In the past few months I’ve been learning as much as I can about business, marketing, personal branding, all that good stuff. All in pursuit of what I call my ‘master goal’ of becoming a full time author. These days, it’s never been easier to become published. At the same time, it’s never been harder to actually make a living at writing. can’t just sit around and come up with great plot lines all day. It’s vital to become a combination of marketer, businessman and entrepreneur. That is, if I want to actually make a living at this. I won’t lie, some of this is daunting. I wonder sometimes whether I have any idea what I’m doing.
To make matters worse, last week I pored over my draft for my debut novel and was dismayed. No, dismayed is too soft a term. Demoralized is a better word. What was wrong you ask? That is the very question that upset me so. I had no idea. There was technically nothing wrong with my draft. I love the concept. Yet, it was missing something. Something vital. While this was say far my best draft I have ever written, there was nothing that truly captured the imagination. The worst part of all this? I couldn’t put my finger on why this was. My solution to this was to employ a tactic that I have found to be excellent for just this scenario. Keep working. I keep working, and eventually the solution will reveal itself. (although I would appreciate it if the solution would HURRY UP sometimes)
So what does any of this have to do with learning the business side of writing? I’m getting to that. As I was trying to learn how to construct an effective business/marketing plan, I realized that there was something very wrong. It’s all well and good to look at the analytics side of things (and I do by the way), but none of that matters to the consumer. I have never picked up a book because I was amazed at the business acuity of a certain author. Not once. I only wanted to know if you could move me in some way. Capture my imagination somehow. Thrill me with a grand adventure, or stoke my emotions. (preferably both)
People who know me have been harangued to no end over how much I admire JRR Tolkien. “Lord of The Rings” is the greatest novel series ever written. LOTR inspired me to begin writing. Tolkien crafted an adventure, so thrilling and epic in scope, yet so emotionally nuanced, that nothing else compares in my mind. I’m not currently writing fantasy (later though….), but the same principles apply to what I wanted to capture in my writing.
Recently I finished reading Seth Godin’s “Poke The Box”. That short little manifesto blew me away so much, I want to buy a giant box of Godin’s book and give a copy to everyone I know or have met. The premise is beyond simple, go start stuff. That’s it. No, there isn’t any secrets revealed, there’s no magical formula or success. Actually, Godin spends a fair amount of time cautioning readers of how likely failure is. But Godin made it very clear that as painful and costly as failure can be, so is attempting nothing.
At the end of Godin’s tiny masterpiece, I felt empowered to go and try new things. More than that, I suddenly realized why my draft didn’t feel right. My draft is fantastic (if I say so myself). It doesn’t need to be re-written, I don’t need to chunk anything. My problem, was fear. I’m writing a supernatural thriller. I was hesitant to put certain scenes and elements in that would make the book fairly scary. I have no qualms with horror, I’ve enjoyed plenty of horror novels/movies. My fear was that if my novel was scary, then I would flub my debut and no one would read it. So I was engineering certain aspects for popularity. And there was the problem. The draft failed to capture the imagination because I was afraid to let my book become all it could be.
I’ve been at this intersection of creativity so many times I could make postcards. Usually my MO has been to just throw my hands up and quit. I justified this pathetic action by telling myself that it’s better to quit a failed project now and instead start on something that will be successful. Which only served to lead me down a vicious cycle. So I’ve gone back and tweaked my draft. In plain speak, I fully intend to ‘let er’ rip!’ I’m going to try some new ideas, and take some risks. I have no idea if this debut is ‘the right one’ for the moment. But that’s not really my concern right now. My only concern is to create something awesome. I’ll worry about the marketing side when the project is finished.
I leave you with this; leave fear behind. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to try some new things. Take a few risks. In a world where everyone tries to imitate each other, the only real way to stand out is to be original. Can’t fake it, can’t mass produce it.
