What If You Have What You Need?
By Natalie Hart | August 26, 2022 |
Photo by Martin Neuhold on Unsplash
It’s easy to focus on what you don’t have enough of – uninterrupted time to write, money for conferences / coaches / editors, friends or family members who get what you do, saleable ideas. And what you have too much of – anxiety over the market / sales / our process / reader reactions, dejection at repeated rejection, too many indie publishing decisions to make. Writing can be such a mind f*@!.
What if you did something radical and explored the idea that you have what you need to be a writer? Could that be a way to lead yourself out of the not enough/too much loop?
IMAGINATION
Your What If engine makes this whole writing thing possible. Think about all you’ve created so far: people, families, clans, societies, worlds, rules of magic, technologies, animals, creatures. You’ve manufactured crises and then resolved them. All your imaginings don’t even make it to paper! You have such an abundance of imagination that you can’t contain it in your writing practice. You are imaginative—you have what you need to be a writer.
CURIOSITY
This is your Who, What does that mean, Why, and How engine. Curiosity makes you keep digging, keep exploring, keep looking for details and explanations. It leads you to follow story threads and research locations, manners of death, professions, rules of magic, physics of space flight, game theory, human psychology, animal behavior, archeology. As annoying as others may find it, you keep asking Why about the human condition. You are driven to figure out what pushes actual and fictional people to do what they do, choose what they choose, love what they love. You are curious—you have what you need to be a writer.
CAPABILITY
Whether you have the skills or knowledge you need to make your writing dreams happen right now, you have the ability to gain them. You are able to research what you need. You can study and practice your craft. Writing ability is not granted; it is developed by doing. So as Kelsey Allagood wrote on Wednesday (Lessons from the Climbing Wall), as you work on your skills, realize the struggle is ½ mental, trust your gut, and lean on others, your ability to reach your writing dreams will grow.
Think back over your writing life, what you’ve attempted, finished, learned, and risked. I hope you find that you’re more capable than your usual mind-habits admit. You are capable—you have what you need to be a writer.
HUMILITY
Assuming you aren’t the tiny group of readers who come to Writer Unboxed to reassure themselves that they knew all this already, you come here because there is always more to learn, room for improvement, a question you hadn’t thought to ask about your WIP that makes things click into place. Humility doesn’t preclude being confident in your writing, or even believing that you’re a gifted writer. It is the recognition that you’re not done growing and learning. You are humble—you have what you need to be a writer.
AUDACITY
You believe people should read your stories. People you don’t know and who don’t know you. How audacious! Writing for publication is a risky endeavor. You open yourself to the lows of rejection (by agents, publishers, readers, your mother) with a side of feeling like your soul is laid bare. But you take that bold risk over and over. You are audacious—you have what you need to be a writer.
DETERMINATION
Some of you have determination to spare: you spend every spare moment writing or marketing or somehow working on your goals. Others don’t have specific goals and are exhausted by the idea of spending every spare moment on writing, but still have enough perseverance to keep on with it. Even if you’re not currently writing as much as you want, you have enough determination to keep checking in here. Along with all the other capabilities, determination is something you can grow. If you’re approaching a crossroads and can’t imagine having what it takes to get to the next level, I bet you have enough determination to take the next right step. And then the next one after that. Whether you call it desperation, perseverance, or courage, you have it. You are determined—you have what you need to be a writer.
PATIENCE
This is a tough one for me, and maybe for you. But every time you start a new draft of a manuscript, you’re being patient with the process of writing the best story you can. When you send in a story to a magazine or a novel to an agent, you are forced to be patient enough to wait for a response. At different times in the writing process you need patience while you work through your process to percolate through a story solution. A gritted-teeth patience is just as good as a peaceful one. You are patient—you have what you need to be a writer.
INSATIABILITY
Just like Alexander Hamilton, you will never be satisfied. Not satisfied by surface-level explanations. Not satisfied with your own writing. Not satisfied that all the stories have already been told. You want more! More truth, more honesty, more fun, more joy, more and more and more good stories. You are insatiable—you have what you need to be a writer.
HOPE
Even for those of you who tell stories about the past, being a writer is a future-oriented endeavor. You write now, hoping that your words will find a home, will make a difference, will challenge and/or comfort your readers. You postpone a night of Netflix so you can work on your story. There’s always another page to write, story to tell, detail to get right, and you aim to do it. Or you may be waiting for an overwhelming life stage to pass or working through a trauma; giving yourself the time to do that without giving up your identification as a writer means that you plan to write again in the future. You are hopeful—you have what you need to be a writer.
*****
I hope that some of you have found this encouraging. This exercise helps me get out of my head. I may not have enough time or money to write and publish the way I’d like, and I may have too many technical skills to learn and indie publishing decisions to make, but it takes the heat out of my complaints when I remember that I already have what I need to be a writer. It sets me free to get down to business, butt in chair, learning and risking and growing.
So how did it feel, sitting with the idea that you have what you need to be a writer?
What do you tell yourself (or do) when you need to counter those not enough/too much messages or voices?
Natalie Hart writes stories for children. Her father was an entrepreneur, so she never intended to be one herself, but she’s become a proud indie author. She is the author of The Giant Slayer, an imaginative retelling of the first eight years of adventure in the life of the boy who would become Israel’s King David.
