Where do I start? When you are assigned a new task/job at work, this is a valid question. Creative people shouldn’t utter it. You just create. At some point you collect some of what you create and put it out into the world claiming it is done. Don’t expect anyone but yourself to like it and you will be fine.
I know, given a title like that you expected this post is full of warmth and encouragement, sprinkled with copious amounts of coddling. Sorry, this ain’t that kind of movie. The simple truth is those who ask that question failed before they started.
It’s not a community
Some of you are asking because you hope writing can be a communal experience like posting on Social Media or chatting around a water cooler at work. No. It’s lonely. The best you can hope for is occasional feedback on a work in progress. Today you can get that without ever having to actually associate with “other people.” Set up a blog and post a chapter at a time, warts and all. Maybe you never finish that Opus, but it won’t be rotting in a drawer somewhere. Most importantly you will stop asking “where do I start?” and start asking “When is it done?”
While many do not wish to hear it, asking “Where do I start?” is the same as a teenage boy asking “I want to be a rock star, where do I start?” Think about it. Most everyone, except their parents perhaps, will think, if not openly point out, “Well, you were too into video games and sports during your school years to endure being a band geek in school which means you never learned to play _any_ musical instrument, so…”
The Simple Truth
The same simple truth exists for writers. You don’t want to be a writer because you already write. What you may not already do is publish anything or try to get paid for writing. “How do I get paid for writing?” is a completely different question than the title of this post as is the question “How do I get paid for the music I already write and/or play?” The difference is someone trying to monetize something they already spend countless hours doing.
Until you get to the point you are asking “When is it done?” you aren’t ready for “community.” There are places offering “community” to writers. There are also no end of places offering to part you from your money providing services and communities. They prey on the loneliness of the writing profession.
It’s not a chair, it’s a story
Notice the chair this article opened with. It’s not just any chair. Yes, it is old. In truth it is both uncomfortable and broken. That chair and the brown anti-static file floor it sits on is a journey of the mind for a writer. I’m not talking about the old trope of put your seat in the chair and write, write, write. While true, that trope has been done to death. No, that chair is a mental journey, not for everyone, but it was for me. When you are a writer, you cannot help yourself. You see or hear something and that random collection of thoughts which constitute your mind begin forming a lucid and coherent pattern. Ordinary people are scared of this, but writers welcome it.
“What journey?” you ask.
Well, for me, it was a trip down memory lane. I’m a geek by trade and old enough to remember the computer world before PCs hit the market in any meaningful way. Every computer lab I had the pleasure of visiting seemed to have those chairs and that floor. Well, every computer lab which could not afford the trendy raised floor with subfloor air conditioning. Yes, we used to raise the floors in computer rooms and blow air conditioning into the floor where all of the wires ran. Under the machines we would have perforated panels which let the air blow directly up into the hulking computers and peripherals.
You were not an Uber geek unless you worked at a place which gave you one of those chairs to sit in. They weren’t that comfortable back then, but we were young and eager to spend hours in front of our terminals. Later the keyboard was split from the terminal so we could kick back in the chair with the keyboard in our lap happily tapping away, watching the green phosphor characters appear on the terminal. During really quite times you could even hear the characters being painted on the screen.
The drab brown ant-static tile became so popular it was used everywhere. I even attended a college which had an entire classroom building with it on the floor. There were no computers anywhere in that building back then, but the floor was “trendy” which made the college seem like a high tech place to be. I’m sure marketing types have some phrase for that kind of subliminal message, but I know not what it is right now.
Timing sucks for writers
Sadly, I was at work when I saw this chair and floor. While I commented on how it took me back, and a few others fessed up to having similar memories, that sudden collection of random thoughts which became lucid were mostly lost. Not completely lost though. Just look at how many words I wrote here after the end of a long day at work. Those thoughts will bubble and churn in the back of my mind until they one day surface again. With luck it will happen when I’m in a place where I can record them. They will be something I write, but it could be years before they find their way into something I publish, if ever.
When you are a writer, you make the time to write. You record these thought collections and tiny scenes in various forms and files. At some point you will be in a mental place where you feel like you _should_ be writing but the mind is stalled. That’s when you will revisit this collection of rough gems. They will lubricate the gears of the machinery and thoughts will flow.
You may never publish anything you write but the satisfaction of having written it can never be taken from you. The business of publishing has to do with being an author, but, in truth, it has little to do with being a writer.
Writer confusion
Personally, I blame the confusion many have when it comes to the term “writer” on the publishing industry itself. You have all heard reporters bio someone as “a writer for X magazine” or some such thing. It was an incorrect term or at least a confusing use of the term. What they really should have said is “a writer being paid by X magazine” but that doesn’t sound sexy.
Being a writer has nothing to do with getting paid to write. It is simply a drive one has, not a path to riches and glory. Most writers who achieve riches and glory simply stumble into it.
Think I’m lieing? Read up on how the Harry Potter series came to be. Someone wrote a book they felt compelled to write. Their story could have ended in tragedy as so many others but instead an agent actually read their work and recognized the talent.
A writer is compelled to write. A musician is compelled to play. Both are compelled by a force we neither understand nor question.
