Inspiration for writers can sometimes be hard to come by. We’re all out there, grinding as best we can, but sometimes that doesn’t cut it. Sometimes it feels like being a writer is nothing but a huge exercise in futility. You write, you submit, you get rejected, rinse, repeat. After a while you can start to question your sanity and maybe even ask yourself, “Why am I even doing this?” That’s why writers success stories are so important to me.
I have a friend who was giving me a hard time a while back (good-naturedly, but still) about the large number of Facebook friends I have that I’ve never met. And it’s true—I’m friends with probably well over 100 people that I don’t know in real life. In many cases, I’ve never even interacted with them aside from liking some of their posts and the rare comment on a post or a reply to a tweet here and there. On the one hand, I saw what my friend was trying to say, but at the same time it really annoyed me because he’s a writer too, and yet it was clear he just didn’t get it. I’ll friend almost any writer out there who writes anything remotely interesting to me (as well as other creative types, like painters and photographers). I do it for two reasons: it reassures me that I’m not totally alone in this crazy-making endeavor when I see others with similar challenges and struggles, and when one of them “makes it” so to speak, it can really be uplifting.
Several years ago (I’m guessing around 2012-ish?) I stumbled upon a little website out there in the blogosphere called Terrible Minds—The blog of Chuck Wendig. At the time, Wendig was still very much grinding away, writing fiction when he wasn’t working his day job. I enjoyed his blog and found many of the things he wrote about quite relatable. Then, one day he announced he was quitting his day job to write fiction full time. A bold move to be sure, but he took a chance on himself and it paid off—not long after he was hired to write books in the Star Wars universe, and he hasn’t looked back since. I thought that was awesome. Absolutely incredible, and I was so happy for him and also so fired up to get after it and kick my writing into high gear. One day around this time, I decided to look Mr. Wendig up on Facebook, and lo and behold, there was the button: Add Friend. So I clicked the button and he accepted. That was a real ‘a-ha’ moment for me. I proceeded to look at all the people Facebook was suggesting I might know, and if they were a writer, I added them. Turns out, writers seem to like being friends with other writers.
Another that sticks out is Paul Tremblay (Head Full of Ghosts, Cabin at the End of the World). He was a full time high school English teacher before Ghosts took off, and he got a nice tweet recommending his book from the one and only Stephen King. I was so happy for him! It made me feel like even though the odds are certainly stacked against us, people do make it out of the slush pile sometimes.
More recently, I’ve watched Gabino Iglesias (quite possibly the hardest working man in the writing business) garner critical acclaim for his books and go on to get a gig with The New York Times (along with his other gigs with NPR and the Boston Globe) reviewing horror novels, and there’s no doubt his sales will only go up with each new book.
And most recently (and the reason for this post), S.A. Cosby. I followed Mr. Cosby on Twitter before I ever read any of his work and was instantly a fan. I’m assuming most of you have heard of him, but if you haven’t, here’s a quick recap: in the past five years or so, Cosby has published four crime novels, each more lauded—and better selling—than the last. His latest, last year’s All the Sinners Bleed, was the recipient of numerous awards, as well as being placed on multiple “best of” lists. What makes S.A.’s success so inspiring is knowing where he came from to get to where he is now.
On a recent profile on CBS Saturday Morning, Cosby shed some light on his personal and professional life. Growing up in rural Virginia, Cosby lived without running water until he was 16, and was supported by a single mother who worked her butt off to put food on the table for S.A. and his brother. But here’s the nugget that really struck me: initially drawn to horror, he toiled away behind the keyboard for 20 years with limited success before he decided to change things up and give writing crime novels a try.
20 years! It sounds so…depressing. But the thing is, had he not spent those years writing horror, he may not have had the tools to write crime so effectively. That got me thinking—do I want to spend 20 years toiling away with limited success? For that matter, do you?
Then I realized something. I already have.
The first long fiction I ever wrote was a novella called Zzyzx. That’s not a word I made up or an attempt to be clever, it’s a road out in the desert when you’re driving from Southern California to Las Vegas, which was where the story was set. Anyway, I wrote that in 2000—I know that because I was working at a temporary job for the US Census Bureau at the time. Granted, my own writing has almost certainly been far more sporadic than S.A. Cosby, but still…I’ve put the time in. There’s no way I could write for this long, through so many awful short stories and wretched drafts of novellas, to finally get to a place where I feel like my writing doesn’t suck, to just up and quit now. If S.A. Cosby could do it, so can I, and so can you!
Now, I’m not trying to be Tony Robbins here or anything, but living vicariously through someone else and sharing their excitement when they find success is very uplifting to me, so I thought I’d share. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this—where do you find your inspiration?
And if you’d like to watch the segment about the hottest crime writer in the country right now, you can watch it here.
BooksofJobe.com 