From Edie: Being an author is harder than most people expect. Discover why the writing journey is challenging, why it still matters, and how to keep going.
Being an Author Isn’t Easy—But It’s Worth It
by A.C. Williams @ACW_Author
I dreamed of being a writer from the time I realized it was actually a potential career. I think I was in third or fourth grade. Being a writer sounded so sophisticated, so important, like it was the kind of job that mattered. But it also sounded like a great time, easy, fun.
Imagine. Writing words for a living. Creating stories as your day job. Talking about books for a paycheck. Is there any other job that sounds like more fun than that? Is there anything easier you could do with your life?
But maybe that’s just me. I started scribbling stories when I was in kindergarten. I was the kid who wrote little short stories for my teachers even when they weren’t assigned to me. I remember sitting in my second grade class room during my “free time” and writing a little adventure story about a girl trying to solve mysteries.
It wasn’t schoolwork. It was fun work. Easy work.
Stories were how I made sense of the world, so choosing to become a professional storyteller just made sense for me.
Surely once I invested all my time and effort into writing a story that truly meant something to me, people would want to read it. Why wouldn’t they? I cared so much about the stories I’d written, so surely other people would care too. And even if it might not have been the exact genre that some readers preferred, surely they’d buy it because they wanted to support me.
Well, as someone who has been working for about 20 years as an author, both part-time and full-time, let me tell you a secret: Nobody cares.
I’m sorry. That’s harsh. But it’s mostly true. It’s not malicious, though, and it’s certainly not intentional. Your audience doesn’t mean to ignore you. But the truth is, they are too busy or too distracted with their own lives to care.
Before you get irritated at your audience, ask yourself about the last novel-length book you read. What was it? Do you remember it? What did you learn from it? Now maybe you’re one of those legendary creatures who writes as much as you read. (If you are, teach me your ways!) But more likely you’re similar to the average author who just can’t make time to read.
I get it. I’m right there with you. And please don’t hear this as criticism or lecturing about reading more. It’s not. But it is a mindset check.
Nothing about telling a good story is easy. Eventually maybe we get to the place where we can come up with ideas, but communicating those ideas in a way that resonates with people takes decades to master.
No one is going to read your story just because you wrote it. No one is going to give you a gold star just because you finished writing a manuscript. No one is going to buy your book just because it exists. I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but for too long, people have lived in this fantasy that being an author is easy.
When I was a child, writing was easy, but I was a child. I had a child’s view of life. I had a child’s perspective on loss and grief and pain. I had a child’s opinion on right and wrong.
I’m not a child anymore. I put away my childish assumptions many, many years ago and took up the heavy weight of the chaotic dissonance that goes along with being a Jesus—follower in a world that hates Him and still desperately needs Him.
Maybe I started writing because it was fun and easy for me, but I kept writing because it is the best way I’ve found to invite others into a safe place where I can share what God has done for me in a way that isn’t threatening or preachy.
Being an author isn’t easy. You have to juggle so much. You need to pay attention to the industry. You need to learn the craft of writing. You need to understand the promises your genre is making to your audience. You need to be able to manage your own capacity well enough to crank out 90,000 words in a reasonable time frame, and then you need to work with a responsible, reputable editor to make sure what you’ve written is even marketable. And that’s just to produce a manuscript. We aren’t even talking about getting it published.
Is that you right now? Are you in a place where you have reached the end of your rope with your story? Have you tried everything, done everything, revised everything, and you still aren’t seeing the results you’d prayed for?
Sometimes the answer is taking a step back and resting. Sometimes the answer is pushing through. Sometimes there isn’t an answer, and there certainly isn’t an answer that one-size-fits-all. Every author is different; every book is different; every situation is different.
But maybe it’s time to ask yourself why you started this journey in the first place. Have you made the space to examine your mindset?
If you thought it would be easy, that’s fine; most people do until they try to write a story and realize how hard it is. Maybe that’s you, and if it is, you’re not alone.
If you thought your story was going to make you millions of dollars or maybe you thought it would convert millions of people, that’s fine too. That’s easy to think, and if that’s you, you aren’t alone either.
But now you know it’s not easy or simple or a get-rich-quick option. What will you do with that? You get the choice.
You don’t have to continue, but what if choose to continue? What if you keep pressing onward even if you don’t have all the answers, even if you don’t know what to do next? What if you take the next step in your writing journey in faith and see where the Lord takes you?
The first step in that journey is to keep writing. That’s it. Just keep writing. Don’t compare. Don’t self-edit. Don’t stop. Just write.
It’s not easy. It won’t be easy. But neither is anything that’s worth having.
Don’t let the challenge scare you. Don’t let the obstacles stop you. Don’t let the rejection change how you see yourself. Just keep writing and see what happens next.
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