Calling someone a dreamer is seldom a compliment.
But it should be.
Recently, I encountered a flock of folks who day-dream for a living. I joined hundreds of novelists, humorists, poets and playwrights who converged on Nob Hill to attend the San Francisco Writer’s Conference. We were drawn by a common passion to pitch ideas, sharpen skills, and hear a pep-talk or two.
You see, dreaming can be exhausting work.
If you doubt me, take a look at some actual session-titles. They speak to the chutzpah it takes.
I’ve arranged them into a sort of cautionary tale.
First, there’s that rush of hope as you…
“Begin the Career Of Your Dreams”
Now you’re empowered by naïve-confidence that comes from reading an “Idiot’s Guide” on How-To…
“Prep Your Ideas and Yourself for Success”
Then, alas, the real-world intrudes. It’s not enough for your mother to like it. You must…
“Convince Agents and Editors to See Your Work…”
By writing zillions of…
“Query Letters That Receive Yesses”
You hope.
But when your phone doesn’t ring, your mailbox sits empty, and your emails go unanswered… you experience doubt, despair and depression.
You’re desperate to…
“Banish Your Inner Editor (Censor) And Write With Abandon”
Time to whip out your credit card, buy more writing books, take another class, or attend a conference, looking for that secret that will…
“Make Your Work Rejection-Proof”
And EUREKA, YOU’VE FOUND IT! It’s as simple as using the…
“Three Keys To Overcoming Obstacles”
You re-write, again, confident that THIS TIME you’ll be…
“Getting Lucky, Going From Rejection To Success…”
So you push your ballpoint to the limit, piling millions of words on tons of tattered yellow-pads. Chanting the mantra…
“If They Can Do It, You Can…”
And, at LONG LAST, you do.
You bag that first sale, cash the check, and hang the acceptance-letter over your desk.
No matter that the frame cost TWICE what the story netted.
You’re a professional writer now, and you can henceforth expound on…
“The Joys and Challenges of Devoting Your Life To Writing”
**
Of course these ten titles are just a small, not-so-random sample. The conference was much bigger–boasting more than 120 offerings for writers, editors, illustrators, self-publishers and other assorted masochists…
Oops, I mean dreamers.
I’ll admit that most of the talks didn’t have “rejection” in their titles. But the content still included a LOT of “you-can-make-it” hand-holding. I know because I attended 15 of these presentations, and almost all had a pep talk buried in there somewhere.
Writers seem to need continual reassurance, and most speakers delivered it in one of two ways.
First, there were the new-age, get-in-touch-with-your-inner-spirit-guide types. I found these appealing. After all, who knows REALLY knows the ultimate nature of our inner-being, the multi-layered mind, relative-reality and the proper placement of a colon? Perhaps I was a talented writer in a previous life and there are still some royalty checks out there waiting to pay the bills.
I try to keep an open mind about such things.
So when it came time to pick a Sunday session, I channeled a mysterious force called “curiosity.” It drew me into a not-so-small room to stand in the presence of a genuine celebrity—Dan Millman.
Millman, author of the Peaceful Warrior, offered his audience a method to pursue confidence through inner-peace and the purchase of his latest paperback. We worked at harmonizing our thoughts that can be found on page 47 of his book, The Creative Compass.
Spoiler alert: Millman says there’s no such thing as writer’s block.
Dan attempted to exorcise the demon of self-doubt from us as during our 45-minute session. And he didn’t even have to lower the lights.
“You say you’re blocked. Really?” he asked. “I’ll bet you can still write a grocery list. Right?”
We giggled.
“So it’s not that you can’t write,” he paused, nodding slowly and wisely. “It’s just that you can’t write at the level you want.”
We all looked at our shoelaces.
“And that’s OK,” he said soothingly. “You can be a great writer and still write badly.”
Great, I thought. I’m there already!
But then the hammer fell.
“You just have to re-write.”
Damn.
Then Millman warmed to his topic.
“Ray Bradbury said there are two steps to getting words on the page,” Dan said. “First you throw up, then you clean up.”
This was quite a visual to digest.
Or not.
And then the news got worse. Millman revealed that his “cleanup” once required him to throw out two-hundred pages. He then shared the following: “Michael Korda, an editor at Simon and Schuster, was famous for making saying to his writers: ‘You know that section of your manuscript between pages 197 and 302? Can you turn that into a really good sentence?’”
