Is the Writer You Used to Be Holding You Back?
I recently signed a deal to write a comic. I have a vague memory of occasionally reading the comic section in the Sunday newspaper when I was an elementary school kid, motivated more by having something—anything—new to read than by the comics themselves. I’ve always been a voracious consumer of words in print: novels, magazines, plays, zines—whatever I could get my hands on. I also have explored a variety of formats as my writing process and career have evolved over the years. Like many authors and poets, I have started, paused, and repurposed an array of manuscripts. However, comic creation was never a project I envisioned myself taking on.
Of course, when my stellar agent, Sara Megibow, presented this opportunity to me, I could have politely declined. I could have merely kept chugging along on works-in-progress we hope to send out on submission in the not-too-distant future. Had I done that, there would have been a bit less disposable income in my bank account this summer, plus I would have deprived myself of a paid learning opportunity that could lead to other potential projects down the road. All because I would have chosen not to step out of my comfort zone—an action which, once upon a time, I did on a daily basis.
Particularly at the beginning of my writing career a decade ago, the unglamorous road to publication I initially navigated as a freelancer involved me spending most evenings staying up well past midnight, emailing unsolicited pitches to media outlets I desperately wanted to create content for. We all like to imagine that one day, we’ll be beyond such drudgery. Yet in reality, there really is no “finish line” or “glass ceiling” as an artist. Many of us have the capacity to become creative chameleons—but if an author isn’t careful, stagnation can just as easily roll in on the tailwinds of success.
So the next time fear and/or unfamiliarity tempt you to pass on taking on a new writing challenge, simply say yes.” Then figure out how to get the work done. I can personally attest that big book deals are often foreshadowed by a trail of smaller publishing credits. Get ready to meet that next version of yourself by gaining the necessary tools to become that writer.
Kick-start this process by figuring out what it’s going to take to shift your mindset out of pause mode and into purposeful motivation. Given the frenetic pace of most of our daily lives, a common default assumption is that an overly loaded schedule is responsible for aimlessly wandering through a creativity desert. But your schedule may not be the primary reason you’ve become severed from your voice, vision—or vigor—for finishing the narratives currently languishing on your desktop.
Perhaps you are self-rejecting by not sending out work. Maybe you need to do a better job of identifying the right presses and contests to submit to or agents to query. This is the step I find many writing students try to rush past. Brainstorming new articles, stories, essays, lyrics or book ideas is more entertaining than spending hours (that then turn into weeks and months) researching editorial publications to pitch or literary agencies currently seeking new authors to represent.
Identifying these entities is only the first step. You also need to become familiar with the kind of content they publish or authors they already represent. This phase, frankly, can be quite time consuming and mind-numbing. But it’s a crucial component in terms of increasing the success rate of your submissions.
I challenge you today to stop clinging to the writer you have been so that you may fully embrace the writer you are becoming.