This rings so true. I always wanted to write a literary novel, and was reminded recently by my sister, who asked me why I wasn't writing in that genre. My answer was that a measure of success, for me, is that my books are read - and literary fiction tends not to be popular. So yes, I will write that special novel one day, but for the moment I'm practising writing in a more commercial genre, getting better all the time, waiting for the moment when I feel ready to flex that more literary muscle. And in the meantime I'm gathering readers and making a bit of money too. I love the process, of course, but I love having readers most.
This piece (and the previous one) are so insightful, I've also found 'creative me' and 'business me' have different goals and energies. When I first switched careers and took time to write, 'business me' was trying to run the show. It wasn't pretty. The writing got strangled at birth. Some of that time was also me simply learning the craft, but business me and my inner critic make a mean team. It really wrecked my confidence and it's been a long road back. As Bonnie Radcliffe notes, there's often deeper personal stuff that needs addressing too.
Last year I allowed myself to write a short memoir in tiny steps. Some days I only wrote 100 words. But I finished it and self published it so family members could buy it and it really helped me realize the value of the process - and proved to me how much I loved the process. 'Business me' took a break and let the creative side take the reins. It's such a subtle shift in mindset, but also profound.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Your point about deeper personal stuff that needs addressing rings true with me. It was certainly the case for me and is an ongoing journey. It’s one aspect of why I trained as a coach, because that stuff underpins everything else.
Thank you for sharing your journey. I went back and read also your previous post. I really appreciate this change in perspective: it gives a new meaning to ambition and to striving to get better time after time.
Thank you Giulia. I've been exploring your Substack and it's making me want to visit Tuscany again - I love Italy and spent my 50th birthday is Firenze earlier this year! 😁
I've wanted to become a published novelist since I was 12 years old. I don't need to become filthy rich from it (though that would be nice), but I really want to share my stories with the world. People need stories for a myriad of reasons, and knowing my novel might resonate somehow with someone, might fill a lonely afternoon, or spark joy, or make them feel as if someone understands them, makes it worthwhile. While I do have a novel published as an ebook, I am desperate to have a physical copy in my hands. I want to see it on the shelf at Barnes and Noble. That's the dream. But honestly? If I don't ever become a "traditionally" published novelist, I will still write because I am a writer. It's who I am.
I’m finding this post and your previous one really helpful Katherine. For me the enjoyment of writing was always the process, being totally absorbed in it. But then I struggled with what to do with my writing. Does someone need to read it to make it valid? I’ve spent years trying to get traditionally published and got very close to getting an agent but didn’t succeed and ended up feeling I didn’t want to write another novel that didn’t get published. I decided to self publish one of my novels last year and it has been a positive experience in many ways, but I’m still struggling to settle down to writing consistently again. Your advice to separate the writing and publishing sides, without giving up my ambitions, feels spot on.
I'm so glad it's helpful, Mellany. Judging by the response, you are not alone. It can feel so hard to keep going. Are you coming along to my workshop on Thursday? I'll be talking about resilience, which is exactly what we need to build to come back from such a disheartening experience.
My big writing dream is to be life-giving in a meaningful way. I write fantasy with many layers, so that can mean providing an enchanting escape to someone who needs it, or helping someone dealing with their own or another’s mental health issues feel understood, or opening a budding economist to alternative socio-economic practices, or allowing a bedridden person to remember the touch of wind on their skin, or demonstrating what healthy relationship can look like.
Reading was my life-line in difficult times, and I want my work to be that for others.
Early readers indicate I’m on the right track. I also want it to be life-giving to as many as possible. I want those touched by it to share it with others, and I DO want an income from it, reflective of how well it succeeds at blessing others.
I have joy in the writing, satisfaction in the revising, and delight when it lights someone up—but as a neurodivergent empty-nester who’s never had a career, the income matters to me, too.
