Waiting for the publication fairy

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The Divorce Diet is available today, and having promo’d it shamelessly up to now, I’m not doing that today. This is about waiting for some publisher or award committee to wave the magic feather of approval over your work.

A.L. Kennedy, speaking at an awards ceremony, said, “It’s a hard and a lonely life to be a writer—it’s not hard in the manner of being a nurse or a coal miner, but as a writer you have to believe in yourself a lot before anyone else does.”

the divorce dietSome days it’s harder to believe in yourself than to think, Maybe I should just pack it in, which is probably why so many of us look to an outside source for proof that what we’re doing is worth the bother.

Before my first short story was published, I believed publication would transform me into—although I didn’t use these words, even in the privacy of my own head—a real writer. I still believed that before my first book was published, and my second book, and I’ve kept on believing it as The Divorce Diet, my third, worked its way toward publication. Somehow, we never stop believing in the good fairy, even after she morphs into the publication fairy. We still think that as soon as we’ve proved our worth she’ll wave that magic feather. The problem is that the way we have to prove our worth keeps getting harder. There’s always one more test. I’ve read about famous writers who felt slighted because they hadn’t won the Pulitzer, the Nobel, the Massive Damn Whaddayacallit Award. They were still waiting for the publication fairy and her fancy feather.

But before writing can be about publishing, it’s about the act of writing: putting one word after another; and even before that, it’s about finding the place inside you that needs to speak, and charting a path from that place into the world. And then—once, twice, and a thousand times—it’s about believing that the act is worth the effort.

And after you get published? It’s still about the act of writing. We keep going back to that or we’re lost.

I’m writing this in advance of the TDD’s actual release date, so I can’t report on how I feel moment by moment, but I can predict pretty safely: At some point I’ll remember that what day it is and I’ll look around for a big feeling to match it, and it won’t be there. I’ll be the same me that I’ve always been. And when I next sit down to write, I’ll be the same writer I was before, not some magic-feathered genius.

Let me go back to A.L. Kennedy. She’s worked, as a writer, with “people in care homes and hospitals: psychiatric outpatients, people in prisons, people trapped in their own homes, people with all kinds of degenerative diseases or learning difficulties.” And writing could be life-changing for them not “necessarily …because they will end up being writers professionally,… [but] because they get practice to find the words to say who they are and what they want and how their world is and—in short—they will find their voices. And having a voice and knowing you can use it is a very beautiful thing.”

If you blog or write for other reasons, you know this, but it’s easy to lose track of in the scramble to transform ourselves into whatever we think real writers are.

I’m not saying that recognition doesn’t matter. I want it as badly as the next fool. But never think that it’s all that matters. Write because you must. Write because you love it. Write because it gives you strength. If you reach only yourself, you’ve done something of value. If you write well and purely and reach other people, you can give them strength. Or make them laugh. Or let them see the world in a new way. If you reach one other person, that’s a gift to you both. Take joy in it. For its own sake.

24 thoughts on “Waiting for the publication fairy”

  2. So … ummm … as a wannabe-not-a-real-writer, I have nothing meaningful to add to the meaningful part of your very meaningful message. But I CANNOT resist the opportunity to be the first commenter! So I will just point out that even if you didn’t have your teeth, your mouth would still taste like the bottom of a parrot cage in the morning. You would still have to rinse your bloody mouth. So shut up and brush, already.

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  6. Ellen, as a writer I’m so far away from recognition it isn’t funny! I’m okay just putting one word after another to get something finished, a blog post or a book chapter! I always take your writing advice and appreciate the humor attached. Dorreen’s (motherhendiaries.com)12/26 Book Review:The Divorce Diet was exceptionally good on character details. I like Abigail even more now. I’m happy that you gave me some backstory about you and The Divorce Diet in the author showcase blog post on 11/8/14 Before Sundown Featured Friends. I’m a faithful follower and okay, here I go again with a thank you for showing me the way to put good humor in writing!!! Now I hope you had a tiny touch of a big feeling on the big publication day! Happy New Year! Christine

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  8. I went to the “writing” section of your blog and had to smile to see a comparison to nursing work near the top! Great post – wonderful words of encouragement and reminder of remembering why we’re doing it.

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    • Ah, that would be that wonderful quote, which I can’t look up right now because I tried to improve the blog and came close to destroying it. Hang in there with me, please, while I try to put the bits back where they belong.

      Glad to have you here.

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