Some students in the science department at
the school where I teach did a project called, “How to boil a
frog.” As unappetizing as it sounds, the
premise is that frogs, since they are cold blooded, don’t realize the heat is
being turned up if it’s done gradually. They’re happy to bask in their nice
pot-come-swimming-pool until their blood literally boils.
I won’t go into the finer details, and
please – no nasty backlash from the animal rights advocates out there. The
frogs, apparently, don’t suffer if it’s done a few degrees at a time. For some
of us, our experience as writers is somewhat the same. I’m not talking about
being boiled alive, although sometimes critic’s comments can have that effect.
I’m talking about the gradual addition of ‘tasks’ that, if they had been laid
on us in one dump, would have surely killed our aspirations.
I’m a writer at heart. It’s what I would do
all day every day if given the chance.
But, like every other writer I know, there is a lot more to it than
writing. With it comes the necessity of promoting yourself and your work –
something I never even thought about before publication. I read an alarming
statistic recently that said the average author spends 75% of their time
promoting and only 25% writing new material.
Yikes! That isn’t what I signed up for! Upon reflection, however, I
think I actually fit this stat.
Secondly, statistics also say that the
majority of novelists do not make their living writing novels. That’s reality,
folks. They have another day job or they are privileged to have a spouse
supporting them. Even if they ‘write’ for a living as in a newspaper, copy
editing, etc. they aren’t making their bread and butter on fiction. This was a
huge disappointment for me the first time I heard it. My dream is to write full
time … to become the next break-out best seller… In the meantime, I teach
secondary school, which isn’t so bad since I teach drama so I also get to write
plays for my students.
I’ve been asked how I manage to juggle all
these aspects of my life – writing new material, promoting already published
stuff, teaching full time, ministry (I am the worship coordinator and leader at
my church), and home life. When I think about all the hats I wear, sometimes
I’m not sure. Fortunately, like the frog, each new responsibility was added
gradually.
When my children were young, I was not as
active in the church and I did not work full time outside the home. Although I
didn’t have as much time to write as I would have liked, I managed to squeeze
in an hour or so a day while the kids napped. When they got older and I decided
to homeschool them, I still instituted an afternoon ‘quiet play time’ which was
set aside for writing, and my husband was good about allowing me some time in
the evenings. They grew up seeing me write and knew that this was not the
time to disturb me!
Once I went back to teaching public school
my writing schedule changed, but my family was already well adapted to my need
for solitude, be it on the weekend or during holiday breaks. The addition of more responsibilities was added
when my husband and I went into ministry full time.
When I first started submitting written work,
I was very discouraged by all the rejection. Then, when I did finally land my
first contract in 2008, I still sometimes caught myself feeling jealous of all
the other writers who had managed to get published long before me, and with
seemingly less effort. (I’m sure that’s not true, but it’s how I felt.) It had
been a very long time coming, and it was hard not to be envious of other
people’s success.
Then my husband had some very wise words.
(He does that occasionally) He noted that I probably wouldn’t have been able to
handle all the stress and busyness of the marketing end of things at a sooner
point in my life.
When I though about it, I knew he was
right. Marketing and promoting takes up a ridiculous amount of time and energy.
There is no way I could have handled it when my kids were small, or when I
started homeschooling, or when I first went back to teaching full time, or when
we took our first pastorate. God, in His wisdom, knew what was the right timing
FOR ME.
What’s right for me will not be what is
right for you, of course. We are all individuals and everyone’s writing journey
is unique. Like the frog, my ‘heat level’ has been added in gradual increments.
Sure I sometimes feel stressed if there is a deadline coming or too many things
happen at once. But generally, I feel pretty satisfied with the way things are
going in my life.
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