by Bruce Bethke...continued from last week...
No one can turn you into a successful writer. Anyone who claims he or she can is trying to sell you a seminar, or at least a how-to book. Nor is there a universally agreed upon definition of "successful." To a large extent you have to find a satisfactory definition within yourself, and take it from one who's been there and done that, the definition can be as slippery and elusive as as shape-changing salamander in a bucket of Vaseline. Is it getting your story finished? Getting it published? Getting it published in a market that actually pays real money? Getting it published and attracting enough attention to land a deal for a novel? Getting your novel published and selling so many copies it becomes an international bestseller, turns into a multi-picture movie deal, and makes you rich enough to spend the next few years sitting on your private island in the Bahamas snorting pure Bolivian cocaine through straws made from rolled-up hundred-dollar bills?
A cursory look at any week's bestseller list should be sufficient to dispel the notion that being published is the only meaningful measure of success, and remind you that far too often, "huge commercial success" and "lowest common denominator" are interchangeable. The road through literary history to this point we call today is lined with the bleached bones of vastly talented people who wrote utterly brilliant works that were never published at all, or if published, never reached more than a small audience.
Today's one critical take-away, then, is, "Don't worry about that." Let history make that decision. It's not your problem, and you have very little control over that part of the story, anyway. Commercial Success is a fickle, idiot, bitch-goddess who often bestows her favors without sense, rhyme, or reason, and can just as quickly snatch them away again.
Worse, if you do worry overmuch about courting her favor, pretty soon you might start to believe that the way to earn her attention is by pandering shamelessly to the lowest common denominator—and again, take it from one who's been there and done that, while doing so can sometimes succeed, it can also result in career blowback of staggeringly devastating magnitude.I've much more to say on this topic but a marked shortage of time this morning. It's Palm Sunday and I need to be showered, shaved, dressed, and at church in an hour. Ergo, once again: to be continued...
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