Preventing Burnout with Non-Monetized Creativity

 If you missed it, SHADOW WIZARD is now available for preorder! It releases September 29, 2022. This is Book One in my new trilogy, Renegades of Magic, and continues the story begun in the Bonds of Magic trilogy. Preorder links below!

     

 

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven involves our non-writing hobbies.

 

In various discussions around burn-out and sustainably productive writing habits, I've discovered that many professional authors (as in, getting paid to do it) have another creative outlet that is non-monetized. Ted Kooser, a U.S. Poet Laureate (1004-1006), told me that he painted as a hobby. His paintings were apparently glorious and much-sought, but he'd made the decision to only give them away. It was important to him to have a creative outlet that wasn't connected to money. This was a startling thought to me at the time, and one I've come back to often. 

 

Other authors I've talked with in various scenarios have also discovered that approach: that having a non-monetized creative outlet not only refills the well, but prevents burnout (or allows a creator to recover from it).

 

What happens to many of us - and I'm speaking of authors, but I imagine it happens with all creatives - is that we begin with writing as the hobby. It's the passion, the special something that we do because we LOVE it. Eventually, with persistence, hard work, and luck, we make that hobby into the profession. Then it's no longer the alternative to the day job and other responsibilities. It's become work.

 

Which, let me be clear, is good and natural. I'm a big believer in treating writing like my job. That's how I support myself and my family.

 

Still, to manage the creative self, I've found I need other outlets to refill the well and take the place of that other, special, and relaxing Thing. Keeping it non-monetized is the challenge. Especially since the pandemic began, I think we've all become adept at casting about for side-gigs. In fact, the gig-culture was going strong before that. It's tempting to take that successful hobby - I imagine Ted Kooser's friends admiring a painting, offering money for it, and him turning it down with a slight smile and shake of his head - and begin to dream of taking that art viral and making an avalanche of comforting money from it. 

 

I sometimes think there's a certain magic in refusing that temptation, in enjoying creativity for its own sake. 

 

And magic is precious.

Does Boring Writing Mean Boring Reading?

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week takes a look at the oft-quoted advice for writers: “If you’re bored writing, the reader will be bored reading.” And we're asking is this true or false?

Okay, I'll confess: it's me asking. This was totally my topic suggestion because this advice really irritates me - I think it's wrong, even dangerous - and I want to know what everyone else thinks about it.

So, I feel a little bad kicking off this topic, as I know I'll be setting the tone here.

But... whatever!

The reason I think this advice is flat wrong is threefold. 

First of all, the process of writing a book takes HUGELY longer than reading a book. Let's say it takes 5 hours to read a novel. (It seems like my Kindle often reports something in that neighborhood when I open a new book.) I'm a fairly fast writer, and I keep track of my numbers, so let's use my writing time for an example. It takes me, on average, 55 working days to draft and revise a novel. In general, I spend 3 hours/day actively writing to get that book finished. That's 165 hours of writing, at a conservative estimate. That means it takes a reader approximately 3% of the time to read what it takes me to write. And I'm a fast writer! The percentage will only go down from there. 

Put another way, a reader will read at least 33 times as fast as we write. Comparing the two experiences is ridiculous, particularly when it comes to a subjective quality of feeling bored, which is time-sensitive.

Secondly, the experience of boredom is entirely subjective. What I find boring is not what you may find boring. I get bored with fight scenes, in books and movies. I know that's a me thing, but they don't hold my attention. Lots of people love fight scenes, which is cool. But there is no objective qualifier of what is "boring."

Finally, writing is a job. It might be an awesome job - it is! - but it's also work, which means it can be a slog. Especially writing novels. Working incrementally for ~75 days (my total time to produce a novel, including days off) on one story can get dull. Some days I'm tired. Sometimes I'm writing stuff I already know, like backstory from previous books, or stuff that isn't particularly exciting, like transitions, but that I know the reader will need to understand the story. I don't know ANY writer who is 100% excited and invested in what they're writing every moment and every word. Sometimes, people, it's going to be boring - and that has nothing to do with how the reader perceives it.

I promise you this. Test it for yourself. Make note of some part of your work in progress that you found boring to write and find out later if any of your readers find it boring to read. I'm sure they won't.

That's why I find this advice dangerous. It implies that only the writing we find exciting in the moment is valid - perhaps even suggests that anything we find boring to write should be thrown out. This is bad for getting words written, which is our primary job. If a section of the story is boring to read when you revisit it? Sure, edit that puppy! That's what revision is for. But don't let feeling unenthused in the moment stop you from moving forward in the story. 

Neil Gaiman says that writing a novel is a process of laying bricks in a long road. Some days the sun will be hot, the work mind-numbing, the process slow and grueling. But the bricks have to be laid. Do the work and don't worry about how you feel. 

The Pain and the Glory of Publishing

 

At the SFF Seven this week we're asking: What are your favorite and least favorite things about publishing?

How much time have you got?

Okay, okay - the question implies one of each, so I'll go with that, starting with the negative so I can finish on the positive.

Least Favorite Thing

The uncertainty. 

