I think it spells out resilience. All of those traits connect there. More positive in life, less negative and transcendence. We grow a thick skin, even if we don’t start out with one. In the end we write for ourselves, even if we don’t start there. In the end we are part of something bigger than our “self” even if we didn’t start there. It’s waking up every morning and turning blood into Ink. And the fact we can’t wait to get there. Creativity finds us yet she never leaves us the same. I believe we just get better and better at letting her through.
I'm thinking – can it be that the qualities he noticed to predetermine success or failure as a writer are mostly applicable to his circle in the U.S.? Because I can think of dozens astonishingly successful writers who are "shy, and meek, and timid" which Wilson says here are qualities of the unsuccessful. I believe in Eastern Europe, especially where I'm from, Bulgaria, it might even be quite the opposite to what he said.
Very true. The American way of success, especially Robert Heinlein (who's sci-fi I loved reading as a teenager in the 1960s/70s) works because it's expected in the culture. America is a big country, and you have to shout loud to be heard.
As a 'muted' introvert European, I can turn on the extrovert when on stage reciting poetry, but it's not my natural way of being; it exhausts me. Knowing a few American introverts telling their stories how they were brought up to be extrovert and pushy in order to be successful, they collapsed later on in life from the strain of it all, from having to play the performing monkey, and were burnt out. Most retreated to the countryside to live a simpler life away from all the frenetic noise.
Interesting point; a mass of people unable to think for themselves will always follow what the media says they should follow.
Perhaps we also need a better definition of success - perhaps it should come from each of us to ask ourselves: what would success look like, for me? (and never mind the externally imposed measures)
I appreciate some big projects that are successful and attracted a lot of funding (eg: https://www.edenproject.com/) near where we used to live in Cornwall, U.K. And also much else art-work.
As a weaver/sculptor/poet and general maker-of-things, I am totally absorbed in the creative process ... and after that I tend to lose interest in 'making it successful'. I did invent the YarnShifter hand-weaving loom and made them for five years selling kits all over the world, and it paid for itself. Now I am retired with a pension so I can afford to do stuff for its own sake without being concerned about there having to be a follow-up stage of 'success'. Having said that, I'd quite like my poetry to be more widely read - but maybe I'm not fanatical enough about it.
Well, unshakable confidence in your skill, and the writing you produce, is essential in order to weather the criticism and rejection that are inherent in the writing and publishing process. It's easy to feel dejected after receiving difficult feedback. Confidence helps you tune into the feedback without getting defensive. Then you can decide if the feedback has merit or not. Confidence helps you stay the course and keep submitting when you're getting rejection after rejection. Keep sending it in, someone will love it as much as you do! Confidence makes it a lot easier to love the process, even during a second draft that doesn't seem much better than the first. It'll get there, because you are good at this!
I think the approach of 'keep-going-with-the-scatter-gun' has its place. Maybe Substack itself is THE place where writers can find readers, and publishers, in the most efficient way?
So true so true. One quality omitted however is that piece of equipment dangling between men’s legs. All the examples given of writers having that strength of ego and assertive self belief are men. Women - certainly women who grew up in the 1940’s- 1960’s and before, had these qualities of which you speak stamped out as soon as they might have appeared. Yes I was a 8,9,10 year old eager poet and writer of stories in the fifties but many many decades later the over stuffed overworked draft of my novel lies entrapped in doubt somewhat like the dismembered lantern fly encased and half eaten by the creative spinner of the web at my NYC window - but she - the striped orbweaver - neoscona crucifer - worked endlessly and successfully at her creative project yesterday as I watched, immobilized by a medical procedure and happy for the distraction, so I will take her creative determined hungry work and your words in todays Poetic Outlaw as great inspiration. Thank you as always!!
>>>Frank Lloyd Wright, when testifying in court, described himself as the world's 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.<<<
I totally busted out laughing when I read that. So funny! and so true.
Today's reminded me of a quote I love and have returned to for bolstering from John Steinbeck:
"Such is the prestige of the Nobel award and of this place where I stand that I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession and in the great and good men who have practiced it through the ages."