I am now so glad I didn’t get published when I started my writing journey, because then I really believed it would ‘fix’ my life. Since then, I’ve realised that is too big a load for my creativity to take, that the joy of doing the thing, writing the words, has to be enough. I am almost finished with my third (well, technically fifth if you count the ones I consigned to a drawer!) novel. I want to be traditionally published. I want to make a living from it. I want my words to connect with the people who need them most. But now I know I have to fix the other problems in my life myself rather than hoping a book deal will solve them. I know that not all that much will change when I do get published. And I know that the real joy is, very simply, in the writing. Thank you for this reminder as I polish my final draft!
Great piece Katherine! I guess every writer has their own vision for their work, but I definitely think it’s about striking a balance, however it looks. I have been a consistently published writer and author since 1988, so when I started my novel, while daunted by the new prospect of ‘making stuff up’, I couldn’t help but hope for a contract. And the truth is, I would have been extremely disappointed had I not signed one, given my track record and experience. For someone who is switching careers, or is emerging as a writer, the dream might well be there, but the landscape is almost bound to look a bit different. And there are plenty of benefits to this too, including all the support available to unpublished writers nowadays. The industry has literally exploded since I started in journalism.
But I’ve certainly noticed that the topic of publishing is quite divisive, with some claiming not to want it, for fear of compromise. The right publisher won’t demand that of you though… and if you take writing seriously, and consider it as your work, then, as you say, publication is usually the way to achieve it.
I love supporting other writers towards being published. (I’ve even had a small dream of being an agent…) because I believe in connecting writers with readers, and it’s still the best way.
Thank you for producing such thoughtful and practically helpful newsletters!
I love the motivation for your agent dream! As someone in the query trenches, I appreciate the reminder that that’s probably what most of them want too, even if my story isn’t right for them!
I agree it’s still the best way, Liz. No one can get your book out there like a trad publisher, if they do it right! It’s what I hope for myself, too - a collaboration with good people to help my book reach readers. Thanks for your kind words ❤️
Ok well, I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I am retired, so it’s not about money any more (although I wouldn’t turn it down). I no longer consider myself ambitious. I just want some people to read and discuss and perhaps be inspired by my novel — spiritual seekers, older women, vibrant book clubs, talks at independent book stores. Yep, I envision myself talking with readers at local book stores over cheese cubes and wine. That’s it. I would like to leave a small legacy. I don’t want to self publish or pay to have it published, that much I know. But when I see the kinds of books that are getting agents and deals, I know it’s a total crap shoot that the right person will unearth my query from the slush pile on the right day and be in the right frame of mind to perhaps ask for pages. I am starting to plan the next one, so I guess I enjoy making up and writing stories.
I like these ‘significant connections with readers’ dreams too! I think I partly wrote to help me find my people…a long-game introvert’s path to making friends!
I'd like to confirm that its a good-enough collection of words that multiple people will lay down twelve bucks to buy it. Validation and a paycheck. I'd like to put stories into the world that will reinforce empathy, love, tolerance, compassion because we need those things sooo badly. I agree that The Women's Prize has an allure. I'd like to be interviewed by Simon Savidge. I think it would be a trip to see one of my stories translated for a foreign audience to read. It keeps me going. lol. Thanks for the essay.
I’m selfpublishing and I know that that diminished the chances of ever getting any of those ‘big’ author goals - so I’m trying to focus on more achievable ones instead, like having a stand at Comic Con - but truth be told, who wouldn’t love to have a Netflix adaptation! 🤩
This is a great insight into the tug-of-war between doing it for the sake of doing it and then pursuing acknowledgment. I think about yearning often. Perhaps it is a yearning to be seen. Perhaps the writing is the yearning to see ourselves and then the sharing is the yearning to be seen by others, the yearning to hear “me, too” or just “I see you.”
Well said! I often think about how bizarre a pursuit writing fiction is, and that the only reason to do it is out of love. Even if we try to be realistic, however, it is natural to hope to make big waves with a book we may have spent years working on. We want publishing it to change our lives.
