Pivot!
By Diana Giovinazzo | January 19, 2024 |
In the classic Friends, episode Chandler and Rachel are trying to push a couch up the apartment stairs. Meanwhile, Ross is yelling “Pivot!” until Chander breaks down and starts yelling back to Ross, “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” The couch then winds up stuck in the stairwell and at the end of the episode Ross is back at the furniture store trying to exchange a couch that has been sawed in two.
Aside from that being a funny episode of the show, I can’t help but wonder how many times we as authors feel the need to Pivot, in not just life but our literary careers. It’s easy to think that our literary career is going to be like any other career. You get on that track and that’s the track you are going to be on, you get promotions, and all the other bells and whistles, but the reality is that we sometimes need to take a step back and think if that proverbial couch is going to make it up the apartment stairs. But as much as we want to force something to happen, we can’t, that stupid couch won’t fit up the apartment steps no matter how much your amygdala (that part of your brain that determines stubbornness) wants it to. The question that inevitably comes is “What now?” Do you force this proverbial couch up the stairs to the point where it breaks in half? Do you abandon it, letting it be someone else’s problem? Or should you try to find another route with the couch? They are all valid questions with no perfect answer.
I too find myself in this dilemma on occasion. Do I want to keep pushing that couch up the apartment stairs or do I want to try something else? When my husband was in the military, the wives were offered a piece of advice from the commander’s wife. “You pray for plan A but be ready to move with plan B.” It’s a philosophy that I have run with for the majority of my life and one that I am thinking of running with now because sometimes we must, as Ross so eloquently screamed, “Pivot!”
Recently I reached out to a few author friends about how many times they had to pivot in their literary careers. When talking with Greer Macallister, she pointed out that she had to make three pivots in her career, the last one being a few years ago.
Likewise, according to Kerri Meher:
“I’ve pivoted many times and in different ways. I’ve pivoted from literary fiction to genre fiction (and within that, from romance to YA to historical); I’ve taken time off from writing to start a literary journal and be an editor; I took a break from fiction altogether to write a memoir (This Is Not A Writing Manual). Every pivot has left me feeling refreshed. They have all be necessary.”
Now I am not saying that pivoting is an easy task to undertake. If you are stubborn like me, it can often feel like giving up because, damn it, that piece is meant to fit up those stairs. Things are supposed to work out the way we want them to. And while sometimes it’s hard to realize when to make that pivot, it’s important to take the time to think, reflect, perhaps talk it out with a trusted person, and at the end of the day go with your gut.
It’s your career and your dream.
The publishing world is fickle, and often times we wonder if it is powered by a madman. And sometimes it is time for change. Whether change has to be in what genre we publish or even in the way we publish our work, the one thing that is always going to stay the same is that if we want to survive in this industry we have to learn to pivot, otherwise we are going to wind up breaking the couch.
Have you pivoted in your career? Would you welcome the opportunity for change if it seemed best for your career, or would you resist? Would you ever cut your proverbial couch in two? What are your thoughts about pivoting?
Diana Giovinazzo is the co-creator of Wine, Women and Words, a weekly literary podcast featuring interviews with authors over a glass of wine. Her debut novel, THE WOMAN IN RED, released in 2020, and her second novel, ANTOINETTE’S SISTER, released in 2022. You can find her in the Los Angeles area with her menagerie and husband.
[coffee]
Pivoting is necessary skill in any career, most certainly in the haphazard field of writing. This is a good reminder that we must ease up on our artistic vision if we intend to make a career of it.
I have come to look at pivoting, not as an unwieldy dilemma, but as opportunity. One that has been critical to my entire writing life. Like many aspiring authors, I’d written a few ‘trunk’ novels before I got my first Agent. That was is Scotland. We went out on sub and got half a dozen responses all along this vein:
“Eddie Louise has a great voice and strong writing, but the story is weird – we don’t know how to sell it. Can she maybe write something more genre specific for a first book. Once she builds up an audience, we can take a stab at this one.”
So I tried writing something new. It too was rejected as too weird. Then life threw me a pivot and our Scottish VISA got cancelled. My agent was UK only. So I was back to square one in the USA and feeling very down about writing. As Diana says above – I was considering quitting all together. My husband advised that I write something fun – just for me – as a way of dealing with my frustrations.
The result of that became THE TALES OF SAGE AND SAVANT – a four season audio drama. I honed my skills in scriptwriting and scene pacing. I developed talents in long story arcs. And I snagged a publisher! Edge Science Fiction called me – they were fans of the show and wondered if I would consider writing a novelization. This led to my first book deal.
In addition, the skills I’d developed proved useful in another region of the writing world – screenwriting. Since that time I have worked on a couple of TV projects, been script doctor on a couple of films, and discovered a world of possibility for my writing. Best of all, the market has changed in the last 12 years – more authors are doing ‘slipstream’ writing and the hard lines between genres are being elided. That means those ‘weird’ books just might sell now so I am back in the query trenches. I view pivots as simply turns on the dance floor and as long as the music is playing, I will dance.
Although I’ve pivoted many times, taking on new careers, it is never less scary. I think I’m in the middle of one now, clinging onto the genre I love to explore a new one. Well, at least I’m saving myself a trip to the furniture store.
Thought provoking, Diana. I have pivoted a number of times, in life and in writing. In the last 15 or so years I have moved through non fiction educator books to filmmaking interviews on my blog to several novels and now I write short fiction for my newsletter and blog. It all felt natural. Part of growth. The thread running through it all – being active online. I am quite happy to be where I am. PIVOT!