As in everything else, good old Bob was always brilliant when he wrote about writing and creativity. Thank you sincerely for sharing this.
For anybody wondering, this piece comes from a 1981 issue of the science fiction magazine STARSHIP, which sometimes published work by RAW.
For fun, here's a bit more from him on the subject of writing, from my book WHAT THE DAEMON SAID, and likewise featuring a quote from STARSHIP:
"Entirely aside from all of the far-out details of his (possibly) paranormal experiences, at least twice in his life Wilson directly equated the autonomous-feeling force in the psyche that drives artistic creativity with the ontologically indeterminate Higher Intelligence that seemingly communicated with him, Leary, and Crowley. One of these instances came in an essay he wrote about the life and work of Raymond Chandler, under the pseudonym of one of his (Wilson’s) own fictional creations, book critic Epicene Wildeblood. In describing the 15-year hiatus from fiction-writing that Chandler once experienced, Wilson said, 'Chandler spent 15 years, the prime years of a man’s life, in the oil-executive game before the Daemon or Holy Guardian Angel that haunts artists got its teeth into him again.'
"The other instance is found in a 1981 interview Wilson gave to the late, great genre magazine Starship: The Magazine about Science Fiction. The interviewer asked him, 'Is a book fully organized in your mind before you start writing or does it take shape as it unfolds?' Wilson responded:
'Sometimes I have a clearer idea of where I’m going than other times, but it always surprises me. In the course of writing, I’m always drawing on my unconscious creativity, and I find things creeping into my writing that I wasn’t aware of at the time. That’s part of the pleasure of writing. After you’ve written something, you say to yourself, “Where in the hell did that come from?” Faulkner called it the “demon” that directs the writer. The Kabalists call it the “holy guardian angel.” Every writer experiences this sensation. Robert E. Howard said he felt there was somebody dictating the Conan stories to him. There’s some deep level of the unconscious that knows a lot more than the conscious mind of the writer knows.'"
So basically, cultivate misery in yourself and others and you got it made. Make sure all your victories are pyrrhic. Got it. This macho philosophy is an insult to the earth and life. Life says, here I am. Delight in me. And I say, No. I'm too important for that. Earth feels embarrassed for this confused person. The foundations of great art are gratitude and awe-- a kind of non-referential gratitude and amazement, grasping dissolves and creation happens naturally as a reflexive reciprocation-- the amazement creates and the artist experiences joy, transcendence. This is a viable approach. Wilson's not describing an artist, by my lights. He's describing an entrepreneur -- tech bro mentality. For some fucked up reason the two are conflated in America.
Few artists are the mystic you describe. There is inherent arrogance in the belief that one's 100,000+ words are worth a stranger's reading. There's no way around that. Such a labor done in isolation for years is not a practice of star gazing or a meditation on waterfalls and unicorns. The two approaches are not mutually exclusive, sure, but you don't get to the finish line of a major book by awe, humility and appreciation of mystery alone.
Correlation vs. causation, right? Just because a lot of artists are dicks, doesn't make it a requirement. Plus, monetization and success are not identical. There are existential victories, aesthetic victories-- finding anew way to make a thing, outgrowing models, centering ones life in imagination instead of convention. These are triumphs I think. Aren't those more fulfilling and worth pursuing? From what I've observed commercial success destroys creative people as often as not. Anyway. This mythologizing of artistic misery is a pet peeve. People talk about art and artists as if they were stocks and bonds and no one remarks on the arbitrariness of that.
I am staring at the comment box and thinking of ways to disagree. Which is so strange, why do I look for ways to disagree about everything you wrote, even though I agree with it all? It's as if I'm looking for an excuse to lower my confidence and hoist that flag up for a while. I felt a surge of excitement when you wrote "to keep on sending each piece out until you sell it" and it gave me the trust in myself that I should try harder to sell my writing. Two years of consistent writing and it is time to move forward. I thank you for this!
