The Writing Life #1: Hungry Dogs Run Faster
On Doing and Desire
Hungry dogs run faster.
This is the simple truth you must embrace if you want to be a published writer. Over a decade ago I read that upwards of 70% of Americans have thought about writing a book. Sadly, less than 40% — if memory serves — read. That means there is a gap between the number of people who want to write and those available to read what they write. Regardless of readers, 70% of American can’t possibly want to be published, but that many have, likely thought about it. Bigger than the gap between writers and readers is the gap between writers and wanna-be writers. What make the difference?
Desire.
Hungry dogs do run faster. And too many would-be authors don’t truly have the desire to be a writer.
Here was my path to being published. In the late 90’s I started a blogspot blog. It failed miserably. Why? I published it inconsistently. I wrote about random topics, everything from strange news to being a new dad to theology to insults and the like. The topics didn’t help. The inconsistency was a killer. I mean, I couldn’t even get my mom to read it. At it’s peak, 38 people / day read my random post. So, I quit.
Then around 2004 I started a new blog, The Palmer Perspective. I bought a unique URL, dedicated myself to writing everyday, and publishing content 5 days a week. After 3 months, I was netting about 300 readers per day, then soon 500, then upward of 1,000. Was the content great? Not every day. What it was was consistent. People knew that I’d be there. After a year, I scaled back to 3 days a week, then later to just one, but the readers were always there. The process took years. In order to capture more email addresses and expand my audience, I wrote an e-book, Scandalous: Lessons in Redemption from Unlikely Women, which further broadened and increased my readership.
With the growth of the blog I was asked to write regularly for online magazines like Wineskins, Christian Standard, and was then asked to be a featured contributor to Missio Alliance. I still couldn’t get my mom to read my stuff, but now I was being asked to write and readers were looking for me rather than me hunting down readers. Later came the book, Unarmed Empire, my first trade book, then 40 Days on Being a 3, and most recently Speaking By The Numbers. Each step to greater readership (the thing you must have to become a published author) was birth by hunger. I wanted to be a legit writer. And I put in the work to get there.
The work to get there meant waking up at 4:30am or 5:00am to write before the kids were awake and my work day started.1 It meant writing late at night and on my days off. It meant taking every extra dollar earned and re-investing it in my writing — editors, software, books on writing, and online course and groups. Regardless of what you think of their work, people like Stephen King, James Patterson, Anne Lamott, Annie Dillard, Nicholas Sparks, Steven Pressfield, and Mary Pipher became my guides and teachers.
This is the simply truth: If you’re not willing to sacrifice, you will not likely be published. Certainly, I’ve know plenty of people who have had books deals fall into their laps. That happens. But the more common story is a woman or man pecking away at a keyboard for hours and hours, day after day, working their craft and working on their craft. Book releases, with all the parties and podcast interviews looks fun, but writing is mostly lonely, taxing work, sitting with a head down and your heart ablaze.
You have to be hungry. You have to do the work. In the words of Steven Pressfield, “no one wants to read your sh*t,” so you have to write a lot to get past the crap. And the way you get past the poopy paragraphs is by writing a lot. And writing a lot everyday2.
Nicolas Sparks, for instance, writes thousands of words a day which he knows will never see the light of day, but it’s part of writing the words that will see it. Steven King is a freaking machine, a hunched over hero who wrestles down page after page every day. He’s written entire books which he has simply thrown away.
The question for would-be writers is simple: How badly do you want it?
If you truly do want it, sit your butt down and start writing.
Barack Obama wrote his first 2 books with writing sessions beginning at 9:00pm, after his daughters had gone to bed and write until 1:00am.
This is also why I encourage pastors to manuscript their sermons, it forces them to write long form each week. They need not preach their manuscript, but writing helps with clarity and argument.