In the last post, Why Do You Write, I introduced the idea of three categories for why we write; Art, Community, and Business. Today I’m going to show you how to use these categories to shape the path through your writing journey with a brief introduction to each category. I’ll elaborate more on each category in the coming weeks.
Why am I narrowing down the various reasons for writing into just three categories? Because I think every writer out there can probably quickly identify with one of the categories as their strongest leaning. Understanding which category you identify with can reveal the strengths which will support your writing journey, and the weaknesses you will need to overcome or compensate in order to succeed.
In order to succeed as a career writer, you’re going to need some facility with the art of writing, community engagement, and business skills. If you examine your reasons for wanting to write and find that you only want to dwell in the internal artistic realm of writing, never sharing your work with others, that’s great. Or if you decide that financial security is more important to you than developing craft and audience, and you’d better achieve that by becoming, say, a distributor, great. But it’s most likely you have things that you want writing to fulfill for you in all three categories. You probably want internal fulfillment, social contact and connection, and a healthy, balanced financial situation.
Still, understanding your main category reveals what you ultimately want from writing. When you write, and especially when you start trying to bring your writing into the world, there are myriad obstacles that can push you off your path and leave you lost in the woods. Knowing what you ultimately want from writing will help you find your path again.
Art
I’m going to refer to those writers who lean more toward writing as art, as artists. Please understand throughout this and future posts that when I say artist, I mean a writer for whom the art of writing is the most important aspect. I don’t mean a visual artist, although there are many similarities.
For an artist, writing is a personal act of fulfillment. An artist does not write to please people, to change the world, or to eat. An artist writes only for their personal relationship with the words on the page. An artist usually wants to master their craft, but not as a means toward outward success and recognition; rather as a way to be able to better interact with the medium.
Consider the medium
If you identify as an artist, I ask you to take a moment and consider why you use the medium of writing to express your art. Is writing truly the best or only way forward to achieve what you want to achieve as an artist? Are there other mediums you might explore? I don’t ask these questions to discourage an artist away from writing, but simply because it’s possible you have chosen writing somewhat arbitrarily. Close your eyes and imagine you could never write again. Would that be ok? What would you do instead? Would you, could you, sing or paint or sculpt? Do any of those ideas resonate more than the idea of sitting down right now and writing?
If you did this exercise and you came back committed to writing as your medium, excellent, please continue reading. If not, stop reading this right now and go do what you really need to do as an artist.
An Artist’s Strengths
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Dedicated to craft and highly self-critical
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Some are able to produce prolifically
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Some produce sporadically but when they do, it’s brilliant
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Everything produced tends to be, if not brilliant, genuine and compelling
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Artists usually have great taste–able to find the best books out there
An Artist’s Weaknesses
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Tend to be introverted and introspective
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Attempts at forming connections can come across as awkwardly self-promoting
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Possibility of mild manic depression that can make progress difficult
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Hard to be productive on a schedule
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Difficulty completing projects
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Expectation of success based solely on quality of the work produced (i.e. thinks the world owes them success)
The Artist’s Path
I’ll talk much more about this in the coming blogs, but here’s a brief overview:
The artist will need to be very careful not to be diverted from her ultimate goal, which is inner processing. Some artists might be able to write very satisfactorily as a hobby, with no drive for publication, visibility, and financial success. Those artists who do seek to become career authors will need to educate themselves in all of the possible paths to success, not just accept that “this is how it’s done and I need to force myself to do it this way.” There is a way to achieve fulfillment as an artist and also outward success (if there wasn’t, think of how many brilliant writers would never get discovered) but the artist has to be able to learn how to do it without compromising their art.
Community
At the risk of being heckled, I’m going to call those writers whose focus is community: mavens. A maven is actually a person who is very knowledgeable and usually outspoken about something, so this is a slightly inaccurate use, but it’s way snappier than “social person” or “organizer” so it will have to work. Think of a maven, in this context, as someone who is very knowledgeable and outspoken about writing.
For the maven, writing is an act of connection and socialization. Unlike the artist, the maven cannot write forever in obscurity. For the maven, the writing almost doesn’t exist until it has been read. Writing for the maven may be more about broadcasting ideas than about exploring deep inner truths (although self expression can also be a goal for a maven).
Consider the Medium
If you identify as a maven, take a moment and consider why you use the medium of writing to make connections. Is writing truly the best or only way forward to achieve what you want to achieve as a maven? Are there other mediums you might explore? I don’t ask these questions to discourage a maven away from writing, but simply because it’s possible you have chosen writing as your basis for community arbitrarily. Close your eyes and imagine you could never write again. Would that be ok? What would you do instead? Would you, could you, be a political organizer, or vlogger, or an english teacher? Do any of those ideas resonate more than the idea of sitting down right now and writing?
