This WOW Wednesday is from our very own Cam–YAY!–who just landed an agent and finished the first round of revisions on her fabulous manuscript. She is represented by represented by
Vickie Motter at
Andrea Hurst Literary Management. In addition to finding her here, you can catch her on her
own blog. And yeah, she really is this humble, sweet, and gracious. How lucky are we to have her here with us?
Loving Your Writer’s Butt
by Cambria Dillon
Shortly after I signed with my agent, Martina invited me to write a WOW Wednesday post. My first thought was – DUDE! I’m a nobody! What kind of wisdom or inspiration do you think I have to give?!? I can’t even bake brownies without destroying them! And then I promptly read every WOW Wednesday post on the blog and spent about fifteen minutes shaking my head because there were legitimate authors like Melissa de la Cruz and E. Lockhart who actually had wisdom to impart. Like, real wisdom.
I was fully prepared to tell her she had the wrong girl. That my path to getting an agent wasn’t anything special and who wants to read about my path anyway? But then I recalled something from R.L. Stine’s keynote speech at SCBWI NY this past January. He said (and I’m summarizing here) that when he first started out, he made sure to say yes to everything. At the time, he was writing for a humor magazine and his editor had asked him to try writing something scary. Even though he wasn’t sure if he could pull it off, he said yes. Why? Because he loved writing and instead of focusing on the huge challenge in front of him, he focused on the fact that he loved writing in all its many shapes and sizes.
So yeah, I told Martina – ABSOLUTELY! SIGN ME UP!
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized something…
Yes, I have an agent, but…nothing has changed. I don’t feel like a different person. I don’t drink champagne for breakfast or have a gold-foiled keyboard or anything silly like that. I’m still a “nobody” and still can’t bake to save my life. The only thing I have now is a new nugget of experience I can refer to and an updated Twitter bio. Sure, I just turned in my first round of revisions to my agent and am currently waiting to see if she likes the changes or is going to print them out for her cat to use as kitty litter. But really…
NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
I was writing, revising, and making sure cats didn’t pee on my work prior to getting an agent. And I suspect I’ll always be doing those things because when you’re a writer, you don’t do it to become an overnight success story. You don’t do it to make butt-loads of money. You don’t do it for the cool factor of having a business card that says AUTHOR on it. And you certainly don’t do it thinking your husband will automatically empty the dishwasher.
You write because you love the art of stringing words together and making them mean something. To me, there’s nothing more breath catching than a beautifully written passage that I feel and think about for days.
If you don’t love those kinds of feelings, then maybe you should find something else to do because writing is HARD. It makes you CRAZY. It gives you carpal tunnel and eyestrain and Flat Butt-in-Chair Syndrome. It forces you to question yourself and your capabilities over and over and over. And a lot of times, it can break you.
But if you do love it…?
Then welcome to my world, baby! I happen to adore eye strain and tight wrists and jittery reflexes and saggy butts. *wink* I adore those unglamorous side effects because when I finish a WIP, a revision, a paragraph, or a kick-ass sentence – I’m truly HAPPY and that kind of excitement makes me feel successful. It’s a feeling I can never fully explain to my husband because he’s not a writer and doesn’t love it to the extent I do.
I guess what I’m saying is: Writing is HARD. Yeah, I already said that but it bears repeating because it’s true! Writing is demanding and time-consuming and sometimes I wonder why anyone would willingly choose this because it requires so much focus and independent supervision. But we don’t choose writing. Writing chooses us. And so we grit our teeth and keep pushing because life is so much sweeter with it, than without.
So focus on that.
Don’t focus on the singular steps of signing with an agent or signing a publishing contract or signing hundreds of books for fans one day. They’re great goals to have, but none of those steps are guaranteed. The only guaranteed thing you can control in this business is your love and dedication to your craft.
My advice? Focus on what you love about writing and why you love it and work hard to always improve it, and you’ll have the kind of long-term success you need, instead of the kind you think you want.
That’s where I am right now and I tell ya – me and my flat butt couldn’t be happier!
Here’s to LOVIN’ IT!
Cam