Keeping Your Hustle Joyful
By Anna Elliott | July 5, 2018 |
Adrian Anghel, Flickr Creative Commons
I write in good times and bad times. For years, now, I’ve written 1,000 words a day through sickness and new babies and logistical life craziness and tragedy and grief. Even at the lowest, darkest moments, I’ve written because quite simply, however hard life feels in that moment, however hard it is to pick myself up and sit down at the keyboard, not writing would be harder still. And there’s obviously a practical benefit to keeping to a hard and fast writing schedule. Since this time last year, I’ve published 5 books I love and am so happy and grateful to have released into the world.
And yet. There’s always that little, and yet, isn’t there? Because there’s also, in our culture, the very prevalent worship of the “hustle.” We wear busy-ness as a badge of honor, take a certain strange pride in the length of our to-do lists, and convince ourselves that if we just hustle hard enough, we’ll somehow unlock the magical keys to success, riches, rainbows and happiness or whatever our goals might be. Now, of course I believe in the power of hard work and discipline. But the answer isn’t quite as simple as that.
If I’ve learned one thing on this writing journey, it’s that comparison truly is the thief of joy. You can’t let yourself be eaten up by comparing your royalties or Amazong rankings or what have you to other authors. I also know that you’ve got to celebrate and be thankful for each milestone–landing an agent, signing a contract, heck, achieving one single purchase made by anyone who’s not your mom. Because there is no magical plateau you reach and think, Yes! I’ve made it! There will always be a place on a bestseller list to reach for, a more lucrative contract, a better funded advertising campaign . . . something just out of reach that you catch yourself thinking, But if I could only have that, then I would really be happy. Except you can’t think like that. You have to learn to be happy here and now, to celebrate the writing life you’re living exactly where you’re at, no matter where you’re at.
I know all that, and yet I’ve at times also caught myself feeling . . . tired. Hustling as hard as you can does get tiring, even when you couldn’t love it more. And I am fully aware of how whiny this sounds, but there’s sometimes that little nagging voice that complains, With this much hard work, shouldn’t I have hustled my way onto the NYT Bestseller lists by now? Well, no. Of course it simply doesn’t work that way. The world owes me nothing, no matter how hard I work at writing, no matter how many days I meet my word count goal in a row. And I’m grateful for every single sale and every single reader I gain, but the reality is that I may well never sell as many books as *insert name of #1 NYT Bestselling Author here*.
One day, though, I was feeling that pull of tiredness. The dull, depleted feeling that said writing that day was going to be more of a slog than a joy. So I did something that was (for me, anyway) radical: I gave myself permission not to write.
And what happened, you may ask? I thought about it for a couple of minutes. Then I sat down and wrote my 1,000 words for the day anyway. Because as soon as I removed that “have to” from my mindset, I discovered that I still wanted to. I wanted to write because I love it. Because writing in and of itself is fulfillment, it is success, no matter what happens afterwards to the words I’ve put on the page. It’s always easier for me to write than not write; that’s just the way I’m wired. I’ll always want to save the puppy from the mine.
What about you? Do you feel inspired or boxed in by word count goals? Have you ever had to give yourself permission not to write?
Anna Elliott is an author of historical fiction and fantasy. Her first series, the Twilight of Avalon trilogy, is a retelling of the Trystan and Isolde legend. She wrote her second series, the Pride and Prejudice Chronicles, chiefly to satisfy her own curiosity about what might have happened to Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, and all the other wonderful cast of characters after the official end of Jane Austen’s classic work. She enjoys stories about strong women, and loves exploring the multitude of ways women can find their unique strengths. Anna lives in the Washington DC area with her husband and three children.
I so agree, Anna. Writing is my reward. It centers me. I eat dessert first, which is to say write before anything else (except coffee). Having written I can tackle the day refreshed and in the right spirit.
About the best-seller list, it’s deceptive and dominated by perhaps forty authors, mostly writers of thrillers. But six thousand novels are print published every year by major publishers (a number unchanged in forty years) and every one of those authors has an audience. If it is not the lowest common denominator audience, who cares? It’s an audience.
To put it differently, why envy writers who do not write like you and whose readers are satisfied with easy to swallow entertainment? That’s a fine audience but it’s not necessarily yours or mine.