If you did this exercise and you came back committed to writing as your medium, excellent, please continue reading. If not, stop reading this right now and go do what you really need to do as a maven.
A Maven’s Strengths
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Excellent at forming the social connections necessary for self-promotion
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Often have a strong platform/ fan base long before publication
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Often great at understanding other people
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If they don’t know the answer, they’ll find out who does know it
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Great at forming alliances in order to compensate for weaknesses
A Maven’s Weaknesses
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Mavens can be all talk and no action
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Mavens can have a hard time doing the “alone-time” work necessary to develop craft and produce prolifically
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Mavens tend to want to please people, and so can end up not taking artistic risks that result in authentic works of art.
The Maven’s Path
I’ll talk much more about this in the coming blogs, but here’s a brief overview:
The maven has an excellent start in establishing visibility because they probably have an avid audience before they’ve written a word. The problem for a maven will be to sit down and write that first word. A maven might find the best success writing publicly, by blogging installments or drafting on a platform like Wattpad. The biggest issue a maven might face is not being able to make their own judgement about whether a work is satisfactory, because at their most extreme, the maven will always be looking to their audience for approval. Bad reviews cut a maven like knives. The maven will want to work to form a thick skin and an inner compass for judging their own writing.
Another issue the maven may face is that even if they can mobilize a large platform, they might not have the business acuity to capitalize on it. Mavens might find that it’s more important to them to spread their ideas than it is to make money. And that can work–as long as it’s done effectively. At its most ineffective, this can lead to the trap of undervaluing their work, and thus devaluing it in the eyes of the audience.
Business
I’ll be referring to those writers for whom business is their focal point as entrepreneurs (by the end of this blog, I vow I will not have to use spell check in order to spell entrepreneur correctly).
For the entrepreneur, writing is a means to an end. While you may have passion for the medium, the bottom line is the most important consideration. Unlike the artist, who begins with an inner truth and molds that into a product, or the maven, who begins with an idea and seeks to communicate it, the entrepreneur is most likely to begin with the reader. What does the reader want, what gap is there in the market, and how can I fulfill that? An entrepreneur is likely to approach the question of writing from the stance of what will lead to ultimate success. For example, while an artist might be organically drawn to the mystery genre, or a maven might start writing science fiction because they are part of a sci fi community, the entrepreneur is more likely to look at the market data and see that the romance genre is the biggest selling genre by far, and target their efforts in that direction.
The entrepreneur I think gets a lot of disdain from the artist and the maven on the grounds that they aren’t “real writers” because they write to a formula or write in a less-than-artistic genre. Probably some of this disdain is born of jealousy, because the entrepreneur is succeeding in a way that the artist and the maven are striving to succeed but haven’t. While the focus of the artist and the maven shouldn’t change, I think both can learn a great deal from observing the methods of the entrepreneur.
Consider the Medium
If you identify as an entrepreneur, take a moment and consider why you want to use the medium of writing to build a business. Is writing truly the best or only way forward to achieve what you want to achieve as an entrepreneur? Are there other mediums you might explore? I don’t ask these questions to discourage an entrepreneur away from writing, but simply because it’s possible you have chosen writing as your basis for business arbitrarily. Close your eyes and imagine you could never write again. Would that be ok? What would you do instead? Would you, could you, be a publisher, a software developer, or a stockbroker? Do any of those ideas resonate more than the idea of sitting down right now and writing?
If you did this exercise and you came back committed to writing as your medium, excellent, please continue reading. If not, stop reading this right now and go do what you really need to do as an entrepreneur.
An Entrepreneur’s Strengths
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Ability to analyze the market and make really clear business decisions
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Ability to produce prolifically and on a schedule
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Penchant for taking risks and making connections that lead to success
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Willingness to learn necessary skills to succeed at goals
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Ability to hire and delegate effectively to compensate for weaknesses
An Entrepreneur’s Weaknesses
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Not enough time put into development of craft, results in inferior product
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Possibility of wanting results that can only be achieved by being an entrepreneur, but not willing to learn how to achieve them
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Rapidly changing industry can lead to poor decisions. eg, vampire is fiction is hot, so they write vampire fiction, but by the time it is published, vampire fiction is unpopular
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Relationships made solely for the purpose of making sales can feel phony and insincere to the reader
