How Writers Self Select Failure | This industry is a meat grinder 

I’m a multi novel traditionally published author. I often get down because I have not reached the point to quit my day job. This gets me down at times but this video reminds me I am blessed indeed.

I enjoyed this. I'm a self-published writer, two books in, third getting ready for release, new worlds to explore after that. I probably will be that guy on his deathbed with a bunch of books written, but still obscure. I am okay with that, because now I do truly enjoy the process and the challenge of writing and improving (I hope!) with every book. When I was young, I craved external markers of success and the approval and validation given by others. I also talked about writing way more than I wrote, and it was enough for quite a while. I don't believe I crave glory, whatever it is, anymore, but you never know when that old ego might arise. I like your perspective, and have binged a bunch of your videos with some saved for later viewing. Good luck with your channel, it has been great to find it and enjoy your delivery of ideas.

I'm currently on step 3. I have wanted to be a writer ever since I was 12. I'm now 32. Ideas have always come easy to me. And some usually end up being fleshed out into full story outlines. Even outlines of an entire trilogy but usually I'll stop there. I'm good at approaching storytelling from a macro level but get discouraged at the notion of having to fill in the details and actually write the damn thing. It's like having the story in my head satisfies my creative drive to an extent. It was a big hurdle to overcome. But now I've finally started on one. To keep it from feeling too daunting I keep telling myself it's just a novella so under 40k words. No biggie. Truth is the story will probably end up needing more than that but I'm trying to keep the idea of baby steps in my head. I'm aiming for about 30 chapters with each being anywhere from 1000 to 1500 words long. So pretty small for now.

I found this very encouraging. I'm stuck at a stage of this funnel and I think hearing this helped me re-evaluate. Keep going with your channel!

From what I have seen with the writers I have worked with and my colleagues in various writing groups, the real filter is between steps 5 and 6: people who write a first draft, but then throw up their hands in defeat at the thought of revising it. It's easy to do a first draft, and then think you are finished, you are a professional writer... Nobody wants to hear that their first draft shows promise, but needs a lot of work. No one wants to face the fact that it can be more work to revise a book that it is to write that first draft in the first place. This is why I always advise people to do at least a very broad outline, despite the advice from "pantsers" that they can churn out a book by the seat of their pants quickly, and are blocked if they have an outline. I think this widespread notion shows survivors bias, and ignores all the people who spent a year pantsing a first draft only to have 100,000 words that don't add up to anything because they were making it up as they went along. Some people can do pants a working novel. I think they are the tiny minority. But because some of the most successful writers such as Stephen King promote this as the only way to truly write, many new writers believe they have to emulate this tactic... And we don't hear about how many never touch the keyboard again after producing a first draft that does not work at all.

Not a novel writes, but a comicbook writer and artist, and this is oddly comforting somehow. Currently stuck somewhere between act 2 and a finished manuscript - I finished the first draft and drove myself into a ditch displeased with the construction of the theme of the story, and now stuck writing and illustrating short stories for a short story collection and hoping for fairer weather (or some sort of eureka light bulb moment I doubt will come). Great video, keep up the good work!

Great editorial, Alan. I've been thinking about this a fair amount of late myself. Have you ever watched American Idol? The percentage of competitors who hold vastly inflated assessments of their singing ability is extraordinarily high. Almost none of the competitors should have entered the contest (except for comic relief). Talk about needing a meat grinder! My guess is that the vast majority of writers and aspiring novelists - even those who overcome the meat grinder to the point of finishing books and submitting them to publishers - lack any noteworthy ability, talent, or substantive ideas. These writers aren't as self-deluded as most American Idol participants; I think most writers who've completed novels are more "stuck in the middle." They lack the ability or talent to write anything noteworthy (defined as a book as good or better than the average published book). Of course, virtually all unsuccessful writers who've reached this level believe wholeheartedly that they are the exception. As a numbers game, most of us are wrong. That's why I see encouraging writers in general to "live their dream" as fundamentally misguided (that's the attitude that funds the shovel-sellers). On the contrary, I would encourage most writers to seek other means of income. I would reserve my encouragement to those who demonstrate exceptional stubbornness and storytelling ability (granted, by my subjective standards!).

