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What Luck!

11/9/2014

6 Comments

 
Good morning, Readers!

So, discussions I've been having this week have gotten me thinking a lot about success versus luck.  Most specifically, I have gotten the impression that an awful lot of people think that a writer's success is actually luck and has nothing to do with hard work.

Of course I disagree.

There is an awful lot that goes on which people looking from the outside simply do not see.  Even if an author's work takes off and gains its own momentum, there was an awful lot of pushing uphill that permitted that particular ball to start its roll.

Yes, certainly an element of luck seems to come into play.  More often than not however, if we really think about it, that luck is actually just the author's talent; their ability to convey some mysterious quality in their writing that readers latch onto and become excited about.  Still, no one would have any inkling of that talent if the author did not put in the work to sit at a computer/typewriter/note pad and slog through the tough writing days, the hours of writers block, the hours upon hours of editing, the heartbreak of rejection, the silent tears in the night inspired by self doubt, by exhaustion, and fear.  People don't see the unpaid toil that is writing a book and ensuring that it sees the light of day in the best possible iteration.  They only see that the book has touched a nerve and become popular.  What luck for the author!

Success, even for the 'lucky' ones is the result of hard, hard work.

Does that mean that everyone who works hard will be successful?  Well... no.

Look at me, for example.

I have been writing seriously since I graduated university in 2007.  My first ever self-published book came out in 2010, and was rereleased in 2011 (small plug: it was The Dying God & Other Stories).  Since then I've come out with a book a year.

Am I able to make a living from my writing?  Nope.  One giant, fat nope.  And it's not for lack of trying, let me tell you.  In fact, I have spent more money than I've earned trying to get this writing dream off the ground; so much so that I'm hunting for a second job to support it.  Tables at conventions cost money.  Getting stock to sell at said conventions costs money.  Getting people to do book covers (because I am genuinely unable) costs money... It's money well spent, mind you.

It's all money well spent.

But I'm not earning a living from my writing.

By all counts, that makes me, and this venture, a complete and utter failure.

And I'm totally okay with that.

I don't have many readers, and that's okay.  The readers I do have are all, without exception, wonderful people.  Some of them started out as friends and are now also readers.  Some of them started out as readers and are now also friends.  They have been the most wonderful support network anyone could ever ask for.

Though I work really hard at it, marketing is just not my strong suit.  I'm not good at it.  As a result I am, after seven years of writing and four years of publishing, one giant unknown.  It's frustrating.  It's heartbreaking.  There are times I lock myself in the washroom and cry because of it.  Never mind the tears that happen because of rejection by publishing houses.  There are a lot of those.

Yeah.... I cry a lot.

I have heard arguments along the lines of 'Well, you chose to be a writer.'  Yes.  Yes I did.  I chose it in as much as a people with a passion for numbers chose to be accountants or mathematicians.  I chose it in as much as people who crave knowledge of the ocean chose to be marine biologists.  I chose writing the way a child obsessed with the heavens chooses to become an astronomer.

Am I somehow less worthy of being paid because my passion is creative?

No.  Yet people often treat me, and fellow writers, artists and musicians as if that is the case.  How dare we seek to earn a living from a creative passion?  Some demand our hard work for free with the promise of 'exposure,' and if we get successful, people throw into question our hard work.  They call it luck.

There are some days when I find myself begging for the 'luck' other authors have received.  Only, once I've calmed down, I know that they never had the kind of luck I'm hoping for.  They succeeded because they deserved to, because they showed up every day and did what needed to be done.

What I'm doing now looks an awful lot like failure.  I cannot see it like that.  What I am seeing is the things people looking in from the outside do not see.  I am seeing (and experiencing) all the work that goes into success.  And one day, I can stop pushing that ball uphill.  One day, that ball will start to roll all on its own.

And I will stand on the top of the hill, and the people who do not know, who cannot know, or who refuse to know will all stare and say, 'What luck!'

But I will know better.
Picture
Image courtesy of Pintrest. Click for link.
Ciao!
6 Comments
Rosa Christian
11/9/2014 11:10:30 am

Great post Sonia and those of us who know you know how hard you work at your craft. You will succeed.

Reply
S.M. Carrière link
11/9/2014 04:10:45 pm

Thanks, Mum!

Reply
April Laramey link
11/9/2014 03:45:05 pm

You are mistaking the idea of saying someone was lucky with the idea that they didn't work hard. They are not mutually exclusive.

When I say an author got lucky it doesn't mean I don't think they did years and years of hard, hard work.

It just means that thousands and thousands and thousands of other writers do too, and they never get published. Never get a contract. Never get known. And they are probably amazing writers.

It's nice to think that just because you work hard you will be successful, but that is just simply not in any way reality. It's a nice ideal, but not true 100% of the time.

So, a lot of the incredibly hard working authors out there *are* lucky. In a numbers game that's how it works.

Lucky vs hard work is not a black and white issue and to think luck has nothing to do with it is, in my opinion, naive.

Reply
S.M. Carrière link
11/9/2014 04:15:21 pm

And I agree with you, which I why I said that not all hard work will be rewarded.

But I also think calling a successful author 'lucky' does a lot to discredit the incredible toil that getting noticed is; even if that incredible toil was "little more" than writing a fantastic book (not easy, very hard work) that struck a nerve and managed to create momentum all of its own.

That success comes from hard work, even if others who work hard don't get successful.

It's not luck. It's hard work.

I wish more people would say, 'Wow, your hard work is starting to pay off" instead of, "Wow, you're really lucky."

It's not luck, even if it seems like it.

Reply
April link
11/9/2014 04:48:14 pm

While I agree with you on the fact that people should say "wow your hard work is paying off", to say

"It's not luck. It's hard work." is still seeing it wholly as a black and white issue. There is nothing that can convince me in this universe that luck doesn't play a part in publishing success. To think otherwise is to have an ego the size of america. It's not JUST hard work. Luck plays a part.

S.M. Carrière link
12/9/2014 02:21:07 am

If you're working on the supposition that all hard work is rewarded, then yes, it's not just hard work.

But not all hard work is rewarded. Only one professor of mathematics will be given tenure. Was the one who made it to that spot merely lucky; like they won the lottery? Or were they worthiest? Did they work for it?

Luck plays a part insofar as it plays a part in every other profession, yet people disregard the work authors do and call it luck, making them somehow less worthy of respect and recognition... as I've read recently.

Because reasons?

And it is incredibly difficult to be objective in this. One may feel they have the best manuscript, the best story, the greatest talent in the world, but they're not getting published.

Is it just that they're unlucky? Or is it that they've yet more work to do to improve themselves and their manuscript? Is the person who believes the former the one with the ego the size of America? Their work is amazing, after all, and it's everyone else's fault in the industry if they cannot see that.

Claiming publishing is all about the fall of the dice takes away both the responsibility of the author to work their butts off and the respect and recognition they deserve after success.

Incidentally, I may gauging success differently. To my mind, if you're earning a living wage from your writing, you are successful.




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    S.M. Carrière, a Celtic Studies enthusiast, writes fiction.  And this blog.

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