Avatar photoSteven Savage

A Writer’s Problems Aren’t Unique

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

I often mentor other authors as I’ve been self-publishing for over a decade and writing professionally and non for much longer. Often it seems they have the same problems over and over again. We all know the drill – writer’s block, fear of failure, formatting, etc. When you mentor, it seems you’re stuck in a time warp, and you’re too tired to make Rocky Horror jokes.

Sometimes I find this frustrating, and I know other authors experience this as well. We’d love to see a unique problem, thank you. We’re done with issues of capitalizing titles and line spacing – can we get something new?

This frustration misses an important point.  We see the same problem repeatedly, but for that individual author, the experience is unique. It is their writer’s block, their insecurity, and so on. What has become abstract to us is painfully personal to them.

Realizing this can help us get over “writer problem boredom.” We can understand the personal experiences of writers having the same crisis we’ve seen before. We can understand the visceral issues someone is having, even if we watched fifty other people have the same problem. Our advice can be customized (and sometimes is more about the person getting other life problems solved).

This also means we can tell the people we mentor that they’re not alone. They’re going through what others have gone through before. There are resources to help them because these problems are so common. Help is not only on its way, it’s arrived and set up shop online and in your library.

Finally, when we tell writers their problems are common, it’s a sign to keep going. Their issues have bedeviled others, others who have solved the problems. The key is to keep going.

Maybe, once they’re over their blocks, they can guide other people as well. With our insights, maybe they’ll be less frustrated.

Steven Savage

Passion Is But One Guide

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

“Follow your passion” is advice we often hear concerning careers, and tune out just as often as well. It’s tuned out because such advice is often trite and doesn’t acknowledge the complexities of life. However, there’s a puzzle piece of good advice in there.

The desire to follow our passions appeals to us, to live to what’s close to our heart. Passion isn’t enough, but it’s a reminder there are things that are part of us, visceral parts that can guide us on careers and in life.

Maybe, when we tell people to “follow their passion” in jobs and life, we can note that’s the first thing. There are other pieces to the puzzle of “what to do with life.”

Passion, of course, can drive us and tells us what’s fulfilling. We may not be good, we may face challenges, but passion keeps us going.

Our natural aptitudes and cultivated abilities are also a guide to careers. These are things we’re just good at for whatever reason, and we can use them, grow them, or channel them.

Interests are another element of ourselves to cultivate. There are things we just like, even without burning passion or talent involving them. They may guide us, or just flavor our life and career choices.

Finally, let us consider fit. Perhaps you want to work in government or live in a small town. There are just people we belong with and places we belong at.

When we discuss following passions, it’s really an opportunity for a deeper, more complex conversation. However, it’s a conversation worth having, not just for insights but to overcome the old “follow your passions” trope. Getting past that overused advice, we can find the other pieces of ourselves, or help others find their own.

Steven Savage

Remembering the World is Alive Matters

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

It’s easy to get depressed at the state of the world for many reasons. There’s a cloud that passes over us that makes everything look mechanical, inevitably clicking towards doomsday. When the world is a machine, we see no hope to survive the crises we face.

But then, when we get creative, making art or writing, the world becomes different. We see there are many possible futures. We see solutions to problems. The world has options, it’s organic, it’s alive – and the future can be shaped.

Something about creativity wakes us up, so we see the world more as the complex, many-faceted thing it is. It’s not just that we can imagine solutions; we’re operating differently. You can’t create mechanically, and creativity can also snap you out of mechanical thinking.

Of course, we might look at this rush and then ask “wait, can my creative abilities change the world?”  It doesn’t matter – the state does.

This is important to remember – keeping this “organic” state of mind comes from our preferred creative acts. It could be drawing, it could be RPGs, it could be writing. There is no right way to get to this state, just your way.

Keep that mindset of the world being alive and I’m sure you’ll find a way to make a better future.

Steven Savage