(Yes, you know who you are who prompted this ;).
A lot of people complain about writing books that specify THE way to do things as though all other techniques are garbage, a complaint I agree with. It’s easier not to qualify every statement, but sometimes the tone comes across as saying only idiots choose another path.
That’s not what I’m writing about though.
There’s a corollary to this that I don’t see getting much press from writers. Though not the first time I’ve run into it, I had a conversation along these lines today and decided to talk about it here in case others might benefit from my perspective.
What I’m talking about is the tendency among authors to malign their current process. Now I know that just because a writer happens to work one way now doesn’t mean that writer will still be using the same writing pattern in a year, two years, or more. However, if a writer has an established pattern, it makes more sense to me to accept the current state as a "for now necessity" than to fight against it.
This is an aspect of self-awareness that many people skim over. Though they complain as above about people telling them about THE way, their acceptance of alternatives encompasses not their own patterns but only those of other writing books or successful writers they know. Sometimes this is because their current process is onerous, sometimes it’s because they believe they should be able to follow something like Holly Lisle’s One-Pass Manuscript Revision process and when they find their draft has too much work required, they get frustrated.
I’ve been there. I’ve measured myself against others’ productivity, how quickly they bring a draft to market, their submissions patterns, and what have you. It’s easy with all the information out there to find some way of knocking yourself or your process down.
Here’s what I say to that habit: get it behind you. Move past comparison to others and toward understanding what you’re doing and why. I’m not saying you can’t change your process. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take the opportunity to learn other methods of working. What I am saying is that you should to recognize your current pattern as what you need at this moment based on what you know at this time. Don’t fight it. Accept it.
Yes, you should work to change the pattern if it is not producing what you want, but that’s not the same as fighting it.
Fighting your pattern is harmful to your self-esteem, to your ability to grow, to your very health at times, mental or physical. You adopted this pattern for a reason. I can’t tell you if it’s because there’s a huge hole in your knowledge, whether you’re on the cusp of a radical growth, or whether something happened to knock you back and you’re in a mad scramble to recover. The cause almost doesn’t matter.
This is your current pattern. Accept it, embrace it, take advantage of the fact that your mind and body have found a way to progress no matter how slowly, how awkwardly, how not like you wish you were. Go ahead and study other processes, learn new techniques, fill in your knowledge so you will be ready when it all comes together and your pattern shifts, but don’t condemn the pattern you have now if it is producing any forward motion at all.
A rolling stone gathers no moss and an object at rest stays at rest.
The more you fight, the more you drive yourself to a standstill. Sure, maybe that pattern’s no fun, maybe you feel like you missed the bus, that opportunity never bothered to come knocking, but there’s an old saying, "God helps those who help themselves." Whether you believe in a deity or not, the principle applies. By fighting, you are refusing the method of progress you have found for right now. You are seeking the greener grass on the other side of the fence rather than lowering your head to graze. If you would only feast on what you have around you, you could grow strong enough to leap the fence, to knock it aside, to burrow under, and then discover for yourself whether the new process you’re exploring is actually better…or just different.
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Good read 🙂 I’m starting over on the whole writing thing, and it’s been hard not to compare myself to my old productivity and perceived quality (or lack thereof?).
Hugs and ouch. I hope this means I’ll be seeing you around more :D. And yes, I should have put a specific trailer in there about comparing to your past selves too. That’s where my greatest weakness is. It’s hard not to say, “But I used to…” and there’s a group of folks who chorus in return that back then I didn’t do X, Y, and Z at the same time.
But ultimately, the writing has reclaimed you, and you’ll find new patterns to take you forward at this stage :).
Um, I’m absolutely CERTAIN you’re talking to someone besides me, so would the real perpetrator of this blog post please raise their hand?
Hi, Ann! Haven’t seen you in forever!
Valerie
This was something that I needed to hear. I was so set on getting 50k of paranormal romance in February then doing a one pass revision just so I would know how it worked. I joined Forward Motion to get motivated.
It got to the point that I LOATHED looking at the document. I could feel my shoulders lifting somewhere around my ears. The stirrings of what am I supposed to do with this mess? What was I thinking when I got myself into this? Why am I doing this to myself?
I discovered something. I don’t want to do this anymore. I have written paranormal romance since I was in my late teens and early 20s. (I turn 50 this year 🙂
Not many people were allowed to read anything I wrote. I didn’t finish most of the pieces because I was groping around in the dark. Had no idea that there were writing books to help. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing or what I was supposed to do. I thought you just sit down and struggled until you had the damn thing finished.
I didn’t get my first computer till 1997. The Internet was eye-opening!!!
I have been trying to use a pattern that I am familiar with but does NOT work for me anymore. Insanity…doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
I finally gave myself permission to give up on fiction for awhile. Keep writing though. Journaling works. Thinking on paper about what I believe. What I feel and think about certain things is doable.
I am in a transition state. I need to accept that. I am accepting that. (When I don’t back-slide.)
I’ll print your entry off and stick it somewhere I can see it.
Thanks,
Beverly
You know what’s funny? I already had another suggestion as to who prompted it. You’re not alone. Which is why I wrote the blog.
