Five Hard Truths for Novice Writers:

Truth ONE

If you write a lot, like volumes, and years, and perhaps you complete 10,000 hours, most of your work will go unread or unacknowledged. Remember the benefits: You are surely improving with practice. Also, you felt something like fulfillment while you wrote it.

Truth TWO

If you have 1,000 friends or followers on social media (because you are not yet famous), you will be lucky to get 50 of them to read your stuff. Do not assume they all want to read your work. Many of them will never read anything more than a 20-word post on social media. Many of your closest friends and family will not be likely to read your stuff. There will be a few lovely and loyal surprises, but many will show initial interest and then never follow through. Worse, some will buy it but never bother to read it. It is okay. They are just not where you want them to be at this time.

Truth THREE

The rare few people who actually do read your book and then fully share their experience are Readers. Notice the capital R? They love this sort of thing. They are Your People. They understand how to discuss your book because they understand how to discuss all things literary. They are the balm upon your wounded heart. It is certainly agreeable to learn of even their mixed review rather than to get no review at all. I have about 75 of these people in my life. Perhaps that is enough.

Truth FOUR

The nonreaders will never appreciate that your creation is a part of your soul. They may not even know that they have a soul that might have otherwise been touched. They might be easily bored, or demand a specific form of reading, oftentimes plot-driven, which is possibly not what you have delivered. Your work is not for everyone.

Truth FIVE

This abysmal form of writer grief has very little – if anything at all – to do with you, your skill, your beautiful mind, your years of effort, your gifts. It has everything to do with a bigger picture, the nonreader’s lives, their constant other distractions, duties, interests and priorities. Many horrible books have sold millions of copies. Many wonderful books only sold post- humously. Your literary creation is simply and straight up not important to them.  This is painful, yes, but it is a brutal reality. Only the truly hardened writers will persist despite this humbling frustration, this dark and private injury.

And Yet…

We write anyway. We write because we want to, because we are called upon by some unseen force, because we are meant to do this thing. We write because we have hope that it matters anyway. We write because someone might one day see that our work is worthy of some quiet moments of thought, reflection, amusement, and discussion.

Dearest Writers, if we are true writers, we must write almost entirely for ourselves.