the first time around—about publishing and about myself. Publishing consumed my life and five years after my first book came out I walked away from publishing. In part because of my health issues and other family issues that required my attention, but also because I had let publishing take over everything for so long I was burned out. I honestly never thought I would get to the point where I would ever want to write again, let alone even consider publishing.
It took me more two years before I could even read a book again just for enjoyment. Along the way I’d trained myself to analyze every story to see what they did right so I could improve my own writing, because I listened to the more experienced authors who told me I had to do X, Y, and Z in order to be a “real” writer or to be successful. Instead of making me a better writer it cost me the joy of reading and it made me constantly second guess myself. I started worrying more about getting it “right” instead of just writing the story. And soon I would find myself sitting at my desk writing the same sentence or same chapter over and over and over again. Trying to write the book you think you should write is the best way to sabotage yourself.
And sadly it took much longer than it should have for me to realize I was wrong to listen to them. Their idea of success wasn’t the same as mine. And even though I didn’t feel like a “real” writer, I was. I am. Even if I were to decide not to publish another book for the rest of my life, I’d still be a writer. I stopped publishing several years ago but I didn’t stop writing. Not really. Yes, it was six months or more before I put words to paper again and I convinced myself since I wasn’t writing with the goal of publishing, it wasn’t really writing. Or that it didn’t count as writing because a lot of the stuff then was more just scenes or ideas that popped into my head. Ideas I knew I wasn’t ready to pursue, but thought was too good to just forget.
Writing is just as much a part of who I am as the color of my hair. I’m a writer, a storyteller. Its not just what I do but who I am.
So while my definition of success might look different than yours it doesn’t make either of us wrong—just different. So the next time some says in order to be a “real” fill in the blank, ask yourself if their… advice lines up with your goals. Question whether or not you would be happy with their definition of success. Odds are following their game plan won’t make you happy. Don’t be afraid to do things differently. Don’t be afraid to ignore the pressure to do things the way others think we should. Figure out what you want and be brave enough to go after it.