The thing I keep reminding myself of, that helps as I pursue my own ambitious goals, is this: whether or not I get a prize or a six figure deal, or a Netflix show, my life will still have been changed by writing a book.
For so much of our lives, we dream of writing books, often worrying we won't be able to do it. By embracing the process, and getting to the end of a novel, we get to ask "What else am I capable of?" And perhaps this is winning a prize or a big advance or a film deal. But there are so many other things we've learned and so much other growth that occurs, too. Perhaps I'm a bit Pollyanna about the whole thing, but it's the only way I know how to keep showing up and taking the risk.
We're passing notes to the future when we write, and that's a pretty cool thing to be able to do.
Thank you for this follow-up. You've left me feeling inspired to get back into my manuscript immediately.
Gosh, yes, all of this! I totally agree that simply finishing a book (as much as a book is ever ‘finished’) is a massive accomplishment in itself. Looking back I can see how each one has led me on a journey. I love the idea that art changes the artist. I know my confidence grows with each book.
We spend so much more time writing books than even the most devoted reader spends reading it. I often feel guilty speeding through a book I’m loving, knowing the months and years of effort that went into producing it. The writer needs to benefit from the creation process too, even if that benefit looks different than the joy we take from reading something wonderful.
So true about confidence — the more I write, the more I believe that I can solve the tangles that each story flings at me. Sometimes they are quite intense though, but then it’s never boring, is it?
Happy and ambitious feel like oxymorons lol interesting piece though. Saved to read later.
This rings so true. I always wanted to write a literary novel, and was reminded recently by my sister, who asked me why I wasn't writing in that genre. My answer was that a measure of success, for me, is that my books are read - and literary fiction tends not to be popular. So yes, I will write that special novel one day, but for the moment I'm practising writing in a more commercial genre, getting better all the time, waiting for the moment when I feel ready to flex that more literary muscle. And in the meantime I'm gathering readers and making a bit of money too. I love the process, of course, but I love having readers most.
This piece (and the previous one) are so insightful, I've also found 'creative me' and 'business me' have different goals and energies. When I first switched careers and took time to write, 'business me' was trying to run the show. It wasn't pretty. The writing got strangled at birth. Some of that time was also me simply learning the craft, but business me and my inner critic make a mean team. It really wrecked my confidence and it's been a long road back. As Bonnie Radcliffe notes, there's often deeper personal stuff that needs addressing too.
Last year I allowed myself to write a short memoir in tiny steps. Some days I only wrote 100 words. But I finished it and self published it so family members could buy it and it really helped me realize the value of the process - and proved to me how much I loved the process. 'Business me' took a break and let the creative side take the reins. It's such a subtle shift in mindset, but also profound.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Your point about deeper personal stuff that needs addressing rings true with me. It was certainly the case for me and is an ongoing journey. It’s one aspect of why I trained as a coach, because that stuff underpins everything else.
Congrats on publishing your memoir!
Thank you for sharing your journey. I went back and read also your previous post. I really appreciate this change in perspective: it gives a new meaning to ambition and to striving to get better time after time.
Thank you Giulia. I've been exploring your Substack and it's making me want to visit Tuscany again - I love Italy and spent my 50th birthday is Firenze earlier this year! 😁
I've wanted to become a published novelist since I was 12 years old. I don't need to become filthy rich from it (though that would be nice), but I really want to share my stories with the world. People need stories for a myriad of reasons, and knowing my novel might resonate somehow with someone, might fill a lonely afternoon, or spark joy, or make them feel as if someone understands them, makes it worthwhile. While I do have a novel published as an ebook, I am desperate to have a physical copy in my hands. I want to see it on the shelf at Barnes and Noble. That's the dream. But honestly? If I don't ever become a "traditionally" published novelist, I will still write because I am a writer. It's who I am.
I think that's the crucial thing, isn't it – we write because it show we express ourselves. Fingers crossed for you!
Really enjoyed this and it resonated with me - thank you!
