Keep Up

I’ve sat with writers and listened to some very sad stories about how they used to sell every book and now they can’t find a publisher, or how their novels sell half what they used to, if that. Sometimes the writers blame the publishers for either not doing enough to promote them or giving up on them simply because one title sold less than the one before; or they blame the fickle market for its volatile preferences; or they just blame fate, whose good favor they apparently no longer enjoy. There has to be a reason. If they could just identify the culprit, perhaps they’d at least gain at little peace, understanding why this story ended the way it has.

If I know one thing about stories, particularly the ones we tell ourselves about our lives, it’s that the more depressing they are, the more they leave me hopeless and compelled to ask, “Why bother?”, the less likely it is that they’re true. When it comes to people’s lives, in my experience there’s only ever one culprit for why things are the way they are, though he or she is entirely innocent. They’ve done nothing wrong, except maybe forgotten what it really means to be creative. Creation always means change. The thing that wasn’t here yesterday is here today; the world is different, and so is its creator.

Every time I reach the end of a sentence or a paragraph and can feel what might come next but can’t yet see it and so can’t yet write it, I’ve arrived at a moment of growth. My old approaches and perceptions and techniques can’t help me here. To finish the story, I need something new. I love the new when it comes, but often I fear it first. The familiar feels safe. That safety is an illusion, just as is the notion that outside forces are responsible for our station in life.

We simply have to keep up with ourselves. We have to stay interested, and to stay interested we have to acknowledge that we are changed by what we make and that those changes cannot be undone. Our interests grow, and our work must grow with them. Publishers and readers can feel when a writer isn’t keeping up with themselves, though they may not know it. They’ll just know something is missing. That something is the author themselves, who is looking to the past for inspiration, when it’s always right there next to them.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

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