A couple weeks ago, I tried to sign up to get a mentor through the SFWA, but the slots were all full within, like, an hour of the thing going live. That’s how starved we are for information.
We = all of us who are trying to do this writing thing. Having published a book or signed with an agent does not confer magical status of “I got this all covered now.” Many of us are confused and periodically hopeless.
Starved = sort of ironic, given how many YouTube vids there are for How To Self-Publish Your Book And Make A Gazillion Dollars Doing It! Easy! Everybody Can! I’m not saying they’re all scams trying to get you to pay for a magical placebo. But, um, caveat emptor.
And yet, I still tried to sign up for that mentorship program, didn’t I? See, I wish there was a magic pill for How Do I Do This? I’m Rey, telling Luke that something has awakened inside me—this incredible urge to tell stories—and I need to know my place in all this and I’m begging Luke to train me and help me make sense of it, and every single day Luke takes one look at my lightsaber and throws it off a cliff. Every. Single. Day.
The bottom line is that as much as I yearn for a Dumbledore or a Yoda to give a crap about my journey and tell me when I’m doing it wrong—and when I’m doing it right—that ain’t gonna happen. There is no such thing as a wisefolk out in the world who are even half as invested in your success as you are.
So, basically, be your own mentor. Learn your own thing. And message me if you need to scream/vent/rage into the void because this whole gig is confusing and cyclically horrifying, and we are all just flailing here. Sometimes it’s helpful to share.