Thank you 😊
I’m finding this post and your previous one really helpful Katherine. For me the enjoyment of writing was always the process, being totally absorbed in it. But then I struggled with what to do with my writing. Does someone need to read it to make it valid? I’ve spent years trying to get traditionally published and got very close to getting an agent but didn’t succeed and ended up feeling I didn’t want to write another novel that didn’t get published. I decided to self publish one of my novels last year and it has been a positive experience in many ways, but I’m still struggling to settle down to writing consistently again. Your advice to separate the writing and publishing sides, without giving up my ambitions, feels spot on.
I'm so glad it's helpful, Mellany. Judging by the response, you are not alone. It can feel so hard to keep going. Are you coming along to my workshop on Thursday? I'll be talking about resilience, which is exactly what we need to build to come back from such a disheartening experience.
Thanks Katherine. Yes I hope to attend your workshop on Thursday. Looking forward to it
Excellent. See you there!
My big writing dream is to be life-giving in a meaningful way. I write fantasy with many layers, so that can mean providing an enchanting escape to someone who needs it, or helping someone dealing with their own or another’s mental health issues feel understood, or opening a budding economist to alternative socio-economic practices, or allowing a bedridden person to remember the touch of wind on their skin, or demonstrating what healthy relationship can look like.
Reading was my life-line in difficult times, and I want my work to be that for others.
Early readers indicate I’m on the right track. I also want it to be life-giving to as many as possible. I want those touched by it to share it with others, and I DO want an income from it, reflective of how well it succeeds at blessing others.
I have joy in the writing, satisfaction in the revising, and delight when it lights someone up—but as a neurodivergent empty-nester who’s never had a career, the income matters to me, too.
What a beautiful response, and a great way to approach it. We make things of great value and we deserve to be paid ❤️
Couldn't agree more!!
I am now so glad I didn’t get published when I started my writing journey, because then I really believed it would ‘fix’ my life. Since then, I’ve realised that is too big a load for my creativity to take, that the joy of doing the thing, writing the words, has to be enough. I am almost finished with my third (well, technically fifth if you count the ones I consigned to a drawer!) novel. I want to be traditionally published. I want to make a living from it. I want my words to connect with the people who need them most. But now I know I have to fix the other problems in my life myself rather than hoping a book deal will solve them. I know that not all that much will change when I do get published. And I know that the real joy is, very simply, in the writing. Thank you for this reminder as I polish my final draft!
100% this! I too thought getting published would make me happy, and ‘fix’ me, and learned the hard way that it didn’t. So glad you’ve found your way!
Great piece Katherine! I guess every writer has their own vision for their work, but I definitely think it’s about striking a balance, however it looks. I have been a consistently published writer and author since 1988, so when I started my novel, while daunted by the new prospect of ‘making stuff up’, I couldn’t help but hope for a contract. And the truth is, I would have been extremely disappointed had I not signed one, given my track record and experience. For someone who is switching careers, or is emerging as a writer, the dream might well be there, but the landscape is almost bound to look a bit different. And there are plenty of benefits to this too, including all the support available to unpublished writers nowadays. The industry has literally exploded since I started in journalism.
But I’ve certainly noticed that the topic of publishing is quite divisive, with some claiming not to want it, for fear of compromise. The right publisher won’t demand that of you though… and if you take writing seriously, and consider it as your work, then, as you say, publication is usually the way to achieve it.
I love supporting other writers towards being published. (I’ve even had a small dream of being an agent…) because I believe in connecting writers with readers, and it’s still the best way.
Thank you for producing such thoughtful and practically helpful newsletters!
I love the motivation for your agent dream! As someone in the query trenches, I appreciate the reminder that that’s probably what most of them want too, even if my story isn’t right for them!