I am a natural born artist, making art my whole life. I am now a government certified old master (I get social security) While I am very prolific, there is no time to sell everything as it gets made. Most things don't sell right away, sometimes it takes 20+ years to sell something now that I am old enough to have waited that long. I still sell stuff across my whole oeuvre. I always say 'every sale is a one in a million event' - but there are billions of millions of events happening every day. The other trick is working in a timeless way where time makes no difference to the story or the art. It might be of the moment but make it for the ages.
This is the most illuminating, instructive, and wise composition I have ever read on a forum for writers. As a writer who leans hard into the fiction genre, the mark for me that separates the ordinary from the great is an ability to take what exists deep in the reservoir of every heart and making it rise to the surface. Mr. Wilson has achieved this quite successfully in a non-fiction piece.
This was a nicely provocative piece to read; much enjoyed.
Of the three psychological characteristics required, I'm fully on board with two of them: "... belief in something greater than yourself, and sheer delight in what you are doing." Those two come easy to me. As for the third "belief in yourself", and believing you're the greatest thing since sliced-bread, ... not so easy. If Nature scored zero in this department, and Nurture was a diet of "You're not the only pebble on the beach" and "the nail that stands up gets hammered down" and "what if everyone was selfish and just did what they wanted?"... etc ... then one has a hard road to accomplish to gain 'belief in oneself'. That said, it's still vital; though some will have a much harder time achieving it than others.
As for Heinlein's pragmatic advice, the second one (100 applications, then 100 more), what I call the 'dance-hammering' approach, could be countered by the 1980s/90s mantra: "don't work harder, work smarter". Especially in a time very different from Heinlein's era. PS: congratulations on getting a publisher for your Ph.D thesis. Mine's been sitting on the shelf 30 years; and that's where it'll stay.
Sometimes it helps to write about your many flaws in the guise of your character(s). If you can't find an agent or published and still believe your work has merit, self-publish. It's not an ideal alternative, but at least you have a chance you'll be read.
I agree, publish yourself as you go along which goes with 'finish what you start'. Start building your 'shelf feet'. Don't depend on others. The thing about self publishing is that you get to practice making a finished product. You don't even need to make it public at the beginning. Publish privately as documentation for your own use, print a proof, stack it on your shelf and say 'done'. Go to the next one. Publish 10-15 books then go back and figure out which to start getting out into the public market place. THEN look around for a publisher. That is what I think anyway. I have self published around 40 books and catalogs at this point. All for my own documentary enjoyment. Fun! Getting into the book market and selling enough books to make it worth the trouble... that is a separate story. Leave that part to the agents and pros that love what they do - that is their art - like you love what you do and that's your art.
The trick is, in my opinion, to realize that 'believing in the thing greater than yourself' is already inside of you driving you forward. As some would say 'serving God' but God is at the very root of us each. Then you can put the ego in service of the internal 'Creator' or always be writing to the Divine Beloved. I have a saying: 'Realize your own regal nature then respect that in everyone else.' That's about as humble as anybody needs to be.
This really hit me, so much so that I am teary eyed as I type this. I picked up writing again not too long ago and have been questioning if I can cut it. On the other hand, I just have to write for writing's sake. This was great and well timed.
“In the last analysis, the essential thing is the life of the individual. This alone makes history, here alone do the great transformations take place, and the whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately springs as a gigantic summation from this hidden source in individuals.”
Could this be true? That the reason I've kept writing my whole life is because I am utterly convinced that I have something important to say, and it is worth being paid for? Does it have to include the kind of hubris you described?
I think it spells out resilience. All of those traits connect there. More positive in life, less negative and transcendence. We grow a thick skin, even if we don’t start out with one. In the end we write for ourselves, even if we don’t start there. In the end we are part of something bigger than our “self” even if we didn’t start there. It’s waking up every morning and turning blood into Ink. And the fact we can’t wait to get there. Creativity finds us yet she never leaves us the same. I believe we just get better and better at letting her through.
