Learning to Love the Downside

The Writing Life is often presented in pretty rosy terms: You get to be creative and curious! You get to work in your pajamas1! You get to transform your functional alcoholism into a marketing brand2!

But as anyone who has actually tried to make a go of this writing thing as a profession knows, there are downsides. So, so many downsides. There are bad reviews and unsatisfying freelance projects3, writer’s block and failed novels, low sales and bad experiences with publishers, the discovery that the world at large is much less interested in reading books than you assumed and the discovery that this is because most of the world is actually Slender Men in human disguise4.

Every writer has a few bad days in their career. It’s easy to love some aspects of writing. It’s easy to love the creative rush when you have a great idea or put THE END on a manuscript you know is strong. It’s easy to love great reviews, or invitations to speak at events.

The trick is to love the downsides as much as the easy-to-love stuff, because it’s all writing5.

Embrace the Suck

There’s a positive core at the center of every terrible thing about writing:

Negative feedback. No one likes hearing all the many ways their writing sucks. We’ve all had that moment of finishing a story that is very dear to us, or a freelance assignment we’re incredibly proud of, only to have a Beta Reader or critic tear it to pieces or the client send it back with reams of edit notes. It’s not fun, but love the way criticism like that improves your work. Because nine times out of ten, when you assess the work in light of the critique, you realize they have a point, and the story or piece gets better6.

Failed Deals. One of the most heartbreaking things is getting close with a deal to publish or sell your work and watching it fall apart. It never fails to be demoralizing; there’s just nothing worse than imagining yourself richer and better-known than you already are and then having to re-calibrate back down to current levels. But every time this happens I walk away a little smarter about the business side of publishing. Which doesn’t replace the money or fame, but at least makes me feel a little better7.

Failed Novels. I’ve had plenty of story ideas that start off buzzing with energy and then slowly turn into overcooked potatoes8. And it’s painful every time, even when I’m able to salvage a novella or short story from the mess. But at the same time, I always have a long list of ideas I haven’t had a chance to write yet, so a filed novel offers me an opportunity to write the next thing, which just might be amazing. Or more potatoes.

Downsides are everywhere, and sometimes you string together a bunch of downsides in a row and it’s depressing. But learning to see and appreciate the upsides to the downsides is a skill that will serve you well in this business.

  1. Since I disdain trousers of all kinds, I always wear an enormous shirt like Ebeneezer Scrooge. Do you not?
  2. I said functional, damn your eyes.
  3. Freelance writing is where you learn what the phrase ‘backhanded compliment’ really means.
  4. I could be wrong about this. It’s possible they are all Lizard People instead. Investigations are ongoing.
  5. Except the stuff that’s not writing, like running an amateur Fight Club in your basement.
  6. The tenth time you realize your manuscript is just an incredibly complicated recipe for a cocktail called a Whiskey Ripple, which after investigation is revealed to just be a mixture of several dozen whiskeys and whiskies in varying proportions.
  7. It also gives me an excuse to drink a few Whiskey Ripples, which also makes me feel a little better. And then a lot worse.
  8. Please don’t steal this genius analogy. I’m already having T-shirts made.

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