I agree it’s still the best way, Liz. No one can get your book out there like a trad publisher, if they do it right! It’s what I hope for myself, too - a collaboration with good people to help my book reach readers. Thanks for your kind words ❤️
Ok well, I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I am retired, so it’s not about money any more (although I wouldn’t turn it down). I no longer consider myself ambitious. I just want some people to read and discuss and perhaps be inspired by my novel — spiritual seekers, older women, vibrant book clubs, talks at independent book stores. Yep, I envision myself talking with readers at local book stores over cheese cubes and wine. That’s it. I would like to leave a small legacy. I don’t want to self publish or pay to have it published, that much I know. But when I see the kinds of books that are getting agents and deals, I know it’s a total crap shoot that the right person will unearth my query from the slush pile on the right day and be in the right frame of mind to perhaps ask for pages. I am starting to plan the next one, so I guess I enjoy making up and writing stories.
I like these ‘significant connections with readers’ dreams too! I think I partly wrote to help me find my people…a long-game introvert’s path to making friends!
I just spent $35k on an MFA, so some cause and effect would be nice.
Ha ha! Yes! It’s great that you know your reasons for writing your book and what you hope for. May your wishes come true in the right way for you x
I'd like to confirm that its a good-enough collection of words that multiple people will lay down twelve bucks to buy it. Validation and a paycheck. I'd like to put stories into the world that will reinforce empathy, love, tolerance, compassion because we need those things sooo badly. I agree that The Women's Prize has an allure. I'd like to be interviewed by Simon Savidge. I think it would be a trip to see one of my stories translated for a foreign audience to read. It keeps me going. lol. Thanks for the essay.
Love this, thank you for sharing. Knowing our words connect with people is what it’s all about!
I’m selfpublishing and I know that that diminished the chances of ever getting any of those ‘big’ author goals - so I’m trying to focus on more achievable ones instead, like having a stand at Comic Con - but truth be told, who wouldn’t love to have a Netflix adaptation! 🤩
Indeed, and you never know! Whatever stage we’re at it very helpful to have ‘realistic’ aims along the way. I hope you get that stand! 😁
This is a great insight into the tug-of-war between doing it for the sake of doing it and then pursuing acknowledgment. I think about yearning often. Perhaps it is a yearning to be seen. Perhaps the writing is the yearning to see ourselves and then the sharing is the yearning to be seen by others, the yearning to hear “me, too” or just “I see you.”
Thank you for this!
Love this way of looking at it. I think we do write to be read. We want that connection. Books can have real impact in the world.
Well said! I often think about how bizarre a pursuit writing fiction is, and that the only reason to do it is out of love. Even if we try to be realistic, however, it is natural to hope to make big waves with a book we may have spent years working on. We want publishing it to change our lives.
The thing I keep reminding myself of, that helps as I pursue my own ambitious goals, is this: whether or not I get a prize or a six figure deal, or a Netflix show, my life will still have been changed by writing a book.
For so much of our lives, we dream of writing books, often worrying we won't be able to do it. By embracing the process, and getting to the end of a novel, we get to ask "What else am I capable of?" And perhaps this is winning a prize or a big advance or a film deal. But there are so many other things we've learned and so much other growth that occurs, too. Perhaps I'm a bit Pollyanna about the whole thing, but it's the only way I know how to keep showing up and taking the risk.
We're passing notes to the future when we write, and that's a pretty cool thing to be able to do.
Thank you for this follow-up. You've left me feeling inspired to get back into my manuscript immediately.
Gosh, yes, all of this! I totally agree that simply finishing a book (as much as a book is ever ‘finished’) is a massive accomplishment in itself. Looking back I can see how each one has led me on a journey. I love the idea that art changes the artist. I know my confidence grows with each book.
We spend so much more time writing books than even the most devoted reader spends reading it. I often feel guilty speeding through a book I’m loving, knowing the months and years of effort that went into producing it. The writer needs to benefit from the creation process too, even if that benefit looks different than the joy we take from reading something wonderful.
So true about confidence — the more I write, the more I believe that I can solve the tangles that each story flings at me. Sometimes they are quite intense though, but then it’s never boring, is it?
Definitely never boring! 😅