This! 🖤
Nicely said Jamie! Write, believe, learn, repeat. J
I'm thinking – can it be that the qualities he noticed to predetermine success or failure as a writer are mostly applicable to his circle in the U.S.? Because I can think of dozens astonishingly successful writers who are "shy, and meek, and timid" which Wilson says here are qualities of the unsuccessful. I believe in Eastern Europe, especially where I'm from, Bulgaria, it might even be quite the opposite to what he said.
Very true. The American way of success, especially Robert Heinlein (who's sci-fi I loved reading as a teenager in the 1960s/70s) works because it's expected in the culture. America is a big country, and you have to shout loud to be heard.
As a 'muted' introvert European, I can turn on the extrovert when on stage reciting poetry, but it's not my natural way of being; it exhausts me. Knowing a few American introverts telling their stories how they were brought up to be extrovert and pushy in order to be successful, they collapsed later on in life from the strain of it all, from having to play the performing monkey, and were burnt out. Most retreated to the countryside to live a simpler life away from all the frenetic noise.
Interesting point; a mass of people unable to think for themselves will always follow what the media says they should follow.
Perhaps we also need a better definition of success - perhaps it should come from each of us to ask ourselves: what would success look like, for me? (and never mind the externally imposed measures)
I appreciate some big projects that are successful and attracted a lot of funding (eg: https://www.edenproject.com/) near where we used to live in Cornwall, U.K. And also much else art-work.
As a weaver/sculptor/poet and general maker-of-things, I am totally absorbed in the creative process ... and after that I tend to lose interest in 'making it successful'. I did invent the YarnShifter hand-weaving loom and made them for five years selling kits all over the world, and it paid for itself. Now I am retired with a pension so I can afford to do stuff for its own sake without being concerned about there having to be a follow-up stage of 'success'. Having said that, I'd quite like my poetry to be more widely read - but maybe I'm not fanatical enough about it.
Agreed.It would seem Donald Trump has all the qualities to be a great writer.
Already done :))
https://goodreads.com/book/show/36167187-the-beautiful-poetry-of-donald-trump
Well, unshakable confidence in your skill, and the writing you produce, is essential in order to weather the criticism and rejection that are inherent in the writing and publishing process. It's easy to feel dejected after receiving difficult feedback. Confidence helps you tune into the feedback without getting defensive. Then you can decide if the feedback has merit or not. Confidence helps you stay the course and keep submitting when you're getting rejection after rejection. Keep sending it in, someone will love it as much as you do! Confidence makes it a lot easier to love the process, even during a second draft that doesn't seem much better than the first. It'll get there, because you are good at this!
I think the approach of 'keep-going-with-the-scatter-gun' has its place. Maybe Substack itself is THE place where writers can find readers, and publishers, in the most efficient way?
So true so true. One quality omitted however is that piece of equipment dangling between men’s legs. All the examples given of writers having that strength of ego and assertive self belief are men. Women - certainly women who grew up in the 1940’s- 1960’s and before, had these qualities of which you speak stamped out as soon as they might have appeared. Yes I was a 8,9,10 year old eager poet and writer of stories in the fifties but many many decades later the over stuffed overworked draft of my novel lies entrapped in doubt somewhat like the dismembered lantern fly encased and half eaten by the creative spinner of the web at my NYC window - but she - the striped orbweaver - neoscona crucifer - worked endlessly and successfully at her creative project yesterday as I watched, immobilized by a medical procedure and happy for the distraction, so I will take her creative determined hungry work and your words in todays Poetic Outlaw as great inspiration. Thank you as always!!
>>>Frank Lloyd Wright, when testifying in court, described himself as the world's 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.<<<
I totally busted out laughing when I read that. So funny! and so true.
For Wright, the best indicator of the 'unmitigable fact he knew about himself.'
Me, too!
Today's reminded me of a quote I love and have returned to for bolstering from John Steinbeck:
"Such is the prestige of the Nobel award and of this place where I stand that I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession and in the great and good men who have practiced it through the ages."
