50 Shades of Get to Work
You know the bit of advice that goes something like, “if you want to be a better writer, then you have to read all the time.”
I don’t know if I believe that anymore. I just tried reading a particular best selling book which falls under the genre, “Mommy Porn”.
Unless you live in a cave you probably can guess the title. I read it not because of the subject matter, but because it’s getting so much hype. My original intent was to study this book and try to discern its magical formula for success. I mean if writing sex scenes can make me and my book famous, I’m in baby. Here’s an author who seemed to appear out of nowhere to become an overnight success. This book has made the cover of several major magazines. There are even rumors of it becoming a movie–Oh my! (That’s a hilarious inside reference to those of you who bothered reading this… book.)
So basically I learned what sells really well to one crowd, annoys the ever-loving hell out of me. I couldn’t write like that if I wanted to. There’s no amount of money on earth that could make me write like that. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m not being pretentious, I mean I literally can’t write like that. It’s not my thing. It never was my thing. It just can’t happen. I was looking for a get-rich-quick answer to writing and discovered, like with everything else, there is none.
We all get down on ourselves. We’re writers; it is part of what we do. When we get to feeling low, we inevitably see someone being successful. Outwardly we say “Good for them” but really we hate their friggin guts. It’s the whole “Why not me” game. It’s a lousy, downward spiraling course that ultimately ends with us not doing anything at all because, “We’re not good enough”. Well funk that. Funk it in its funk hole.
We have to keep writing what we want to write and finishing it. I’m not really good at the last part. I let my stuff hang in oblivion. I really need to get better at working through to the end of a project. Hopefully next month my article will be a little lighter and I’ll be able to report some forward progress, but for now I need to be a hard-ass and make myself get to work. And you too. True, you probably won’t become an overnight success, you won’t be on Oprah’s book club and you won’t make millions. But who cares, you didn’t become a writer to be famous, you became a writer to write and there’s satisfaction in that alone. You’re a writer so what’s stopping you? Poor time management, family and friends doubting you, a lousy comment from a beta reader—WHO CARES. Stop the self-hatred spiral and go finish what you started. And hurry it up, I’m running out of cool stuff to read.
Chris, you never cease to amuse and amaze me! I think I am one of the only women on earth who hasn’t rushed out and bought this book and from your review.. I don’t think I am about to either.
Point taken with hurrying up and getting my manuscripts edited… will try harder!!
Great post, Chris. A very enjoyable read.
Hate their frigging guts! Well, for a second, then I swing around in my high-backed chair stroking the hairlesss cat on my lap and mutter “All in good time, my pretty. All in good time…”
I’m so with you right there, Chris. I appreciate your taking the pain to open it up and lay it on the table. I think I will get back up in my high-chair soon, get out my crayons and finish doodling. I think the secret is not in the book but in its marketing. I haven’t read it, but I have read in the BDSM genre (Anne Rice even wrote one for it many years ago). The books have been out there for a long time, so for this one to take off, it’s got to be marketing and possibly connections. There are many celebrities today who we can’t figure out why they are celebrities. They show up on the scene with no credentials and suddenly have t.v. shows. I won’t know them either, but their initials begin with K. Eventually we’ll see the bio and hear the “how” of the book and know. Somehow she made it ok for women to read this book. I’d love to see the demographics on it over time…20-somethings first or 40-somethings???
The runaway success of “Fifty Shades” serves as a reminder to those of us trying to write stories worth reading that our rejection letters must be taken with a grain of salt. Chances are, we were rejected for a business reason that has nothing to do with the actual quality of our work. Many excellent books have been written off as hopeless by both agents and publishers.
Susanna Clarke worked on “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” for ten years, and even though she had connections in the publishing industry, they originally told her the book would never be marketable. J. K. Rowling was told the same thing. Patrick O’Brian, meanwhile, could not even get publishers to look at his Aubrey-Maturin “Master & Commander” series for years.
What do all these writers have in common? They all persevered and kept writing, and none of them sold out.