We made it!

How to be a writer, full stop

We made it to the end of 2020! And while this year has taught us that time is a collapsed ellipse that someone accidentally dropped down the stairs (and therefore perhaps "the end of the year" is a meaningless construct), we made it. If you're reading this, you're still alive, and that's something to celebrate. 

I've been thinking lately about work, about getting work done, about being creative, about putting words on the page. I think it's more important now than ever, but also it's hard, maybe harder than it's ever been. There are so many distractions. So many voices, shouting, that I can't hear my own regular voice, let alone my creative voice. (This week I listened to the Hidden Brain about what happens to our brains when we're confronted with outrage, and found it illuminating.)

I'm taking more and longer deliberate breaks from social media. I don't think you need to give it up entirely, unless you want to. But I knew I needed a break when I started recently dreaming about social media, or I'd wake up in the middle of the night and think about something someone else had posted. That's just embarrassing. I used to wake up in the middle of the night and think about my book or a new idea, and now I'm thinking about Instagram? Ugh, no thank you.

I'm realizing this is maybe the fifth newsletter in a row I've written about taking a break from social media. But I need to hear it, repeatedly, so maybe you do too.

So let me write about something else for a minute! Perhaps, as the year is about to turn over, you're contemplating what your 2021 goals are. Maybe your goal is: actually writing. Getting the work done.

The most powerful thing that happened early in my writing career, when I was high on the steady stream of words I was producing, even though they were pretty terrible, was realizing the difference between wanting to be a writer, and being a writer. I was newly on Twitter, and had “aspiring writer” as part of my bio. I followed an established author, and about 40 seconds later he tweeted to all his followers “Take ‘aspiring’ out of your bio. If  you want to be a writer, be a writer. Don’t aspire to being a writer. Do it now.” 

It was a strange experience. He was talking to me, clearly. Subtweeting me, as they say. It was like having the Romper Room lady say my name. But it was an important enough sentiment that he said it to everyone. And didn’t call me out, thankfully.

He was right. 

Ask yourself how much you want this. Why are you writing? You have stories to tell, presumably. And regardless of whether you want to write those stories into notebooks and then store the notebooks in a box forever, or you want your stories to be available as real books that any random shmo can buy from their local independent bookstore, you’re writing. You’re writing, and therefore you’re a writer.

Are you writing, or do you want to write? I suppose if it’s all some future fantasy, you can call yourself aspiring. But at a certain point, I’m going to encourage you to live in the present, and to write today. 
Which is more powerful, saying to yourself "I am a writer" or saying "I want to be a writer." (Please say the first one is more powerful.) 

When that writer told everyone, told me, to take “aspiring” out of my self-definition, all I was left with was “I am a writer.” And the logical next step was to write.

Someone who wants to be a writer can spend all their time fantasizing about what shirt they’ll wear to their book signing. A writer writes.

An aspiring writer spends the afternoon deciding whether their words will look better written in blue or black ink. The writer writes.

The future/someday writer has a huge book in their head that they’re still figuring out, and one day they’ll find time to write it. The writer knows that time will never come, and the writer writes. The writer writes now, writes imperfectly, writes as much of the story as they know, finds time. A writer: writes.

If you want 2021 to be the year you get writing done, then please, however you can, do it. Be a writer! And not just a collector of pens and pretty notebooks.

But speaking of collecting pens (metaphorically), it's too late (probably) to get the writer in your life (which might be you) a gift for the holidays, but I recently tweeted out a list of great gifts for writers, and I'll link to it here, so you know what to ask for the next time a holiday rolls around. Because you're busy writing those books! Let someone else buy you presents! Or maybe one of these will be an enticing reward for finishing your book (I am notoriously terrible at figuring out how to reward myself for completing a writing goal, mostly because I tend to think finishing is a reward in itself, but maybe this is why I'm not more productive).

Lastly! My 12-year-old daughter Zuzu has been drawing so much since March, and a few weeks ago she opened up her very own Redbubble shop, where you can get stickers, magnets, face masks, coasters, and mugs with her drawings on them. All of the designs in her shop are a real window into her mind, with everything from scrunchies to citrus to taco ghosts to Morgan Freeman. I now have a face mask designed by my own child, which is pretty fun.

Be well, my friends! I'm so glad you're still here!