The uncertainty, she be a bitch. Unless an author really strikes gold, the uncertainty never goes away. And I'm talking serious gold here, not gold-for-a-season. I'm talking million-dollar sales. And even then, there's no guarantees. I'm thinking of a couple of authors who struck serious gold, have made millions and millions of dollars on a particular book or series, then can't sell anything else. This happens surprisingly often with phenoms. Whatever it is about that one book or series that attracted the phenom lightning, it rarely happens again. In some cases, where it was the idea that attracted the lightning and the writer themselves isn't all that great - or doesn't push themselves to grow - the likelihood of them penning another book that anyone but the most die-hard fan wants to read is super low.

For other authors, working away at their productive word mines, it's difficult to know what the next day or next year - or next decade! - will bring. There's no corporate ladder, no particular career path, no salary or benefits. Publishing is a fickle beast and I hear regularly from my author friends, some very successful, who hit rough patches and worry about the future of their careers. The ones who survive are ready to reinvent - and to be flexible and diligent in their efforts.

I'll be frank: a lot of them can't take the uncertainty and give up. It's not a career for someone who wants certainty and security.

So, why be a writer at all? Well, that's... 

The Favorite Thing

Writing for a living.

Seriously, it's the reason we put up with the rest. I've had other jobs and a nearly twenty-year career in another profession, and being a writer is the absolute BEST. It's amazing being a creator and the font of something that I alone bring into existence. From there other people can also have jobs, but I am the origin. The money I make is from my own self, not derived from someone else's thing, and that's an incredible experience. 

It kind of comes around to the risk/opportunity ratio. Yes, there's a lot of risk and uncertainty, but there's also an equivalent or greater measure of opportunity. Because there is no corporate ladder or career path, it's all up to me to create. And I love that. I love that all the meetings have to do with something I'm passionate about, that the phone calls are about me and my work. I'm serving my own creation and not someone else and that, my friends, makes all the rest worth it. 

Taking a Chance on that Love/Hate Thing

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is whatever is on our minds. 

It's been release week for me, so there's not a lot else on my mind. DARK WIZARD released on Thursday, 2/25/21, and it's been a major ride. And I say this with full self-awareness that I have book releases quite regularly. So much so that I'm sometimes chagrined by how many of the covers down the right side of this group blog are mine. 

But, as someone trying to make a living at this gig, and to support my Parkinson's-afflicted hubs, I feel like I have to keep up that pace. If I had a book or series that hit big and made tons of money or garnered juicy options, I would likely ratchet down my pace a bit.

(Or maybe not - I feel like I've found a sustainable pace for productive creativity. I might take more time off between books, alternating writing with business-focused activities.)

I've talked a lot about this on my podcast (listen here or watch on YouTube here) and I wrote a post for the SFF Seven in early January about it, which explains a bit more about what's going on in my life.

But I didn't tell you the entire story there. I glossed a bit. It was too fresh, too raw.

Last year I was seriously hoping that DARK WIZARD would be that "hit big" book. I'd been nurturing the idea for a long time, my agent thought it was a good ones, and she loved the initial pages. She thought it could be a big book, too. We came up with a fantastic, high-concept comp - The Witcher meets The Selection - and I wrote up the first quarter of the book for her. She loved it! My beta readers loved it! There was serious excitement.

Also, though I'd planned to stop there and go on submission with just that much of the book, I couldn't stop. I couldn't write anything else but that. The book had me by the throat and demanded to be written.

I finished it and those who read for me pronounced it probably the best book I'd ever written. In great excitement, I sent it to my agent to read.

She hated it.

I was crushed. 

We've had conversations since then. She says she doesn't hate it; she just thought it wasn't marketable. Regardless, she had a very strong reaction to the book and she didn't want to take it on submission. 

This is something that happens with creative work. I read a study years ago where they looked at the habits of people listening to a radio station. If a song came on that they loved, they'd be happy with the station. But if a song came on that they hated, they'd change the channel. Interestingly enough, it turns out that when people really love something, like a song, a statistically consistent equal number of people will hate it. So, for every person that was happy with the radio station, another was repelled enough to change the channel - not a desired outcome for the advertisers. However, if the person neither loved nor hated the song, they wouldn't change the station. So, the corporate-designed playlists moved to including music that people didn't feel strongly about either way. The triumph of mediocrity.

I think this happened with DARK WIZARD. That while so many of my early readers loved it, my agent was equally repelled. So, as you can likely imagine, I was nervous for release. 

You guys, it's been performing so well!

And so far, it's all about the love. People are saying the nicest things about the book, comments about how compelling the world is, how vivid the characters. 

Yes, readers are having strong reactions, but that's something I'm happy with. I'll risk the hate to have the love. 

"DARK WIZARD is pitch perfect. The best two main characters I've read in a long time. The world is finely drawn and lustrous, the hero and heroine so real, they walk off the page. DARK WIZARD will be on my keeper shelf for freaking ever. I can't wait until book 2 comes out, because I'm desperate for the rest of the story, but also, because I'll get to reread book 1 in preparation. (If I don't reread it sooner, which I probably will.) If you like fantasy romance, clear your day."

~NY Times Bestselling Author Dana Marton

Available at these Retailers