Dan laughed, but fewer joined in with him this time. I found this story painful. Millman, apparently sensing this, segued into his next set-piece, embracing our “master metaphor.”
And what, you may ask, is THAT?
It’s a tool to create an inner dialog with that part of you which has taken on tough tasks and triumphed. Millman says we can replay the feelings we had, and the sense of determination we employed to preserve.
“You’ve succeeded many times,” he reminded us, “and drawing on this will get you through.”
He shared a story. At age 60, he set a goal—learning how to ride a unicycle. The first week, he was so discouraged he quit early, ending in failure.
Daily defeat… but therein lay his point. With the dawn of each new day, he returned to his task, eventually mastering the skill. His lesson?
Before you can do it, you have to dream it. And dreams, he says, are realized through determination.
And, if you’re mastering a wobbly one-wheeler…. It helps to have a chain-link fence handy, too.
Good to know, Dan.
The other approach to conquering fear I learned from a nuclear scientist who spoke on Saturday.
Dr. Ransom Stephens writes science-fiction novels as well as magazine articles explaining complex ideas to a lay audience. He’s also the author of a self-help book, Your Pursuit of Greatness. In it, Ransom applies his scientific training and sensibility to the study “success literature,” a field that is often rife with rah-rah platitudes.
The results are stimulating. So was his presentation. Ransom’s style of speech is direct, grounded, and funny.
Very, very funny.
One of his pithy observations?
“Never underestimate the power of inspiration born of naïve ignorance,” Ransom said. “You might never begin if you knew just how hard it really was.”
His presentation was entitled “Breaking the Chains That Bind: The Transformation from Wage Slave to Full-Time Writer.” He began by speaking frankly about a writer’s money—or lack thereof.
“Sterling Hayden tells us that ‘To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest,’” Ransom said.
“People say: ‘I want to write full-time, but can’t afford it.’ But these people are enmeshed in security while the train of life thunders on… and they’ve thrown their dreams under its wheels.”
Ransom then challenged us to ask ourselves how much we REALLY need to survive, and he cautioned us that much of his advice will go against common sense and generally-held-wisdom.
“I am telling you now. You probably shouldn’t take this advice. It runs counter to common-sense,” he said. “But if you want to live the life of a full-time writer, then you are traveling to another world. And the rules of that world will not apply to the one you now inhabit.”
Ouch. Ransom was serving up an “anti-motivational speech.” But he persisted with his points, and was quite persuasive.
“People will be discouraging, laughing and saying things like: ‘Don’t quit your day job.’ They say these things not to be mean, because they care about you. But you are headed to a place they have never been and do not know. They are afraid for you.”
Despite this, Ransom says your odds of making it are better than you’d think.
“People say success in writing is like playing the lottery. You’ve heard that bullshit, right? But it’s not,” he said. “If you play the lottery, I can guarantee you this: YOU WILL NOT WIN. The law of large numbers tells us this. But if you work consistently at your writing, the odds are not bad—better than 50-50. That’s because anyone who persists with diligence for 10 years in a pursuit had a decent chance of succeeding. And that’s what it takes, persistence.”
Persistence again? I thought, and groaned.
Ransom looked at me through the corner of his eye and continued.
“This (approach to writing) may seem a hard path,” he said. “But think about it. Thoreau had it right. Most people lead lives of `quiet desperation.’”
He smiled.
“I think paradise is easier to find than it is to recognize,” he said. “So enjoy the process….”
“Because in 100 years you’ll be dead.”
Gee, thanks, Ransom.
So now I know how to make my dreams come true. And I have a choice….
I can be puked on by Ray Bradbury or thrown under the train by Thoreau.
As I said, it takes courage to be a dreamer.
Robb has enjoyed writing and performing since he was a child, and many of his earliest performances earned him a special recognition-reserved seating in the principal’s office at Highland Elementary. Since then, in addition to his weekly column on A News Cafe – “Or So it Seems™” – Robb has written news and features for The Bakersfield Californian, appeared on stage as an opening stand-up act in Reno, and his writing has been published in the Funny Times. His short stories have won honorable mention national competition. His screenplay, “One Little Indian,” Was a top-ten finalist in the Writer’s Digest competition. Robb presently lives, writes and teaches in Shasta County. He can be reach at robb@robblightfoot.com.
