I like listening to my local public radio station, but sometimes the guests make me want to scream.
In the last few weeks, two different shows interviewed the guy who designed the cover for the book “Girl With a Dragon Tattoo” and one of their own reporters who wrote a book. Both of them said something that makes me wonder what I’m doing wrong in my life:
“I just decided to stop doing X and do Y instead.”
Really? These interviewees both had spouses, kids, houses, but when they decided their jobs weren’t fulfilling something, the one turned to cover design and the other turned to novel writing. Both are now flaming successes in their new professions.
As I said, what am I doing wrong? What are the millions of people who are trying to succeed at writing or art doing wrong?
I’ve read or heard I-don’t-know-how-many people say, “Oh, I decided to be a writer, so I quit my job, wrote a book, sold it to an agent and now I’m a New York Times best-selling author with gazillions of dollars!”
Who are these people? Where do they come from? Why isn’t this transition as easy for everyone if that’s all it takes? That’s the story they tell, too — “I didn’t like my job, so I decided to write a book.” Sure, cuz being a novelist is totally a safe bet when it comes to new career choices.
They don’t talk about the agonizing pain of learning to write, they don’t talk about the classes where they learn they do not know prose like they thought they did, they do not talk about the horrible, groveling search for an agent that does not result in representation, it’s simply “I needed a new job, so I wrote a book.”
Lucky for me, there are other assorted writers and artists who will happily tell you all about the salad days — or in the case of many artists, the store-brand mac n’ cheese and ramen days. Stephen King’s pile of rejection notices. Madonna living on popcorn because she couldn’t afford anything else. The studio that turned down the Beatles.
Ah, that’s better. Now I feel like success is possible again. And less like screaming.
