The Real World

Living in the real world…

To be a professional in the writing field takes balance. It isn’t like the cliché of the “Good old days,” when the black and white movie scripts showed a tortured and talented young writer struggling to pen just the perfect words for the perfect sentence and hoping, beyond hope, that someday he/she would be published.

Today, writing is all about balance. It is knowing that this is a career, a real career, with real hours and real deadlines. When you live in the real world of writing there are very few variables and very little time to wait for the writing muse to come join you at your desk.

In reality, the romantic charm of writing has snared many a young novice into believing that, that is exactly the type of life they want to lead. I see many writing instructors in all grades K-C encouraging children or young adults to write or become writers. I, for one, did the same thing for many years until I started receiving manuscripts from hundreds of young writers asking me where to take their work to be published.

After wading through “barely” legible prose about talking cats, suicide, boyfriends and first experiences, I discovered what an injustice I had been doing encouraging everyone
to write for publication. Not everyone can nor should.

To be a professional in the field, it takes a fine-tuned balancing act or a good friend in the publishing house. Writing is not just sitting down and letting the words flow, unless, of course, you are just doing it for fun or are writing to relieve stress. Writing is work. It takes focus, brutal self-discipline and a willingness to be an outsider in nearly everything you are researching to be able to have a non-judgmental opinion on the events you are learning about.

Writing takes a person outside of themselves and outside of most of the world. You have to learn to stand back and watch, not judge, but absorb what is going on around you. You need to have feather sensitivity, where when you brush up against an idea, you know what it is you are experiencing and can see or not, the glimmer of a possible story. (To be that sensitive in the rest of your life, when you are not writing, can often get you in trouble.) You also have to be able to really ponder what you have learned, experienced or discovered and digesting what has gone on around you, spitting it back up into words on paper.

I always recommend before you write, “Why is this information important?” “Who will benefit from it?” “Will it add an understanding to others or take away?” These questions demand serious thought in this field as writers also take on social responsibilities for what they are sharing with others.

And, on top of all this is the professional side where you have to fight and negotiate for contracts, biding wars, argue with editors and beg for promotional tours. You go from having to have all your senses living on your skin to wearing battle armor.
Professional writing is sometimes no fun, it is work, it takes great effort and social responsibility and it also takes a hard-nose business approach to be successful. So in the real world of writing – be careful what you wish for.