Growing up, my fantasies of adulthood centered on my status as "world famous author." I wanted to be the next Motha Fucken' Rowling. This fantasy probably burned its candle a lot longer than it should have, I mean I should have gotten a big enough dose of reality before hitting college but something happened in High School. I had a minor taste of success.
Through a university funded contest, I entered a novel in progress. It was incomplete, poorly edited, but I submitted it anyway. To my surprise, I won the county prize, $1000 and my first taste of being paid for my words. I did not win the state prize. But I did get some awesome praise from the judges who gave me these lovely ego inflating compliments. "I thought you were a man, your male protagonist was so convincing." (Dude, I swooned at that.)
Then there was college. We shall call this my wake up call. In college I was in a creative writing class with insanely talented people. I probably got off light on the "You were a big fish in a small pond" realization. College did do me a tremendous favor. It taught me becoming a writer is not an overnight success. There are not magical editing fairies to come fix your draft in the night. Until you are firmly established in your craft you will have to work to support yourself. The ratio of authors who just write for a living vs writers who have another job is probably somewhere in the 1:1000 ratio. Don't quote me, I am not a statistical person. It's probably more skewed than that.
Reality is, even if you publish your first novel, there are no guarantees it will be a success. Even if it is a success, it might not be enough of one to allow you to be a full time writer. Or that you will strike the same chord of success with your next book.
You need a fan base to support your work.
Where does that fan base come from? What spark ignites that sends people scrabbling after your book. It's not always quality. Sometimes its shock value or daring, in the case of E. L. James, taking her risque fan fiction to erotic new heights with 50 Shades of Grey. There lies the big question. How did she do it? Who's hands did that crazy book stumble into to create such a sensation?
Will I ever find the ignition spark?
As I grow older my daydreams have matured. While I secretly still want a Scottish castle, what I really want is to find my spark, to find a fan base who will be the foundation of my writing career.Time to repeat the mantra: Type till your fingers bleed, don't give up, Just Keep Writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment