making it as writer-1981

7/28/2019 Making It as Writer-1981

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MAKING IT as a writer

by RobeRt Anton Wil son

fromStarship: The Magazine about Science Fiction

Volume 19, No. 2. Summer- Fall 1981


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Most of the characteristics which make for success inwriting ar e precisely those which we ar e all taug ht to

repress. These characteristics are denounced by

religious leaders everywhere, by most philosophers,

and by many famous psychologists.

I refer to such qualities as vanity, pride, even conceit;

to raw egotism and grandiosity; to the firm belief that

you ar e an important person, that you ar e a lot smarter

than most people, and that your ideas are so damned

important that everybody should listen to you.

I have known a lot of successful writers and they all

had these qualities. In contrast, the people I knew in

high school and college who wanted to be writers

but have never published anything since then, had all

the opposite qualities. They were shy, and meek, and

timid; they had the humility that all religions preach;

they had a realistic sense that they probably were no

brighter or more important than anybody else. They


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had irony- and balance and pragmatism, and they were

not fanatics. That is why they are not writing anymore.

The successful writers I know are not only driven by

vanity but are also fanatic personalities.

This is not only true of writers but of great creative

persons in all fields. Michelangelo was an eg o- maniac

who attack ed the Pope physically for tr y ing to tell him

how to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Beethoven was

rude, domineering, stubborn as a mule and never for a

moment doubted that he was the greatest musician in

all history - and he threw furniture at people who

annoyed him. Frank Lloyd Wright, when testifying in

court, described himself as the worlds greatest

architect, and when his friends told him later that he

sounded grandiose he replied that he had to tell the

truth because he was under oath.

If you believe that the ego is a delusion, that pride is

one of the seven deadly sins, that humanity should be

reduced to a herd of contented cows, then you might

as well give up writing and all the other arts.


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Y ou cannot hav e too hig h an opinion of yourself

because the world will always strive to correct you.

The only thing most people hate more than success is

self- confidence- a warning s ignal that you might be a

success soon. This is not what they teach you in

Sunday School, but it happens to be true: at any

evidence that you might be a success, the envious will

do ev ery - thing in their power to destroy y ou.

Therefore, there is no chance at all that a high self-

esteem will go unchallenged; it will be challenged on

all sides, daily. On the other hand, if you have a low

opinion of yourself, nobody will ever correct it. Y ou

will hav e it for life unless you correct it yourself .

The second quality writers need for success, besides

vanity, is love of writing itself. Nothing is fun to read

that wasnt fun to write (which is a corollary of the

basic psychological law that nobody enjoys being with

you if you dont enjoy being with y our self . (Reading

you is a symbolic for m of being with you.] )

Few writers achieve overnight success, because few

people in any field succeed immediately. This


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does not mean that you have to endure years of

poverty before success. Poverty is a state of mind,

based on inadequate self- esteem. If y ou believe in

your self, y ou ar e never poor; you ar e just temporarily

short of funds. I was on Unemployment for six months

once (1964) and on Welfare for two years (1972-

1973) and I was never poor. I was waiting for the

wor ld to realize how important I am.

Bes ides eg otism and love- of- y our- work, the only

remaining thing a creative person needs is something

that see ms to, but doesnt, contradict self- esteem.

T his is belief in s omething g reater than yours elf.

Michelangelo painted for the greater glory of God and

for the greater glory of Michelangelo, in about equal

proportions. Beethovens music is an outcry of

passionate commitment to God, Life, Humanity and

Ludwig van Beethoven, in equal proportions. James

Joyce, who may have been the greatest writer of all

time, said he never met a boring human being; this was

because his faith in James Joyce was equaled only by

his absorption in what other people could teach James

Joyce about human psychology. Other great creative


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minds have been equally absorbed in getting mankind

off this planet, or in Socialist Revolution, or in

Feminism, or in whatever happened to seize their

imagination.

Robert Heinlein has offered the only pragmatic rules

for writers that make sense to me. The first is to finish

what you start. T he second is to keep on sending each

piece out until you sell it. If it has been rejected even

1 00 places, make a list of 100 more, and keep on

mailing it to one after another, until you do sell it. If

you enjoyed writing it, somebody somewhere is going

to enjoy reading it and enjoy it enough to publish it.

Since I learned this rule I have sold everything I have

written, including even my Ph.D. dissertation, which is

the hardest kind of thing to sell to a commercial

publisher.

But even these two Heinleinian rules of marketing will

not avail unless you already qualify for the three

psychological character istics mentioned earlier- belief

in yourself, belief in something greater than yourself,

and sheer delight in what you are doing.


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Rabbi Hillel put it all in a nutshell 2000 years ago: If I

am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for

myself, what am I? A nd if not now, when?

- Ro beRt An t o n Wil so n

making it as writer-1981

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