I just saw a random video on YouTube, from a guy named Brandon McNulty, who had 5 things that he hates about being a writer. I watched it, mostly because I was bored, but I have to say that I honestly don’t have any of those problems. In his comments, lots of people were complaining about the same thing. I can relate to the idea, but not to the actual issue because I just don’t suffer from it. Therefore, I wanted to respond to his list.
First, here’s a link to his video if you want to take a look for yourself.
Let’s go through this one by one.
1. Everything Takes Forever
To a certain degree, I can understand the frustration. When you start writing, everything does take forever. Every word choice is grueling. It takes you 50 drafts to make a book remotely readable. I get that. Practice makes perfect though, so get out there and practice more. Granted, I’m saying this after 40+ years of writing. I’ve been through the hard parts. I’m not living the frustration any more. All I can offer is the fact that, with enough time and effort, you won’t be either. Everyone has to earn their place, and that’s through hard work and repetition.
I am at the point today where I can write a 100k+ first draft on a novel in 28 days. It’s actually 20 days since I don’t work weekends, but it wasn’t always like that. It took many, many long, hard years of struggle to reach the point where I can put out a quality book that people enjoy in a short period of time. Of course, I don’t put out a dozen books a year because there is more than just drafting that goes into writing, but in 2021, I wrote 8 books, close to 950k words overall, which was as much of a surprise to me as to anyone else. It can be done. It just takes time and practice.
People need to be patient and learn to push their boundaries. I write a minimum of 5k words a day, every day, 5 days a week. It’s not that I get to 5k and stop, I write until I run out of time to write. I just never allow myself to miss my goals. That’s important. You need to hold yourself accountable. I didn’t start off writing 5k a day, I had to work hard to achieve that goal and hopefully, one of these days, I’ll surpass it, but you can never be satisfied with what you’re doing now. You have to push yourself to exceed your expectations. A lot of people refuse to do that. A lot of people are lazy, as Brandon himself said he was. Don’t allow laziness. That’s a productivity killer.
2. Stories Lose Their Magic
Honestly, you just need to train yourself to turn that off. If I’m reading for pleasure, which I do a lot, probably 40-50 books a year, then I just turn off my editorial mode. It’s something that comes with practice. If I’m beta reading another author’s work, then I leave it on because I’m looking for structure and character and language. It’s just something that you need to learn how to activate or deactivate on command. I’m up and at the keyboard at 5am every day. I just turn on writing mode and start to write. I don’t go look at social media. I don’t read e-mail. I write. I track every single word I write and only the ones that stay in the book count. I call them “finished words”. I write about 500 words every 15 minutes and track it on a form. I know how efficient I’m being because it’s baked into the formula. When it’s on, it’s on. In fact, I have problems because I’ll get up to make breakfast or use the bathroom and I’ll still be writing in my head. I have to remember to turn it off or I’ll never remember all the prose that I’m wasting. Turn it on, turn it off. It’s a metaphorical switch in my head and I’ve learned how to master it. That goes for editing-mode too. Learn how to turn it off and just enjoy reading.
3. Personal Limitations
This is a big one and something I see a lot of people having problems with. Everyone has limitations. There are only so many hours in a day and you get to choose what you do with them. I spend about 3-4 hours writing before I go to work. I have to hit my 5k+ goal in that time. I don’t allow myself to fail.
I have four pieces of advice that I give to prospective writers. It can be modified to apply to any creative endeavor, but for writing, people need to:
- Read a lot.
- Write a lot.
- Have realistic expectations
- Don’t give up.
If you can do all four consistently, you’ll be fine. Most people fail at #3. Most people think it’s easy and it’s not. Most people think anyone can do it and they can’t. It wasn’t always realistic for me to write as quickly as I do today. Now it is. I didn’t punish myself 20 years ago for not doing what I can do now. I just accepted that I could do what I could do, I continually pushed myself to do better, I didn’t set unrealistic deadlines, I just did the best I could do and tried to improve. If it takes you a year to write a book, then that’s how long it takes. If it takes you 5 years, that’s how long it takes. Only you know if you are making an efficient use of your time. Only you know if you’re pushing yourself hard enough. I don’t get to tell you what you have to do, only you can do that and if you’re not pushing yourself, then that’s something else you need to work on.
Currently, I know the next 40+ books I’m going to be writing. Most are trilogies, some are part of a series, but I know where I’m going. If I were to finish a book this week, I know that Monday, I’d be starting on a new one, at least the preparation for it. I don’t have to sit around and wonder what to do next. Those decisions are already made. I just have to execute on the plan. I may never finish all of those books, although that represents about 8 years of work, but I am constantly adding more. I will die before I finish my list. I know and accept that. It’s just the way it goes.
4. Self Doubt
This is another one that I don’t really have a problem with, at least not anymore. I’ve been doing this for so long that I don’t have time or room for it. I know I can write a book that people enjoy. I’ve written tons of them. It doesn’t mean that every book is going to appeal to every reader, that’s an unrealistic expectation, but I understand my audience and I know what tends to make them happy and that’s what I produce.
Then again, I’m not trying to make a living at this. My day-job makes a whole lot more than I could reasonably expect just writing and selling books. That probably takes a lot of pressure off. The simple fact is, the vast majority of people who write books never make a profit. Most never break even. Writing has to be a passion. If I knew that nobody would ever read another one of my books, I’d still be up at 5am, writing furiously because it’s what I choose to do. It’s a fundamental part of my life. I don’t have time for self-doubt. I’ve got books to write.
5. Marketing & Advertising
I can understand this one, but again, realistic expectations make it inevitable. When you choose to publish your books, either traditionally or self-pub, you are agreeing to run a small business. You don’t have to like it but you have to accept it because that is what you are doing. Therefore all of the things that come along with that, it’s something you have to learn to deal with it, like it or not.
I handle it with scheduling. Just like I have time set aside for writing, I have time set aside for marketing. There’s a certain time that I sit down, look at my marketing, see how it’s going and decide what I have to do next. Being organized helps a lot.
Granted, for people who have done this for a long time, it’s not as huge a deal as it would be for a newbie. I have a built-in audience. I know that every time I release a book, there are a large number of people who are going to buy it. I have a good sized mailing list of people who are actively looking forward to new releases. I spend a decent amount of time working with my mailing list to keep them excited for new books and I can gauge how people feel. I get a ton of emails from both new and old readers with questions and I spend time going through it and answering almost every one. I still do external advertising, of course, but because I understand my target audience, I don’t waste a lot of time going after people who are unlikely to pick up my books. I know who I’m writing for and I know what they want because essentially, they’re looking for the same things I am. My ideal reader is me and luckily, there are a lot of people who are looking for the same things I am, so I offer up things I’d enjoy in a book and those people respond.
I see a lot of people who have no clue who they are writing for. They’re just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks. That’s a recipe for failure. Instead, I have loyal readers who go out and talk about my book and they’re selling my books for me. I don’t have to focus as much on the external advertising, first because I’m not trying to make a living from it, but also because I’ve got excited and engaged readers who want to share what they love.
You can do that too, but it takes time and experience and understanding, three things that new authors have in short supply. I understand that. It’s why you have to be in this for the long haul. It’s not easy, but if you have the right mindset and realistic expectations and are doing it for the love of doing it, you can get there too if you try hard enough.
