Pay Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Image found here

Some make the argument that good writers should "make it look easy." In other words, don't carp about all the hard work it took to get the manuscript in the gorgeous shape it now boasts. Don't ever show the seamy underbelly of revisions, cross-outs, ripped cuticles, and gray hair. Your readers don't really need to see all that.

I disagree. If people think your art is magic (muse-driven and easily wrought) then they don't get art, at all. At certain times and places--your book signing, on your web site--I think it's fair to showcase the drafts that got away, the revisions that got dumped, and the hours it took to get the glossy draft your readers now enjoy. Pull back the curtain on the perfect and say, "There's a bit of slime back here..."

If audiences don't know the truth, they are likely to think, as I've heard too often in reference to the art of teaching: "Hell, anyone can do it!" They may well decide it's not worth paying the price. Hey, can you spot me a copy of your book/CD...can you get me a free ticket to the show?


Never mind the ego that seems to have taken many Americans prisoner in this age of self-publishing: I'm going to be the next J.K. Rowling/John Grisham/Toni Morrison/Stephen King/Malcolm Gladwell! Check out my first draft! 

The man behind the curtain--the neurotic artist full of woes and struggles, never mind a history of disappointment--that man matters very much.

This said, I want to make the argument that writers and other independent artists (I would place painters and other visual artists in this category) have it easier than those who need others to make art. The independence is all.  Why? Because you have no one but yourself to blame. Being married to a musician gives me this perspective, as does being the sister of an actress/producer. The group arts are a lot harder to sustain than the solo arts.

Writing is 95% solo. Sure, there's working with agents and publishers; there are tours, speeches, and signings; there's social marketing and comments on blogs. But every morning when I sit down to write, I only have Lyn Fairchild Hawks to hold accountable. I don't lose momentum today if someone in my writers' group failed to show last night. For my art to get done, I gotta do it, no excuses.

My husband is a musician dependent on at least four others in his band being able to

a) attend practice and show on time;
b) agree on singing the same songs;
c) practice those songs when no one's looking;
d) assist with set-up and breakdown of sound equipment;
e) dress appropriately for the gig;
f) behave appropriately during the gig;
g) invest financially in a recording venture or new sound equipment;
h) and bring an audience to a show.

I'm leaving out a long, long list of other assumed professional behaviors that one would hope everyone would follow but don't always appear.

Even with a strong group of musicians, a band leader faces these challenges or variations on them constantly because he prefers the sound that's made by a group to his solo act. He is not merely artist but also manager, mediator, motivator, coach, etiquette trainer, and a thousand other roles that have nothing to do with songwriting, singing, and playing. Somedays, my biggest problem is believing in myself. Professional musicians don't have much room for personal worries to get a performance going.

I won't talk here about theater and its group dynamics, except to recommend you check out the series Slings and Arrows. Let's just say that not everyone's on the same page when it comes to putting up a play.

So, writers, what can we do? Stop complaining about how hard writing is, and just do it. I mean, if you're an incredibly difficult, lazy, and irresponsible person, then maybe you do have something to moan about to a therapist, but if you have half a will and show up to the page, you've got an easier gig than some other artists.

And go support the local theater or musician playing near you. Listen and tip well. It took them a lot to get to that stage.

Writing Prompts

• Who has it easier than you? Who has it harder? Why? Rant a little, and empathize a little. Describe two people's lives in detail and explain why one has it easier and one has it harder than you.
• Write about a time in your life when you had it harder than anyone or easier than anyone. How did you feel? What did you do with that difficulty or privilege? How do you see that past experience now?
• Should one compare oneself to others, or is it a futile exercise? Why or why not?
• Do you know others who work in different arts than you? What do you know of their lives? Step into their shoes and write a few paragraphs of a life through another's eyes.
• How hard is writing for you, on a scale of 1 to 10? Why? What makes it difficult for you to show up to the page? What makes it easy? 
• Do you consider yourself a professional writer? If so, then what constitutes professional behavior? (You can start with the musician's list above and see if any of these assumptions apply to the writing life.)
• What are your writing goals for 2012? 
• What are the  psychological and physical barriers to your writing or writing well? List them and brainstorm three solutions to each.
• What arts different than yours do you resolve to support in 2012? Why?

