Be Prepared to Keep Going
We were driving home from a week of camping last month, and there was construction on the highway, with plenty of BE PREPARED TO STOP warning signs. My almost-16-year-old is in driver's ed right now, and, maternally, I'm hoping that his main style of driving will be Always Prepared to Stop. I know I drive like a classic cautious mom, but shouldn't you always be? prepared to stop? It's not like you should be prepared to go so fast, unless you're Jason Bourne, which you're not.
In life though, it's so easy to make up reasons you need to stop, and I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage you to be prepared for delays, yes, but be prepared to keep going.
Last week I read applications for the very first year of the #PBChat Mentorship program. I had ninety applications to go through in all. Each applicant filled out a form and submitted a manuscript. I was completely blown away by the quality, professionalism, humor, and work that everyone is clearly doing.
I also saw a lot of insecurity. I'm not reading into this: many, many people listed "unsure of myself and my work" as their writing weakness. I want you to know that insecurity, as a creative person, is completely normal. Frankly, I'm afraid of the people who aren't a little insecure. We're creating worlds, in our heads, often alone in a room. And then we have to make our imaginary world better. We have to make it better until we love it so much. And then we have to send it to strangers who might say no. And if our idea does get made into a book, there will be people who say the book's no good. So you have to be tough, ready to be stabbed in the heart, open and vulnerable, willing to hear feedback, and ready to brush off criticism that doesn't apply. Of course we're insecure!
So we all agree on that, right? Insecurity is normal, yes? Yes. Good. Okay.
So, yeah. I know we all agree about that on an intellectual level (because we're all VERY intellectual) (also sometimes we joke about talking vegetables) (but in an intellectual way), but you also might feel like somehow your insecurity is justified and should be paid attention to and studied and given a spare room.
Insecurity is the weird uncle who comes over every Sunday for dinner. He's an oddball, but also a dear, and you know he loves you. He yammers on about how hedgehogs are taking over the world, and you say, "More peas, Uncle Bluster?" and then one day he says something completely interesting and sensible about raisin cartels, and you listen. So your insecurity will very sweetly say, "You don't know anything about this industry, and you're not getting anywhere. Maybe you should clean that very dirty floor in the kitchen? The sticky part in the corner is troubling." And you say, "More peas?" But if your insecurity says, "The ending of the story feels blah compared to the first three-quarters of it," then maybe that's worth listening to. Your insecurity is probably right that you don't know everything. Of course not. We've already established that you're not Jason Bourne.
Here's what I want most of all: no matter what your insecurity tells you, your answer is, "More peas?" where in this case "More peas?" means "I am unsure, yes, but all I can do is keep going, and the more I write, the better I get, and if I can't figure this one story out, then I'm going to keep working on this other story, until I get to be a better writer, and then I'll go back to the first story and get it right."