The Truth That Unites All Writers
Over the last month, a team of coaches and advisors at Author Accelerator have been reviewing the scholarship applications for the year of coaching we are giving away to three writers of color. The experience has been humbling and inspiring and overwhelming and upsetting and joyful — so many emotions that I am still working on trying to process them all.
One thing that became abundantly clear to me as I read applications is that there are universal constants to the things writers struggle with. No writer seems to be able to escape these truths.
I mean, yes, these are exceptions, always.
And yes, the whole point of the scholarship is that people of color struggle harder in some areas than other writers.
But it was the sheer sameness of the struggles that struck me. In my classes, I often share a handout called The Universal Constants of Creativity. It’s a list of the steps in the writing process that every writer has to go through as they make something from nothing.
What I saw when reading all the applications, however, was different than these steps. The things writers struggle with overlay these creative constants like a shadow or a ghost, touching each one of them. I thought I would take a moment to list them out because if you are reading this and struggling in any of these ways, I hope it will make you feel better to know you are not struggling alone.
- Writers Are Always Crushed for Time
Every writer, it seems, is trying to write in the margins of their lives. They sneak in minutes early in the morning or late at night or over lunch or on the weekends. They steal hours from other tasks, never feeling like they have the time they need. And yet somehow, they still manage to do it — to write scenes and chapters, to sketch out tables of contents and arguments, to get the words on the page.
2. Writers Are Always Juggling Responsibilities
Writers not only struggle to find the time to write they also fight against the other responsibilities that press in on them. There are husbands and wives and partners who need love and attention; parents who need care; children who need to be nurtured; bosses who have demands; businesses and careers that need shepherding; whole societies that have certain expectations for how to spend a life. When held up against these responsibilities, it’s hard to prioritize writing a book. No one, after all, is asking you to do it. And yet somehow writers still find a way to make it happen.
3. Writers Are Filled With Doubt.
Writers are filled with doubt. They just are. At every stage and every level, writers wonder if they can do it, if they should bother, if they have what it takes, if their book is good enough. It doesn’t matter how many awards people win, or scholarships they land, or degrees they earn, or accolades they receive — the doubt persists. I have come to believe that it’s the natural state of being a writer. And the writers I see who succeed don’t conquer their doubt; they learn to live with it. If you are feeling doubt today, or if you feel it tomorrow, acknowledge it, say hello to it, and keep writing. That’s what writers do.
4. Writers Are in It for the Long Haul
In application after application, writers explained that they had been working on their writing for years — three years, five years, ten years, thirty. There was no bitterness in these explanations — at least none that I could discern — but just a statement of fact that learning to write well enough to bring a vision to life takes a long time.
5. Writers Are Driven By a Yearning to Raise Their Voice
Writing a book of any kind — whether it’s a fun romp for a summer read or a serious nonfiction book about a scholarly topic — is not just about the idea and the structure and the craft of it; it’s about daring to speak. It’s an act of deep courage. It’s standing up and saying, “I have something to say that I think people might want to listen to.” There are so many times in our lives when we are asked or told or forced to do exactly the opposite. It is not often safe to raise our voice. And yet these writers are doing it. If you, too, are daring to do it, keep at it. Just do. Every writer who ever wrote anything that changed our minds or our hearts or changed the world heeded that call, too.
P.S. If anyone is reading this who applied for our scholarship, I apologize for the delay in our announcing the finalists. We had such an unexpectedly high number of applicants and we wanted to give each one the attention it deserves. Stay tuned for the announcement.
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