Hugh’s Notebook

For Christmas, some friends gave me a gift card to Borders Books. Me being me, I wasted no time in running up there and buying a book I had had my eye on, but was reluctant to shell out my hard earned (and largly absent) cash for. Now I wish I had bought this book back when I first saw it back in the fall.

The book is the modestly titled How To Be A Famous Writer Before You Are Dead, written by fellow Gen-X’er Ariel Gore (apparently no relation to the Almeister), and it delivers. The premise of the book is basically a call to ownership of your writing career and the need to take responsibility for your own success. No Ivory Tower musings here; Ariel Gore delivers the goods, with advice on promotion, creating a market via a zine or a blog or self publishing and so much more.

For me the largest thing I got from the book was the permission for my career to not be pretty. When I decided to be a writer, I pictured my career going something like this (in my head, I call this The Path):

• Write articles for magazines
• Submit a proposal to a mega-publishing house and get my non-fiction work published to critical acclaim.
• With the cushion from that success I would write my novel, which would be to my generation what The Great Gatsby was to my Grandparent’s generation.

Needless to say, that is not how it happened. Instead, I often write for other people, uncredited. And while that does produce what could charitably be called a living, it made me sad and uncomfortable with myself that I was not following The Path.

Ariel showed me that it is OK for my writing to be a eclectic collection of blogs, zines, articles and more. Thanks to this book, I have permission for my career to move in weird ways, as long as it is moving. Yes, I know I could have decided this on my own. No, I probably would not have gotten there any time soon. I would still be working up the nerve to start on The Path instead of blazing my own trail.

Ariel: Thank you for showing me how to blaze my own path, but thank you more for giving me the permission to do so.

Check the book out on Amazon!

Posted by Hugh / Writing