Taking the No out of NaNOwrimo

You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.”


-- Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

All of us intrepid writers out there are fighting temptations throughout this month so we can get something down on paper. 50,000 words of something--but really, more than "stuff." Any creative act is a big yes and full of light. Messy and unformed as our thoughts look on the first pages, there's such a beauty there, and yet we run from it to embrace lots of negative, empty, life-denying actions and thoughts. Why?

I don't care if I make the 50,000 mark of my sequel to HOW WENDY REDBIRD DANCING SURVIVED THE DARK AGES OF NOUGHT--for now titled INEXTRICABLY--but I do want to emerge on December 1 with some sense of forward momentum and trust that this manuscript is worth finishing.

A tall order, perhaps, especially when the temptations are everywhere. Not just the laundry and everyday tasks that don't have enough time to be done, but the dark and wayward thinking that derails the mind.

I don't mean writer's block; that's its own mountain to discuss. For me, it's lazy thinking. I don't have crises of faith, but I do follow lines of thought that are worthless.

• Like making to-do lists beyond the bounds of the day job, when I should be off duty, "driving the truck all night," as my mom used to say, reviewing that which yields no fruit or pay 
• Like spending precious minutes ranting and resenting the unsolvable--like the annoying habits of highly invasive and unconscious people
• Like wondering what the Kardashians or the Braxtons are up to
• Like stewing over how so and so didn't do me right the other day when they did such and such
• Like chewing on how if I could only change this unchangeable thing about x, then everything would be better, or...
• Like guilting myself out for not being perfect in writing, discipline, or whatever I feel like beating myself up for

Needless to say, these minutes make many hours, and these habits sap creative energy. They are big nos that stop the flow.

Like my commute, for example: some days, I spend 40 minutes or more on any of the above worthless mind meanders when I could be plotting my story. Author Lisa Jordan asks, Why not steal those moments to write? I've generated so many good ideas when I start demanding I do, and suddenly, the tiresome commute becomes incubator, lab, office. I ask myself the simple question from childhood when I wanted a story to go on: "What's going to happen next to Wendy?" That stokes the creative fires.

Off goes NPR and tales of political corruption and Wall Street greed; off goes the local station giving the celebrity dish and traffic despair. Instead I put on a favorite song, set to repeat, and after 20-some plays, I have new scenes, new threads, new dialogue for the novel.

Writing is about mind control. It's about the muse, yes, and the creative impulse, but at the end of the day, it's no different than being in any other discipline. What gets a person up at 5 AM to run and train for the half-marathon? The same belief in oneself and commitment past fear, laziness, and greed to get the seat of the pants to the chair, staying focused past the desire to check Facebook and email, and reminding oneself that this time is worthy, necessary time. Somedays that's the most important mind control: telling myself I should make time to find the seat in the first place. Prior to sitting some writers fight many battles, mental demons of whether they even deserve to be present on the page. I battle whether to stay there.

The other day I went straight from work to a coffee shop and began Nanowrimo-ing. I ran into a fellow teacher I worked with in the past, who was hard at work with colleagues at his own table: grading, grading, grading. He and his colleagues, after a long, hard day in the trenches, went back to work with each other's companionship and coffee to keep them going. I remember those years. Grading in that very coffee shop is what I used to do, day after day. I said yes to those kids' papers and my job every day.

Writing is my job now. It's no less important, meaningful, or spiritual than any other day job. Don't listen to culture that calls it hobby, lark, detour. Do what you were made to do. Say yes, Lyn, and seek that light!

Writing Prompts:

1. How's Nanowrimo going for you? Or any writing project? Do you have a daily discipline, or is the project surviving on stolen moments now? Is it time to recalibrate and ask yourself where time hides and must resurface for your writing?
2. What dark thoughts plague your thinking and trap you in the "no"? Where do these thoughts come from? What need do they serve?
3. What light thoughts can drive you back to the page? Write a few lines that can serve as mantras or pep talks--succinct and quick messages to self--to get you back to the page.
4. What did your favorite authors do to find time to write?