[coffee]
Wonderful, encouraging post, Natalie! As I read through it, I thought, she’s actually making a gratitude list: Things that we have, but take for granted, or fail to realize they’re even there. It’s been awhile since I’ve written one, which may explain some of the funk I’ve been in. Thank you so much for this. It’s exactly what I needed to read today.
Thank you so much, Mike! I’m glad. You’re right — it totally also works as a gratitude list. And you should be grateful for your writing gift. The ability to make a reader laugh and cry about the exact same thing is a gift, indeed <3
Thanks for this upbeat post, Natalie!
Thank you, Liza.
This is an awesome way to spin the negative self-talk into the positive column. Being positive is so much more gratifying and breaks that cycle of self-pity that “I don’t have as much time as others” because I have a day job too. I will remind myself of this strategy if I find my gumption flagging because “I don’t have enough time.”
Thanks, Shari. That cycle of self-pity is such a cozy place to wallow in. Also, I love the word gumption!
That day job thing is certainly an obstacle! I had the luxury of writing full time for a few years about 9 – 10 years ago and it was GREAT! I can’t do that any more and I finally realized how much I was actually grieving that time of my life (more than I grieved the end of the marriage -hahahahahaha! *teehee*). And I think I did the ‘pity-party’ thing quite a bit for quite a while! But, reality is for us who need to pay our mortgages and bills and eat and, if like me, have one income to do it all: that steals time, and energy, from our writing! :)
Natalie, I love this so much, from a mindset of lack to abundance. John 10:10 comes to mind. Thank you so much. I find it interesting that we have to have equal doses of humility and audacity for this writing life.
Thank you, Vijaya. I really enjoy how humility and audacity work together in the writing life (and in life in general, for that matter) :-)
Thanks for such an encouraging and thoughtful post, Natalie. Sometimes we develop a big blind spot for our own abilities. Write on!
Thank you, Therese. Sometimes we write what we most need to hear :-) You write on, too!!
What a lovely pep talk! You’re absolutely right that it’s too easy to focus on the negatives (especially, it feels like, these days) so thank you for flipping the script and offering such powerful affirmations. <3
We’re good enough, we’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like us! (I always think of Jack Handy when I hear the word *affirmations*)
Warmly encouraging (and not pie-in-the-sky, though I love pie) post, Natalie. Put me in mind of the good stuff in the Growth mindset material from Carol Dweck. Though I don’t know if I’ll ever reach the height of postponing a night of Netflix.
Thank you, Tom. I always like to be very specific in my encouraging, otherwise it too easily falls flat. The growth mindset stuff was *huge* for me when I first read it and realized how deeply stuck I was in a fixed mindset. (My video Kryptonite is cooking competition shows–I’ll watch one after the other after the other.)
Awesome post, Natalie. Just perfect for my writing day. Thanks so much. Beth
Thank you, Beth. Hope it was a great writing day!
Thank you, Natalie. This post was timely. You’ve reminded me that I DO have what I need!
I’m glad this came at the right time :-)
Natalie, what a great way to look at things! And VERY different from my usual “glass 2/3 empty” point of view, so this thinking is definitely something I want to try on for size.
Thanks for a genuinely refreshing post!
Thank you, Keith. Is here where I admit that I’m likely to tell myself, “You have what you need, dumbass”?
Wow, Natalie! I had never looked at all these traits as assets. Of course, I didn’t have such a comprehensive list in the first place, and whatever little I was aware of, I was quick to curse it. For instance, in the grip of anxiety, I’d curse myself for having such a vivid imagination that sought out the worst-case scenario. Thank you for completely flipping the narrative and for these beautiful insights!
Indeed, all assets!! And all potentially annoying in real life :-) The middle grade/YA author Rick Riordan writes about kids who have one human parent and one godly parent (from different mythological systems). Many of them have ADHD in a regular schooling situations, but that’s because they’re born to be warriors, their attention is supposed to be wired to that weird thing in their periphery so they can react to it in battle. That detail has stuck with me, that the way we are might not work as well in one setting, but in another it’s a strength. Thank you for commenting!
That explains it so well. It is a striking detail, and one I won’t forget either. Thank you for sharing.
That example further reminded me of the Winchester brothers in the TV show Supernatural. (If you haven’t watched, both fight supernatural creatures, but Dean is more the warrior, quick-thinking and brave, whereas Sam, the younger brother, is more the follower, risk-averse and rule-follower.) There was an episode in which these two are shown living a hypothetical normal life in which there are no monsters and demons to be vanquished, and in this scenario Sam is a very successful lawyer with a family and a house, all the stereotypical hallmarks of worldly success, whereas Dean completely languishes in this one, his talents all wasted, and spends his days utterly lost and forlorn. That one episode touched me so deeply I’m doubly happy to share that one here.
Love this! Thank you sharing it, Anitha. Sounds like a great episode.
This is a very valuable post. As I read through the things that I have—Imagination? Check. Curiosity? Check. Capability? Oh, please. I’m brilliant. Humility? In spades—I was thinking, “Of course I can do this.” But then you started in on impossible things, like Determination and Patience. What a buzzkill.
… But maybe if I just opened up the file for the thousandth time …
Oh you’re funny, Michael. Yes, open the file for the thousandth time. Or make it a google doc and keep it open so you see it every time you spend time browsing on the internet (my current tactic)!