10 Awesome Things About Writing (Even When You’re Not Published)
Yes, writing is a lot of work. Yes, it can be for very little gain. Yes, carrying your notebook everywhere can strain your arms (OK, not really that last one).
But let’s be frank: I (and you and a ton of other fantastic people) do it, even when we know that most writers never get published and most published writers never sell many books and most writers who sell many books never write bestsellers.
We do it because: Writing. Is. Awesome* .
1. Writing means you’re never bored.
Whether you’re waiting hours at the walk-in clinic, sitting in the back of a tedious lecture, or trying to distract yourself enough to get to sleep at night, there’s always something to think about. Useful things, like what will my characters do next? How will I resolve this plot? What argument would be most effective in my essay?
And if there’s nothing useful, there are fun things: what would my characters do if I made that happen? What would they say if I told them about my day? How can I use that ringing combination of words my brain spat out this morning?
2. Writing lets you make details of your life immortal.
None of my friends would sit through a description of the whiny beeping sound my elevator makes when you hold the doors open for too long. I wouldn’t sit through it. But when it becomes a part of a character’s life, suddenly those details add depth to the world around her.
And if I’m reading it a month or years later, they come back to life for me, too.
3. There’s no feeling quite like cutting yucky 1000 words to leave beautiful 400 words…
Confession: if revision is a horror movie, I am Mike Myers. I rampage through my first drafts gleefully slashing sentences, paragraphs, pages. It’s like the moment when you finally take that old couch to the dump or give away that pile of books and suddenly your apartment is light and airy and beautiful.
4. … or like finally figuring out the key to a major revision…
It’s no fun to know there’s something wrong with a story but have no idea what. Contrariwise, the best feeling is finally stumbling into the train of thought that leads you to that Sherlock-Holmes AHA! epiphany.
Duh, she should be the viewpoint character.
Obviously, the real story happens ten years after this.
No kidding, that part of the premise made no sense and has to go.
5. … or even like coming up with that snappy query/abstract/summary.
I’m not saying writing queries or synopses is fun: let’s not be ridiculous. But it is awesome to click together the right phrases and watch your concept shine through.
6. Getting critiques makes you feel the triumph of getting over your initial defensive reaction and figuring out what needs to be done.
That exact moment you hear constructive criticism? Never gets any better. You’re always secretly hoping that the other person is going to tell you everything’s perfect and you should ignore that feeling in the pit of your stomach that says, You know something’s off about this draft.
But getting past that quick rush of defensiveness (my MS is totally fine the way it is! all it needs is for its author to eat another chocolate!) and finally absorbing what your critique partner has to say is a great feeling. Because now that you know the problem, you can fix it! All RIGHT!
7. Writing means watching ideas grow synergistically and turn into something more amazing than either original.
Aw, man, that story concept is cool but doesn’t have the depth to be a complete plot. Hey, I know, I can mix it with this other one…
Somehow, when you combine ideas, the result winds up being more than the sum of its parts. It’s like how stirring up two paints or shining two lights at the same spot can magically transform into something qualitatively different: a whole new colour.
8. Writing means you can share deeply personal feelings in a safe way you never could in real life.
Not like the way where you write a story about yourself and real-life and then CTRL-F all the names. I mean, you can do that, no judging, but you probably shouldn’t share it if you care about your friends knowing that they’re reading about your deeply personal feelings.
But you can tease out threads from your emotional fabric and weave them into a character. You can describe your own insecurities in your character’s insecurities even though he’s insecure about the complete opposite things. You can put your anger in your character even if she’s angry about something radically different. The feelings are transmuted so that they’re no longer yours, but sharing them still feels good.
9. Writers get that giddy feeling of opening a new notebook or file and feeling like anything can happen from here.
Sometimes I get mad at Past Sarah for starting the first two lines of notebooks and then putting them back in my desk. I was looking forward so much to that blank page, and now she’s ruined it!
But I understand why she did. A new notebook is the first day of school, a move all the way across the country, 11:59 p.m. and 59 seconds on December 31. That old life? It’s over. From here on, you get to start all over again with no mistakes or scratch-outs or long boring scenes that eventually made you realize the plot should’ve taken that left turn at Albuquerque. Anything might happen.
10. Nothing beats finding out someone else loves your imaginary world or ideas as much as you do.
You don’t have to be published to share your work. All you have to do is… ask for readers. And although it can be disappointing to find out that what was fantastic in your head is bleh-boring-to-read for someone else, it’s all worth it for that first moment you finally got it right and you realize your characters are alive in someone else’s brain and heart…
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