Published
by Deborah L. Brewer
It’s January again, and like many of you, I’m planning for a productive writing year. Part of that planning is to consider what might impede my progress and strategize ahead of it. A lack of time? Schedule writing on the calendar. A lack of energy? Cut back on other commitments or improve nutrition, hydration, and sleep. A lack of headspace? That one is tougher, but one might seek some counseling, take up meditation, or limit the intake of news, social media, and other people’s complaints.
The impediment I’m getting ahead of this year is not getting my writing done because it’s hard to get it right. I’m not speaking of atelophobia, the clinical terror of imperfection. But FOMM, the milder, still inhibiting Fear of Making Mistakes that haunts just about everyone. For novelists, there are so many mistakes to make, even on this partial list:
Editing 80,000, plus words of gobbledygook can be overwhelming. Sharing a bloated, error-riddled manuscript with critique partners or editors can be mortifying. Despite all the positive and constructive comments they are kind enough to share, hearing disappointing feedback is always tough.
But if you intend to write a book, consider the proverb: He who makes no mistakes never makes anything. The worst mistake a writer can make, and the only one that can’t be edited is writing nothing at all.
Perhaps you’ve heard “I’ll fix it in post.” It may at first sound a bit lax in terms of work ethic, but this mindset could be useful for improving writing productivity. Originating in the film industry, the intention to fix the film in post-production implies an awareness of various problems while the original shots are being taken and determining it would be better to sort the mess later, with editing software. While a novelist’s characters are not, like actors, paid by the hour, there remains much to be said for saving edits until later in the story-making process. The time for edits—developmental, line, and copy—like the cutting room floor will come.
Reading novels and studying resources on writing techniques is immensely helpful in learning to write. But one needs to write a lot of words, sort through them, throw a lot of them out, and write some more to master the craft. Doing is learning. And even once one has become a master, writing, cutting, and rewriting—wrangling words— is what writers do. In this context, all those ‘extra’ words that will get thrown out aren’t mistakes so much as opportunities—a collection of elements a writer selects from to compose their completed masterpiece. The first draft is an opportunity to set aside any pressure for perfection, to instead be creative and play.
Sadly, with FOMM vanquished another more terrible, far more demotivating fear comes to mind. The question of whether all this writing is a waste of time, effort, expense, and other opportunities. In the end, will the writing come to naught? If the fear of failure is heckling me from the shadows and keeping me from my writing desk, I know to shoo it out into the open and give it a hard look.
There are many ways to define success. Consider the writing life and work of “America’s Agatha Christie,” Mary Roberts Rhinehart (1876-1958). A wildly successful, prolific author of mystery and suspense, she also wrote poetry, short stories, travelogues, articles, war correspondence, and plays. Have you heard of Rhinehart? Seen her movies or read her books? Probably not.
If success equates to a legacy, as in one’s name remembered by future generations, good luck with that. I mean seriously, that’s something for posterity to decide. How many former U.S. presidents can you readily bring to mind? A history is a living narrative and it remembers whom it will. In Rhinehart’s debut novel, The Circular Staircase, she pioneered the “If only I had known” storytelling technique. Parodied as “Don’t guess, let me tell you,” the technique is not popular with readers today. And though Rhinehart infused her work with the humor and romance considered charming in the early 1900s, what current readers think is funny or heart-warming has also changed. Both Rhinehart and Christie made use of the stereotypes typical in Golden Age Mysteries, but Christie kept her secrets until the end of her tales, and for the most part, played it straight. Could their contemporaries have foreseen that despite Rhinehart, in her prime, being the more famous, would now be defined by Christie? Legacy is largely out of a person’s control. We can only do our best work and let the future decide.
Perhaps one writes for the money. Rhinehart, like Christie, wrote full-time to pay bills. She began after giving up her career as a nurse to raise children and had already published some poems when her family suffered financial difficulties. She pivoted first to children’s verse but couldn’t find a publisher. Then she tried novels and made it big, eventually selling over 10 million copies and collecting royalties of over half a billion in today’s dollars. Her contemporaries, it seems, couldn’t get enough. She was willing and able to write what publishers believed they could sell, and what her readers were willing to pay to read. And naturally, with her work’s popular appeal, it found its way to Hollywood.
But for most published writers, writing never becomes more than a financial side gig. If one seeks to earn money from writing, they should give it all they’ve got. Write, edit, write, edit…submit, submit, submit, or self-publish. And learn with every setback; every opportunity. There’s a lot of competition for readers’ money and attention. Some writers get lucky, others must learn to deliver what readers want.
There is one form of success any writer can achieve— the sense of joy and community that comes from creating and sharing books. Rhinehart is known to have been an avid reader in her youth. She published poetry even before she sought a steady income from her work. Her sister, Olive Louise, authored children’s books. Later Rhinehart’s sons published Rex Stout’s first ten Nero Wolf books through their publishing house Farrar & Rhinehart. The family seems to have reveled in writing and books.
If we write to share in the joy of storytelling, then writing, even without a legacy or hefty royalties, will never be a waste of time. We’ll learn to express ourselves through language, get to know ourselves better, and grow. Best of all we may bring solace, joy, and inspiration to those who read our work, whether it’s a wide reading public, a smaller following of dedicated readers, only ourselves, or a close circle of family and friends.
I’m embracing mistakes as part of my writing process and exposing demotivating fears so I can write productively and in peace. I’m excited about my plans for writing this year, and I hope you’re excited about yours too. Let’s see what we can do.
For Further Reading:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/counseling-keys/202103/overcoming-fear-of-making-mistakes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Roberts_Rinehart
Deborah L. Brewer joined Pikes Peak Writers a decade ago, seeking help with a cozy mystery. When the novel was completed, she stayed for the camaraderie. Now she’s writing short stories. An editor for the PPW 2022 anthology, Dream, Deborah contributes to Writing from the Peak to help fellow PPW members write better with more enjoyment, and ultimately, achieve their writing dreams.
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