As in everything else, good old Bob was always brilliant when he wrote about writing and creativity. Thank you sincerely for sharing this.
For anybody wondering, this piece comes from a 1981 issue of the science fiction magazine STARSHIP, which sometimes published work by RAW.
For fun, here's a bit more from him on the subject of writing, from my book WHAT THE DAEMON SAID, and likewise featuring a quote from STARSHIP:
"Entirely aside from all of the far-out details of his (possibly) paranormal experiences, at least twice in his life Wilson directly equated the autonomous-feeling force in the psyche that drives artistic creativity with the ontologically indeterminate Higher Intelligence that seemingly communicated with him, Leary, and Crowley. One of these instances came in an essay he wrote about the life and work of Raymond Chandler, under the pseudonym of one of his (Wilson’s) own fictional creations, book critic Epicene Wildeblood. In describing the 15-year hiatus from fiction-writing that Chandler once experienced, Wilson said, 'Chandler spent 15 years, the prime years of a man’s life, in the oil-executive game before the Daemon or Holy Guardian Angel that haunts artists got its teeth into him again.'
"The other instance is found in a 1981 interview Wilson gave to the late, great genre magazine Starship: The Magazine about Science Fiction. The interviewer asked him, 'Is a book fully organized in your mind before you start writing or does it take shape as it unfolds?' Wilson responded:
'Sometimes I have a clearer idea of where I’m going than other times, but it always surprises me. In the course of writing, I’m always drawing on my unconscious creativity, and I find things creeping into my writing that I wasn’t aware of at the time. That’s part of the pleasure of writing. After you’ve written something, you say to yourself, “Where in the hell did that come from?” Faulkner called it the “demon” that directs the writer. The Kabalists call it the “holy guardian angel.” Every writer experiences this sensation. Robert E. Howard said he felt there was somebody dictating the Conan stories to him. There’s some deep level of the unconscious that knows a lot more than the conscious mind of the writer knows.'"
So basically, cultivate misery in yourself and others and you got it made. Make sure all your victories are pyrrhic. Got it. This macho philosophy is an insult to the earth and life. Life says, here I am. Delight in me. And I say, No. I'm too important for that. Earth feels embarrassed for this confused person. The foundations of great art are gratitude and awe-- a kind of non-referential gratitude and amazement, grasping dissolves and creation happens naturally as a reflexive reciprocation-- the amazement creates and the artist experiences joy, transcendence. This is a viable approach. Wilson's not describing an artist, by my lights. He's describing an entrepreneur -- tech bro mentality. For some fucked up reason the two are conflated in America.
Few artists are the mystic you describe. There is inherent arrogance in the belief that one's 100,000+ words are worth a stranger's reading. There's no way around that. Such a labor done in isolation for years is not a practice of star gazing or a meditation on waterfalls and unicorns. The two approaches are not mutually exclusive, sure, but you don't get to the finish line of a major book by awe, humility and appreciation of mystery alone.
https://richcronshey.substack.com/p/invisible-hotel
put that in your pipe and smoke it daddio
Shit got me faded
I'm not sure what that means here, but I like it and I'm taking it as encouragement until I learn otherwise : )
Oh! High! Right on! Mission accomplished! My work here is done.
Correlation vs. causation, right? Just because a lot of artists are dicks, doesn't make it a requirement. Plus, monetization and success are not identical. There are existential victories, aesthetic victories-- finding anew way to make a thing, outgrowing models, centering ones life in imagination instead of convention. These are triumphs I think. Aren't those more fulfilling and worth pursuing? From what I've observed commercial success destroys creative people as often as not. Anyway. This mythologizing of artistic misery is a pet peeve. People talk about art and artists as if they were stocks and bonds and no one remarks on the arbitrariness of that.
I am staring at the comment box and thinking of ways to disagree. Which is so strange, why do I look for ways to disagree about everything you wrote, even though I agree with it all? It's as if I'm looking for an excuse to lower my confidence and hoist that flag up for a while. I felt a surge of excitement when you wrote "to keep on sending each piece out until you sell it" and it gave me the trust in myself that I should try harder to sell my writing. Two years of consistent writing and it is time to move forward. I thank you for this!
