Answering Tough Questions: One Writer's Honest Long-Term Goals

A few weeks ago, my friend and colleague, Diane Callahan (better known to some of you as @QuotidianWriter), put out a video titled How to Be a Writer: Setting Long-Term Goals. 

When she posted the link to Twitter, she kindly mentioned that I'd had a small hand (just a pinky, really), in helping her develop her talking points for that video. Ever since we became acquainted, we've often traded works-in-progress back and forth. Both of us, like many other writers, benefit from a feedback loop to help us in the revision process. 

After she'd reviewed what I'd had to say, she made another suggestion: that I share what I said to her here on the blog. She thought that--and I will embarrass her by quoting her verbatim--it was "beautifully expressed." (I'll leave you to decide if she was right.) Considering that I'm pretty open as to what I do and don't share on here, I decided to do just that.

The way in which Diane asked me to contribute some insight into her video was by simply answering three basic question: 

        1) What are my long-term writing goals? 

        2) What are the things I most want to achieve?

        3) What do I think most writers want to achieve in terms of their long-term writing goals?

In answering these questions, I condensed the first two into one question because the answers, at this point in my life, are pretty much the same. On the second, I was able to be a bit more--oh, let me be polite to myself and say--aspirational. What you'll read below is my answer, in full, as I sent it to Diane. I wrote it like a letter because, for some reason, that's a writing style with which I'm fairly comfortable (as anyone who reads this regularly will have noticed by now). 

If nothing else, I hope that this letter reveals a portrait of someone doing their best to be honest and thoughtful in answering questions that are not easy to answer. They were the best I could offer at the time, and I can't ask for much else than that. 

2/12/2021

 

Hi Diane,

 

First, sorry for the delay in answering your questions. With a day job in taxes, this time of year puts a big crunch on my time, attention, and energy. But, with a little bit of peace, I can finally give you the answers you requested.

What are my specific writing career goals and what do I want to achieve?

The core one, of course, is to become a “full-time” professional writer, preferably one who makes his living writing novels for various audiences (Adult, YA, Children’s, etc.).

Now, the best way I can see to achieving this is by going the traditional publishing route. The main reason is because I don’t have the skillset to go full indie. I’m not a good salesperson. I don’t know how to attract people’s attention. (That search engine detail you dropped in the DM makes no sense to me. How does a long title like that help?) And, honestly, trying to do so does not jive with my personality. I’ve spent my whole life trying to avoid attention, so putting myself out there like a carny huckster is just anathema to me. Having a traditional publisher helping with that—I’m aware they won’t do all of it for me—would help to make up for my shortcomings.

There are two things, without an agent or publisher, I can do to build up “my brand.” (I hate that term so much.)

The first, obviously, is to write, improve my craft, and learn to produce fiction that’s of “traditional publishing quality.” This is what will attract an agent—that necessary go-between for the writer and the publisher—who can then help to sell the work to a publisher.

The second is to build a platform for myself to make it seem like what I do might have an audience. In some ways, my Twitter account has become that—at least the core of my platform. It’s enabled me to build a network of fellow writers in the #WritingCommunity, something I have trouble doing IRL. The blog and the podcast (both of which were accidents, I might add), have become cornerstones of this. Neither of them has a massive audience, but they exist and they do have audiences—apparently, international ones at that.

So, that’s my situation now. I’m building a platform so I can eventually write novels (and I have lots of ideas and in-progress WIPs for them), full-time. Beyond making a comfortable living at writing the stories I want to write (because I’m a control freak like that), there are no goals. I don’t care about awards; I don’t care about accolades like Number 1 New York Times Bestseller; I don’t care about joining groups; and really, I don’t even care about critical recognition. I’ve had stories in 2 indie anthologies, and I’ve yet to read a single review for either of them. These things, if they happened, would be gravy to the main meal of being a full-time writer.

Now, what do I think most writers want to achieve in their careers?

This one’s a little tougher simply because it’s a case-by-case basis.

There are writers like me who want to make our livings writing, but they might be going about it completely differently. Barbra Avon, a writer (I think) we both know on Twitter, is a full-blown indie writer, and she produces books like rabbits in spring time. Both routes, indie and traditional, are still valid and viable means of getting your work into the world.

Still there are writers who view themselves purely as hobbyists. They don’t want to make this a full-time gig. They have a fulfilling day-job and the writing is just a way of scratching a creative itch within themselves.

If I can wax philosophical a bit, I think what most writers want is for people to read their work. Fundamentally, there are only three reasons to write something:

1)      To make a record of something that has the potential to outlast you, like a journal or a piece of reportage. I’m not sure these exact thoughts coursed through Anne Frank’s head during the time she maintained her diary, but her diary became a record of her life in hiding before she died.

2)      To satisfy a creative urge in you, without any thought of an audience. Think of someone like Emily Dickinson writing over a thousand poems in her lifetime, with barely a handful of them seeing the light of day while she was alive.

3)      To write something that you wish for others to read. Walt Whitman not only wrote poem after poem, which wound up in every new edition of Leaves of Grass, but he hand-set the type and printed them himself. Even if he had to put it out into the world on his own, he wanted people to read his work, and now look at him: a Cornerstone of American Literature.

The majority of writers fall into those latter two categories. In fact, many begin in the second and then transfer to the third at some point. It really isn’t about fame, public recognition, or monetary compensation if one approaches writing with that attitude. It’s about sharing something of oneself (none of us who do this can help but place bits of ourselves in our work), with the world. It might sound a bit grandiose to put it that way, but I think, if you get past all of  the “making a living” pragmatism, it’s a fairly basic desire common to all writers. Money, fame, and public recognition are great enablers to allow one to do this, but they’re really the side-dish compared to the main course of getting your work into the world so other people can read it.

I’m not sure if any of these odd musings will help you, Diane, but hopefully, they provide you with some insight into at least one writer’s way of thinking.

As always, stay safe, stay healthy, and take care.

 

Your Friend and Colleague,

Ian 😊