I really like your final point about defining success!

Another banger! Still loving the videos. I have written several books but this is the first one I actually want to pursue publishing. I am going to give it my best shot, but I'm prepared for the challenges! Thanks for sharing again 😁👍

I'm with you. I'm self publishing and putting something out every quarter this year, even if it's only a novella. I figure it'll get easier and a bit less scary with each release. Fingers crossed!

I'm glad to be in stage 6 to 7, but its also demoralizing when your hard work not getting the result you are hoping for. Well, I'm gonna keep writing anyway, because not writing is kinda the same as death. Multiple books, here we go!

Excellent video sir. Both hopeful and sobering hahaha. I look forward to your next one!

I've watched a few of your videos now, and I really like your channel. Today I'm subscriber #700! Looking forward to watching more videos Your channel has a lot of information and experience anecdotes told in a way that I haven't seen anywhere else, that seems to be something that a lot of people can relate to.

I have climax terror. Every time I reach the climax of a novel, anymore I generally know how I want to finish it, but I'm afraid I can't pull it off... *sigh* I'm better than I used to be. On my first publishable novel, it took me about ten years to write a good ending.

I think it is interesting that you mention roleplaying, I think being a DM or GM can be a great way to figure out what writer one would be. I mean most of the steps also apply there, like do you step up and run a game, do you be able to get through the thick of the campaign or finish one, can you run more than one campaign. But maybe that is just me, who comes from roleplaying and moves into writing.

So, I have self-published several books, and so far have gotten mixed to good reviews. A well-established filmmaker even left me a stellar review, I was mentioned in The Times by a composer as one of his inspirations, YET my sales are almost non-existent. I can not help but feel like a failure.

There's a basic Catch-22 of writing: you can't sculpt a pile of sludge. A writing critique only matters if you've already written something good - something that can be improved through sculpting/polishing. The Catch-22, then, is that you already have to be good in order to write good stuff. A very small percentage of us go through a process where we eventually reach something that approximates that goodness. If you haven't reached that point, no one can critique your novel into something good. Writing critiques only help a writer improve if a writer already has a self-critical intuition (a sense that there's something wrong) that the criticisms can resonate with. If you lack that inner critical voice, nothing anyone says to you will register, and you won't be improving as a writer.

Amazing! Thanks for the inspiration!

I miss one funnel, revisions. I found finishing the first draft an undertaking, but after I finished it, it was far from done. Sculpting that down to an actual decent story is a lot of work and also sometimes just dull. However, that is were lessons are learned and the book is made.

Well, Act 2 is really 2 acts if you divide structure in the normal way. Understanding that alone should help a lot.

Great breakdown and reality check. Suggesting we think about flipping the funnel upside down, think about it like raindrops falling everywhere outside of multi-book publishing, steering the raindrop towards the bulls-eye.

You forgot the layer between finishing the end and publishing. Self editing. After that comes the endless search for an agient, and then you get to editing again. Witch leads you to pubishing, and editing again, this time with profeasional editor. And finally at the end of 10-20 revisions in total you finally get a book published. For some it takes years to get an agient, so many drop out by that alone and stop writing. But even when you are waiting, if you want to persue being a writer, you have to keep on writing. It may be hard for thoes who arent made for this, but for thoes who are ready to play the waiting game, from the time you finish your first book, and get an agient you could have multeple books to present to that agient. Or even if the first book doesnt sell, you can try to sell the second one and so forth. When you have reached 10 books, and no agient in 2 years, you can start doupting yourself, but untill you spent at least 100.000 hours writing and improving youre craft, you cannot saythat you tried.

man im so glad i found your channel #realtalk

I didn't even bother trying to go trad pub. I've self pubbed 2 books in my series, #3 is halfway done, and I just completed a prequel novel for use as a marketing tool. You HAVE to be persistent. And I haven't done any marketing as yet, because the $$$$ is in a series. Guess I'm a 1 percenter. 😊

first... also these are facts they grind you down

Your first word is cut off and it's driving me crazy lol

This industry rewards mediocrity. You only have a chance if you're willing to lower yourself to fulfill the escapist fantasies of the average reader, whose mind is poisoned by visual media. The second income gets in the way of art, you've already failed.