I am a natural born artist, making art my whole life. I am now a government certified old master (I get social security) While I am very prolific, there is no time to sell everything as it gets made. Most things don't sell right away, sometimes it takes 20+ years to sell something now that I am old enough to have waited that long. I still sell stuff across my whole oeuvre. I always say 'every sale is a one in a million event' - but there are billions of millions of events happening every day. The other trick is working in a timeless way where time makes no difference to the story or the art. It might be of the moment but make it for the ages.
This is the most illuminating, instructive, and wise composition I have ever read on a forum for writers. As a writer who leans hard into the fiction genre, the mark for me that separates the ordinary from the great is an ability to take what exists deep in the reservoir of every heart and making it rise to the surface. Mr. Wilson has achieved this quite successfully in a non-fiction piece.
This was a nicely provocative piece to read; much enjoyed.
Of the three psychological characteristics required, I'm fully on board with two of them: "... belief in something greater than yourself, and sheer delight in what you are doing." Those two come easy to me. As for the third "belief in yourself", and believing you're the greatest thing since sliced-bread, ... not so easy. If Nature scored zero in this department, and Nurture was a diet of "You're not the only pebble on the beach" and "the nail that stands up gets hammered down" and "what if everyone was selfish and just did what they wanted?"... etc ... then one has a hard road to accomplish to gain 'belief in oneself'. That said, it's still vital; though some will have a much harder time achieving it than others.
As for Heinlein's pragmatic advice, the second one (100 applications, then 100 more), what I call the 'dance-hammering' approach, could be countered by the 1980s/90s mantra: "don't work harder, work smarter". Especially in a time very different from Heinlein's era. PS: congratulations on getting a publisher for your Ph.D thesis. Mine's been sitting on the shelf 30 years; and that's where it'll stay.
Sometimes it helps to write about your many flaws in the guise of your character(s). If you can't find an agent or published and still believe your work has merit, self-publish. It's not an ideal alternative, but at least you have a chance you'll be read.
I agree, publish yourself as you go along which goes with 'finish what you start'. Start building your 'shelf feet'. Don't depend on others. The thing about self publishing is that you get to practice making a finished product. You don't even need to make it public at the beginning. Publish privately as documentation for your own use, print a proof, stack it on your shelf and say 'done'. Go to the next one. Publish 10-15 books then go back and figure out which to start getting out into the public market place. THEN look around for a publisher. That is what I think anyway. I have self published around 40 books and catalogs at this point. All for my own documentary enjoyment. Fun! Getting into the book market and selling enough books to make it worth the trouble... that is a separate story. Leave that part to the agents and pros that love what they do - that is their art - like you love what you do and that's your art.
Wow! Inspiring! Tapping into the ego and using it as the fuel to reach greater heights is crucial for any creative endeavor. Thank you!
The trick is, in my opinion, to realize that 'believing in the thing greater than yourself' is already inside of you driving you forward. As some would say 'serving God' but God is at the very root of us each. Then you can put the ego in service of the internal 'Creator' or always be writing to the Divine Beloved. I have a saying: 'Realize your own regal nature then respect that in everyone else.' That's about as humble as anybody needs to be.
Well said.
This is brilliant... and I'm not only saying that it made me feel that I could be brilliant ;)
This really hit me, so much so that I am teary eyed as I type this. I picked up writing again not too long ago and have been questioning if I can cut it. On the other hand, I just have to write for writing's sake. This was great and well timed.
“In the last analysis, the essential thing is the life of the individual. This alone makes history, here alone do the great transformations take place, and the whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately springs as a gigantic summation from this hidden source in individuals.”
C. G. Jung
Could this be true? That the reason I've kept writing my whole life is because I am utterly convinced that I have something important to say, and it is worth being paid for? Does it have to include the kind of hubris you described?