Yes to everything you say, Benjamin! So true.
You are so right, Anna. I think we all go through the stages of hustling up our writing, sales, goals, and performance as a writer. I hate that kind of race. I no longer put rules on myself anymore to make myself write every single day in my stories for one main reason: I’ve learned that my truest creative flow varies and if don’t respect the time it needs to gestate and muse a little, I produce thin sloppy work that ends up in the trash. It’s kind of like trying to swim upstream and the river waves are saying to just trust yourself to float. We all have our pace and some certainly are driven to write every day, others flow with the creative river as it slows down. Giving yourself permission to not write is a wonderful quiet and fertile place to breathe in and out like the plants do before they produce a bloom.
So true, Paula. No one can be the salmon swimming upstream forever, sometimes we have to relax and let the current take us.
Your process sounds like bliss, Anna. I wish I had that kind of discipline. While I LOVE to write, writing, for me, doesn’t always get the priority it deserves.
Thanks for motivating me to try harder though! All good.
Hugs
Dee
Honestly, the more you write, the easier that kind of discipline becomes. And everyone’s ideal process is different, so don’t beat yourself up if it turns out not to be yours. Like you say, all good.
Anna,
Did you always start at 1,000 words-a-day, or did that number evolve, and if so, what factors made you settle there? Also, what time range do you have to complete the task 90% of the time? A half-hour to an hour?
I think it was somewhere in the first couple of years I was writing that I settled on 1,000 words a day as my goal. It just felt right to me, but since then I’ve met countless other authors with the same goal, so I think it’s a natural sweet spot for many. I tend to write my first drafts slowly, editing and rereading as I go– I’m a ‘write long and then trim’ writer rather than a ‘write quick and expand’ type, so it’s typically a solid hour + to get to 1,000 words. Your mileage of course may vary. :-)
Anna, I loved this post so much and it’s come at the perfect time for me. I’ve spent the last six weeks intensely focused on learning about self-publishing but through it all, I’ve been madly scribbling stories in my notebook, saving those puppies (in my case, kittens). The writing brings so much joy. A book of my heart is now out in the world. I was so tickled to discover that first sale today–and it’s not my mother. lol
I’m discovering that there are three essential elements to a successful writing life: writing, publishing, and marketing. I’m doing the first two, learning the third. But the writing always comes first.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful writing philosophy. You clearly have it right because of the great joy you exude. Wishing you all the best.
Congratulations on your publishing efforts, that’s wonderful!
I don’t have a word count goal, I have chapter count goals. Four chapters a Day every day.
Good for you, that’s quite a goal!
I have two reactions to your post, Anna.
1. Those who commit to a daily word count are people who make use of what I’ll call the Nanny Concept. Nanny is there in the corner of the study or coffee house, arms folded, tapping her foot, checking her watch. The writer does not want to anger Nanny, and keeps writing. Such writers love quantitative data, love measurement–lists, weights, distances, numbers of any kind. To them I say: whatever floats your boat.
2. It may be that deep, extended failure is the only reliable test of whether someone is a truly incurable writer. If long periods pass with nothing to show for your work (in terms of money, recognition or anything else), but you still get up and don’t feel right if you don’t write, that’s it. Like it or not, you have the bug, the gene, the character flaw or whatever else it is that makes a writer. You will just have to live with it, with or without a daily word count.
Well, since that IS my process, I have to say, Nope, no foot-tappy nanny’s in the corner here. Mine is in fact a super-fan in the stadium cheering me on towards the finish line.
Yes! To write for the joy of it–REALLY good point. Thanks for reminding me.
You bet!
Thanks, Anna, I too needed this today. I love my writing time. It’s food for me. And as my day extends and I read something online or in a novel or hear someone say something amazing, it all falls into that bouquet of ideas. Some are useful; others not. I know I’m a writer, because these proclivities are part of my daily life. And I love all of it. Best seller? Sometimes the joy is in the process. (Ha, I must be pretty happy, because so far It’s a LONG PROCESS!)
Ha, yes, the longer the process the more joy?! I so agree, though, writing is absolutely spiritual food to me.
Writing is fuel for my spirit. I have been doing it serious for eighteen years in another medium, but writing is writing. I don’t take breaks, because like you, writing IS my break!! Thank you for the inspiring post!! :)