An excellent post over at Writing It Out talks about fears in writing: the fear of failure only being eclipsed by the fear of success. Every writer understands that fear of failure, but what about “success?” Any success brings expectations with it: Oh, you’re a published author? You must be rich, famous, and most of all fabulously talented. Living up to the expectations that success brings can be challenging, not least because those expectations are completely out of your control: they are the impressions of others about who you are, based on what you have done. And these expectations have sustaining power: if you succeed, people expect you to continue to succeed; if you fail people expect you to fail again.
In the video below, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, says (among many other things) that one of the best things we can do to cope with success is to separate your achievement from the work of getting there. I would argue that this is the best way to deal with failure as well, and for the time before the “success” of becoming a published author.
In other words, the achievement itself may be an expression of something not entirely within your control, and thus not entirely your success or failure. You are guaranteed failure if you don’t apply yourself, but applying yourself does not guarantee success, only the chance of success. There is still an X-factor to achievement, especially in this field, and whether you attribute this separate force to luck, divine intervention, or a disembodied muse of artistic endeavors (and I’m not sure I believe any of those), having that mental separation, I believe, is necessary to continuing the work that might bring you success.
I have had lots of successes in my life – something I attribute to hard work, an insane amount of stubborness, lots of leaps of faith, and luck. If I am successful in the world of traditional publishing, it will be because of those same things, but the story will not end there. Will I sell any books? Will I be able to sell a second or third book? Will I make any money at it?
I have no idea. My crystal ball is in the repair shop.
But I do know why I’m on this journey, and as long as I keep focused on that, I don’t need to fear the failures, or the successes. I don’t need to know what’s going to happen. Living the journey is the reward, and in many ways I won’t know the final destination until I arrive. As is true in most of life.
Taking one step at a time is very linear thinking, but then I’m an engineer. The wild leap of faith came when I started on the journey.
If you haven’t seen this already, and you’re a writer, it’s worth the 20 minutes to watch:
"having that mental separation, I believe, is necessary to continuing the work that might bring you success."
Thank you for the encouraging post. Your points are wise and logical – truly inspiring. 🙂
I'm glad it is inspiring to you! Having the support of a community of writers is one of the keys to continuing the work . . .
Wild leaps of faith go against my programming… nothing comes easy, IMO, and even with hard work, effort, etc, it still might not come… so enjoying the journey, whether on a road to nowhere, or to the summit, is critical to inner peace.
I do have a crystal ball and so am able to predict that you will never give up, never surrender! Unfortunately, in regards to writing, I find that whatever amount of time I think it will take for something to happen, it takes three or four times that amount. If I think a book will be written in a month, it will be three months. If I think my first novel will meet with huge success, it may be my fourth or fifth. Writing is hard. But also fun, and as I believe writing is its own reward, my hard work is a win even if no one ever reads a word of it.
Excellent, thoughtful post, Susan–as all of your posts are. I don't comment often, but I look forward to reading you every day. I'm finally writing again after another long period of doubt. This time, the writing's going very well, which makes it pure pleasure. I hope it lasts!
Bane – you are on your way, Grasshopper! 🙂
Ninja – I think there is a time warp vortex that sucks up all my time that I should be writing…wait, that's the blog. 🙂 You are spot on, though about it taking longer to write/revise/query/any-given-step than you think it should take. BUT – the silver lining there is that you benefit from a gestational period that I think all good writing requires. Going fast is not really in the book's best interest – maybe in the best interest of the writer's sanity, though.
Catherine – Thanks so much. You have no idea how it warms my heart that you look forward to reading every day. I'm glad you're back in the writing game again!