[BREAKFAST WITH THE MUSE]
DON'T LET EXPECTATION SABOTAGE YOUR WRITING
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POSTED BY JILL JEPSON ON APRIL 5, 2015 AT 2:41PM
VIew Blog
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| "FRESH START" acrylic painting by Linda Lee Greene |
Here are the stories of
two aspiring writers I worked with years ago:
The
first, whom I’ll call “Jane” was positive her memoir was going to be enormously
successful. Her greatest fear was that she’d have the press “beating her door
down” once her book came out. She’d had a colorful childhood, and her
writing was strong, and she thought those two things would certainly lead to
success.
I
loved this writer--her passion, her energy, her vibrant outlook, but I worried
that, once she saw how challenging the marketplace really is, she would falter.
Unfortunately,
my fears came true. Her first rejection sent her reeling. When she had a half
dozen, she was so devastated she stopped sending her memoir out—and that was
the end of her writing career.
The
second writer, “Joe,” had very different expectations from Jane. He was sure
his magazine articles weren’t good enough for major venues, so he focused on
small-circulation newsletters and religious magazines. He got into a niche of
writing how-to articles, and racked up a lot of publications. But he never
pushed himself beyond that narrow niche. Despite having a lot of talent, he
never submitted to a national magazine or tried writing something new and
different. He was so convinced it was pointless, he didn’t try.
Although
Jane and Joe may sound like opposites, they had the same problem: They suffered
from what Buddhist blogger Phillip
Moffitt calls the “tyranny of expectation.”
Whether
your expectations are sky high or not high enough—whether they’re making you
suffer from shattering disappointment (like Jane) or keeping you from being the
most successful writer you can be (like Joe), getting out from under them is
one of the most liberating things you can do.
It’s
not easy. Most of us will never let go of expectations altogether. But we can
all loosen our grip on the expectations that bully and constrain us, at least a
little. Here’s how:
See
the writing life as an exploration. When you go exploring, you don’t know what you’re going to
find. That’s the fun of it. The writing life isn’t a superhighway to success.
It’s a winding path that can take you to beautiful vistas as well as through
some pretty dark forests. Keep in mind you’re exploring unknown territory. It’s
not going to be comfortable—but it is going to be exciting.
Look
for possibilities rather than certainties. I used to try and fight
the blues by telling myself I was certain my next work would be a success. It
never worked.
Now,
I think of what is possible, rather than what is certain. When you start
looking at the possibilities open to you, you realize they are vast, even
innumerable. Expectation is all about seeing a single outcome. Letting go of
expectations means seeing that all bets are off and almost anything can happen.
Trust
the process. Your
writing is going to lead you where it will lead you. There is no “wrong” place.
There is just the place you are. Relax, and let your writing guide you. Trust
it to take you where you need to go.
“A
life of no expectations is not a life without hopes or dreams,” writes Bill
Bohlman on ThatBuddhaGuy
blog. “It is a life of striving to attain…goals while constantly
remaining aware that, for all we think we know, there is far more that we
don’t.”
None
of us knows where our writing will take us. Instead of imagining what lies
around the next bend, open up to the infinite range of possibilities ahead.
Jill Jepson is the
author of Writing as
a Sacred Path. Get her free ebook Calling Up the Writer Within: A Short Guide to Writing at 50 &
Beyond here.
*****
Linda Lee Greene’s novel “Guardians
and Other Angels” is at http://goo.gl/imUwKO
Linda’ Lee Greene's novel “Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams,”
co-authored with Debra Shiveley Welch is at http://amzn.to/VazHFG
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