A theory, with a case study (n=1)
Here’s a silly situation! I started A Writer’s Roadmap (AWR) in 2019 as a subtitle for what I pictured as a few nonfiction e-books in the how-to genre, specifically how to write and publish a book.
I obtained the URL and made a website for it with no real plan except to blog about writing, have a place to sign up for this newsletter, and write said books.
I felt qualified not because of education or publishing record, though I had a little of both, but because I’d done just about everything connected with writing the hard way. Plus, in my day job as a book editor I’d worked with a lot of writers on a lot of books. I’d learned a lot about the writing life from my clients and writing friends.
My theory was that I would use my experience of doing what I’d seen or personally proven “doesn’t work” as a basis for helping other writers discover “what works.”
Now it’s 2024. Five years later, and here’s where it’s at…
- I put the first AWR book out in 2019, plus a couple of guided journals as an easy side project.
- I made a course from that first book and taught it online for about five years
- An expanded semi-synchronous version of that same course is now online as well
- I made another course, put it online, ran it twice, then mothballed it last spring while I focused on other stuff, mostly paid work plus a hectic life
- I got a novella traditionally published (yay!) under bizarre circumstances
Otherwise, progress has been s-l-o-o-o-w.
Thankfully, I don’t rely on writing for income, or I’d be living in a tent.
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The Theory about 3 Steps in ANY Writing Project
I was freewriting last week using the 750words website, which if you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend. The writing session was almost over, and it was mostly about my business, next steps on projects I wanted to do, etc. I glanced over what I’d written about AWR and said, “AHA!”
It was this:
There are only 3 steps on a writer’s path:
- Take in your world, have your ideas, write stuff down, & read a lot.
- Write what you need or want to write to the utmost of your ability, learning how to navigate perfectionism and other obstacles as you go.
- Get your work out in the world and support its journey to readers.
All three steps require accessing your essential self, learning your craft, learning how to attune yourself to ideas and opportunities, & engaging in two-way mentoring with other writers and with readers.
You might be thinking my AHA is obvious… But it took me five years to get there, probably because when I thought about writing, I had a perversely complicated landscape in my mind.
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To delve a little deeper into the steps, here’s a graphic.
A Deeper Dive into the 3 Steps in any Writing Project
You can relate Step One to being on the ground of your life. You’re noticing stuff, it’s giving you ideas, you’re putting what you notice into words (writing), and you’re reading a lot–reading like a writer, as described in the book by Francine Prose (and many other books on writing). Here’s a link to the Guardian review of Prose’s book.
Step Two is between the ground and the air. You have started the project, whether it’s a novel, essay, flash fiction, poem, story, memoir, how-to book, self-help, collection of shorter pieces, or something entirely new.
In this second step, you’re doing everything in step one while you rise up to the project, which is a tool more than a goal.
You use the project as a way to learn how to write and how to get out of your own way, make the time, or whatever your obstacles to finishing are.
You’re learning your craft, attuning yourself to ideas, and if you want to learn faster, you’re getting some peer mentoring from writers (and eventually, beta readers and/or an editor).
This step could be 72 hours or 10 years or a lifetime. Obviously the more concentrated the timeframe, the more projects you can engage with in your life.
Step Three is fully in the sky, when you achieve liftoff and the rocket ship hits, idk, space.
You’re learning how to let go of the thing you made, share it with other people, and ask them to share it further.
You’re learning how to talk about it in a way that gets readers interested and make it accessible, so it’s easy for them to buy it.
You’re doing everything in the first and second steps too, either to further your skills in general or because you’re now working on another project.
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Theory + Aha = Action
My theory now is that all the writing books, courses, and programs in the universe are aimed at supplying information on one, two, or all of those three steps.
I’m serious!
As you might see from my extensive back catalogue of blog posts over on the AWR website, I’ve been working step one (noticing, having ideas, writing, and reading) and part of step two (the peer mentorship part) from a bunch of different angles without knowing it.
The task for me now is to ponder where AWR fits for me, as a project. Does it need to exist? What’s it doing, for me or for anyone else?
Now that I have some insight into my own thinking, I expect to either make AWR into something more tangible or ditch it completely.
How’s it going with your thinking around your writing life?What are you working on and what step are you on?
Cheers,
Pat
Over on Gifted Underachievers (the podcast for midlevel creatives with delusional ambitions), James Buchanan and I interviewed musician and writer Doug Harrison of FEN, who’s one of the most prolific artists I know. Among other things, we talked about how to keep creating when life has a habit of taking up most of our time. Click the arrow below to hear the title song from FEN’s recently released album Dear Mouse.
Book Bag
Anvil Press, 2024
I’m not sure what to think of this book, which I bought at a reading in Vancouver last week in my ongoing personal campaign to support local writers.It’s got little prose vignettes about a trio of teens/young adults in a Vancouver restaurant called Avenue Grill (maybe this one, which was in a tony area called Kerrisdale). Interspersed among the prose pieces are poems that riff of old songs, with new lyrics.
I read part of it at the reading and found it interesting. I guess the test will be whether I keep reading it now that I have it home.