Well, I’m glad it helped. A good friend said to me “if you don’t love it anymore, then why do it?” It was in the context of fearing the next step rather than our current process, but the message holds true. Giving ourselves the space to do the things that we love is much more important than conforming to an ideal one way or another. There are compromises to be made, sure, as in everything, but when the compromises aren’t working, it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate.
If you’ve found Holly’s processes interesting before, you might find it worthwhile to check out the Thinking Sideways course (http://howtothinksideways.com/members/?rid=190). I’m taking it myself and enjoying seeing other possible approaches. Part of it is evaluating how you want writing to work for you.
Thanks, Mar. This was exactly what I needed to hear. 🙂
The only reason I’m sure she wasn’t talking to me is that the only time I’ve talked to Mar this week was *after* she posted this.
Glad to be of service :).
LOL! And as I pointed out in one of my replies, it’s even about me :). Which is why I wrote it. She who is certain was only the last in a long list to make the complaint, which made me think there would be others.
Thanks for a thought provoking post. Embracing what you’re doing now can be quite comforting and a lot less stressful than trying to be someone you aren’t.
Just remember that in embracing it’s not a free pass to stop expanding your knowledge and experience. It’s more to accept what you’re doing now while you’re learning, rather than considering it automatically broken because you can see that there are other methods out there.
A very compassionate post. Thank you for your wisdom.
Glad you enjoyed it, though some would debate the compassionate :).
Excellent post. And I bet at this very moment it’s inspiring someone to go back to their roots and write. It certainly has me rethinking the whole if-it-works-don’t-fix-it
from agnesd:
Are you saying that one’s writing pattern can just happen naturally? I recently read an author’s interview, and found the author’s method was very natural to me (he fiddled with his stories quite a bit). Good post, Ms. Fisk.
Well, honestly, there’s no way to get to a writing pattern that isn’t natural :). Even if you emulate someone else 100%, you’ll find yourself taking shortcuts here and lingering there to reflect your successes and your weaknesses.
Do I think you can establish a writing pattern in a vacuum that’s functional, consistent, and worth while? Sort of. I’ve been there and done that. Usually the problem is how to be efficient. Simple things that now take me no time at all were creeping along because I couldn’t see the why of what I was doing.
What I’m saying in specific is to expose yourself to a ton of different ways to do things. Try things out. Don’t ever say where you are is not good enough, but at the same time don’t stagnate there either. If you read something that clicked with you, give it a try. But if it turns out not to take, don’t beat yourself about the head. Accept that it wasn’t a better method than the one you’re already using and move on.
Does that make sense?
I find that every new project requires a bit of reinventing the wheel. Each project has its own natural rhythm and I adjust my process to to make it work for that specific project.
Too many writers pontificate on “my process” and wonder why they get stuck, using the process as a prison instead of a springboard.
Oh good point :). I was thinking a little broader on the concept of process (like completing novels in years versus 30 days), but yeah, flexibility is so crucial to writing because even if all else stays the same, one novel is not a cookie cutter version of another…unless something’s gone very wrong, in my opinion.
Thanks Mararet for a great post!
I know you from RealWritingTeachers and came here to read your blog. I’m on Facebook and have a blog too. It’s true that writers will compare their process to other writers. My problem is I have no real process. I gear my writing to the kind of thing I am writing about and go with the flow. I don’t start with an outline or extensive character development and I revise my work constantly even before I sub it to my critique group. I have a YA novel that is still unpublished after 5 years of work. I just got rejected again and I am planning to send it out almost immediately. Yes it’s a struggle, but in the meantime I have started another YA novel and I’m more than halfway through with it. I will continue to send out my work until someone other than my critique group partners feel it is worthy to be published. Then if that doesn’t happen I might even gather the money together to self publish it. I think if you believe in your own writing, then your process doesn’t mean anything at all. Is it right for you is the thing.
Just this last NaNoWriMo I finished an adult romance, mystery, suspense novel. I had never done that before, written a novel in just 30 days or ever written a full length adult novel, but I did it. Will I revise it? Yes. Do I think it’s ready now? No! But I used an entirely different process from the one I used for my YA novels. it was scary, but it pushed me to finish. It’s just like you said in your blog. Sometimes you’ve got to shake things up a bit.
Barbara/NY
http://barbaraehrentreu.blogspot.com/
Glad you found it useful. However, I wonder if you mean you know me from Muse Conference? I had never heard of RealWritingTeachers before.
Personally, self publishing is not an option for me. If the book is good enough, it’ll find a home with someone who knows how to sell it. Maybe not the first thing to sell, but I know several authors who sold older books after they’d broken through and that’s what I plan to do as well. If it never sells though, I’d guess I didn’t have the distance to see the problems with it.
Hi,Margaret,
This is so true. Like with everything in life everyone has their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. It’s important to move forward, but at your own allowable speed. You can’t compare yourself to others – unless you’re winning the race, you’ll only make yourself feel bad.
Great Post!
Karen Cioffi
http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com
Thanks. Though I have to say I’m brutal enough with myself to say even if you are winning. It’s not enough to win if you’re not trying your hardest because you’ll never get better. That’s why Olympic Medalists try to set records as well as winning the gold. It’s not enough just to get the gold if you’re doing it by the same old same old :).