Who Makes It & Who Doesn't
Sometimes the people surprise you.
It’s not how much you want it, it’s what you are prepared to give up.
Caryl Phillips, author of Crossing the River
Many forces conspire against a writer sitting at their lonely desk day after day. Many forces plot against the book and its consequence in society.
Therefore, most people never make it, meaning succeed. They don’t get the book written, or they don’t get it published, or they get it published but it’s never heard from again.
For Example
Not long ago I ran into a middle-aged, snazzy woman I recognized. A year previous she had attended an all-day nonfiction workshop I taught in a nearby town.
"How's the writing going?" I asked her.
"Oh, I was hoping you wouldn't recognize me," she said. "I knew you would ask me that."
"You must not be writing?"
"I decided not to do it," she said.
"That's okay. Plenty of people enjoy wonderful lives and never write."
"It was too hard," she said. "I saw at your workshop how hard it was going to be. I didn't want to give up that much."
"Good for you," I said. “At least you realized that.”
Who Makes It?
One day in his class, my professor William Kittredge said a surprising thing. “It’s always hard to tell,” he said. “Who is going to actually do this.” His eyes darted around the room. Kittredge held himself stiffly, sitting in his wooden chair, holding his arms close to his chest. "I mean, who's going to make it."
"Sometimes a person is outgoing in class,” he said, “takes notes, turns in good stuff. They leave and I never hear another thing out of them. But I've had quiet people in class never ask questions, leave right afterward, turn in flimsy work. And they make it.”
I've never figured out how to tell who's going to do it. Sometimes the people who do it surprise me.
Kittredge
Did he think I was a person who would or who wouldn’t?
I myself wasn’t sure.
Making It
There are many versions of making it. Making it, for me, is writing work that’s useful to others. Being recognized for it. Developing a readership, a community. Getting published.
Making it is a private matter, a battle of a person against the work, or the person and the work against the world. The battle has to be fought privately. No classroom can resolve it. No editor can. No luck can.
Sometimes the wait is long, not a matter of months or years, but decades. In my notes from Kittredge’s class I have this line from a visiting speaker. “This is my first book. I’ve been writing for sixteen years."
A Question to Think About
How are you setting up your life so that you make it?
Interesting. Thanks to an often grueling career in education for over 30 years, I have a state retirement plan for life. Now that my income necessary to make up for retiring at age 55 is soley from writing, sometimes I feel like I've "made it." I will write my 100th newspaper column next week. I'm employed as a writer at the horse and cattle ranch. I contribute regularly to a print magazine. AND YET... Somewhere, there is a large personal project waiting for me. I have yet to grapple with how to set up my life up to make that happen. I can't even find the overarching thread of this looming, elusive THING. I know there's resistance in me somewhere, and I can't put my finger on that either. Maybe I need to read The Artist's Way one more time. That'd make five times. :) Maybe Craft and Current will be the push I need to get into that river!
An excellent subject and question. I ask myself about setting up my life just about every day about my work with horses and writing, which run neck and neck with me for my life's passion and endeavors. It seems to come to overcoming resistance, as Mary Dansak mentions in her comment, and choices. You have to make your choice, which then negates other choices in your life. Then you have to stay the course. Some days are better than others. I feel as if I am in the infant stage of setting my life up, as it can be a struggle. Thank you for this, Janisse.