Another amazing Kristine Kathyrn Rusch article...

[Fishbowl Helmet]

Woke up reading this excellent piece today. Fair warning, sport metaphor incoming. I cannot gush enough about Kristine and her husband Dean's articles on the craft and business of writing.

Since it will come up: I define luck as various things that are completely out of your control just happening to go your way. How hard you work on your craft has nothing to do with luck.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Interesting article, thanks (although I'm not a fan of her cod psychology regarding SK's motivations).

pH

 

[Gonk the Insane]

"Be obsessed about your writing." Yay - let your geek flag fly!

 

[Brian G Turner]

"Writers never examine the amount of work that “lucky” beginning novelist has done before the big sale. Often that “lucky” beginner had writing success elsewhere in writing—as a journalist, maybe"

That's such a good point. Stephen King and Lee Child come to mind as people who worked for years as media writers before becoming fiction writers. Lee Child worked on productions at Granada Studios for 20 years, talked to big actors in the field, and worked on critically acclaimed programs such as Cracker. It's no wonder he's a very successful thriller writer - he's applying what he's already learned by profession, and can use all sorts of insights from that.

 

[MWagner]

"And most of all… Run your own race."

I think this is where the analogy breaks down. Running is a solitary activity typically done for its own sake. Writing can be that. But I'd wager most people who write fiction regularly expect to have an audience at some point. In that way, writing is more like performing music. I don't think it's delusional to expect other people to read and enjoy your fiction at some point. If I didn't believe there was an audience that might pay money to read my fiction some day, I probably wouldn't bother. But my initiation into writing was through journalism, where every piece you write every day, starting on the first day of your career, goes out to a readership of strangers. And I think some of the aspiration to hit it big right away comes from the reality of today's commercial publishing model, where you get a couple cracks at finding an audience and then you're old news. Most writers will never hit it big. But the ones who do typically do so fairly early in their career.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

But today's commercial publishing model is only half the picture....

 

[Phyrebrat]

But today's commercial publishing model is only half the picture....

Indeed. Or, if a podcast I listened to today is correct, only a third of the picture.

pH

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

"And most of all… Run your own race."

I think this is where the analogy breaks down. Running is a solitary activity typically done for its own sake. Writing can be that. But I'd wager most people who write fiction regularly expect to have an audience at some point. In that way, writing is more like performing music. I don't think it's delusional to expect other people to read and enjoy your fiction at some point. If I didn't believe there was an audience that might pay money to read my fiction some day, I probably wouldn't bother. But my initiation into writing was through journalism, where every piece you write every day, starting on the first day of your career, goes out to a readership of strangers. And I think some of the aspiration to hit it big right away comes from the reality of today's commercial publishing model, where you get a couple cracks at finding an audience and then you're old news. Most writers will never hit it big. But the ones who do typically do so fairly early in their career.

In the context she's talking about not comparing yourself to other writers. You're not competing against other runners in a marathon unless you've put in a whole heap of quite specific training to finish first. Otherwise you're in the pack and your time doesn't matter when compared to others at all. Run your own race. Don't compare your time to other runners' time. It's pointless. Likewise, run your own race when applied to publishing is don't worry about other writers. Don't fuss over Big Name X getting some deal, or Big Name Y got published by the time they were 20. None of that matters. You're not running against the other runners, you're running against yourself. You're not writing and publishing to beat or compete against other writers, you're writing and publishing to do better than you have done before. That's what run your own race means. You're trying to beat your own time, not beat the time of other runners.

 

[Droflet]

I stopped writing in my early 20's because I felt intimidated by other writers. Eg. The brilliant Harlan Ellison. It took me years to discover the bloody obvious. Of course I could not write like them. I'm no genius. But, and here's the big BUT, I don't need to. Take what you have, learn what you can, and enjoy the journey. Simple really. Oh, if only I could journey back in time and kick my own butt.

 

[Juliana]

Nice piece. It went a bit wobbly in the middle, but picked up steam afterwards. I especially like the ending:

"And most of all, have fun. Because writing, like running, is something we choose to do. If we’re going to choose to do something, if we’re going to obsess about it, then we should be doing it for the love of it. Not because we’ll be famous or renown. But because it’s part of who we are, and what we do."