Mine And Yours

If I’m smart, when I start a book, I don’t talk to anyone about it except my wife and my agent, and even then I don’t tell my agent anything about the book except that I’m writing it. I used to talk about the book I was writing to anyone, which gave me the feeling of having already shared them it others and quietly drained me of the focus needed to finish one properly. These days I try to keep my mouth shut, and work away like a squirrel in his hole.

I enjoy this private time with my books. I used to have very mixed feelings about the solitude necessary to write. On the one hand, I loved it because there is nothing like the quiet of my work room to help me commune with The Muse. On the other hand, I worried sometimes my stories would travel no farther than my desktop. This was highly unproductive speculation. The imagination is simply too powerful a mechanism to willy-nilly train it upon the exact opposite of what I want, but I was not as disciplined then as I am now.

By disciplined I simply mean I have recognized and accepted what works and what doesn’t. I have recognized that I require that discipline to share my work in a specific way. Once I am done squirrelling away on a book, I am ready to show it to my agent and let her offer feedback. This is the first step in sharing it with others – and I mean literally sharing; once another person reads it, let alone suggests changes large and small, the book is no longer mine alone.

This process continues with the editor, and the copy editor, and the cover designer, and the marketing people. Each contributes to the final product, a thing that ultimately came from all of us, until one day a box of books arrives on my doorstep, and I look down at them knowing that the book belongs to anyone who wants it. Now I can talk about it all I’d like because everyone can talk about it. I may have started this conversation, but I’ve become just another enthusiastic participant, happy to be reminded that what I call mine is always everyone’s. 

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt available for pre-order now!
You can find William at: williamkenower.com