The biggest emotional challenge of being a writer for me?
Shyness.
I’m not sure if that qualifies as mild anxiety or self-doubt. In my mind at least, many people become book people because stories offer them something they can’t find in the real world.
A lot of us are turned inward by nature, and so we use our imaginations to take these wonderful journeys, where we can be heroes, or villains, or detectives, and achieve something that seems totally impossible in real life.
To Share Our Stories, Writers Have to Break Out of Our Comfort Zones
There’s a part of us that also wants to share the stories we’ve made with others, but to do that we have to venture outside of our own comfort zones and display ourselves in a way that’s totally foreign to our natures.
For example, before I signed my contract, I didn’t have a single type of social media. I had abandoned Facebook, about ten years ago because I realized it was perpetually making me feel bad.
Now I have a Bookbub, a Goodreads, an Instagram, an author Facebook, a blog, and so on.
People have even been kicking around the idea of Tiktok, but… there’s just no way.
Writing IS the Escape for Me
I had a writing teacher who once said she would dig a hole in her backyard and then fill it back up again. And then head out there again later and dig out the hole again.
I think we all have a version of this.
Here’s what may be unusual, and lucky, about me. There’s no time I’m happier, or more at peace, than when I’m writing.
The writing is the escape.
I’m creating the product to find peace from, among other things, dealing with trying to sell the product.
On the other hand, the effect of clawing back out of my imagination to be confronted by real world things is so shocking it’s hard to describe, and I’m often in a bad mood after the inevitable interruption.
How dare someone pull me out of the middle of a space battle back into this banal world?! I need to stop saving the world in order to clean the dishes?!
Coping with the emotional challenges may be a better question for my wife and kids. How do they cope with me?
Writers Often Have to Deal with Eyestrain
The biggest physical challenge of writing? Definitely eye pain.
My regular full-time job is staring into a computer for eight hours, so to do it for a handful more at night seems sado-masochistic to my poor eyeballs. I’m wearing blue-light blocking glasses as I type this, but my eyes still feel dry.
In addition to the glasses, I have a policy of looking around as often as I can. I played a lot of video games as a kid and I recall the good advice of letting your eyes focus elsewhere, whenever possible.
I also take a walk with my daughter every night where we talk about fantastic worlds and hash out plot problems. You can still be a writer with your legs moving.
I tried a standing desk but I always feel like sitting after about five minutes. Five minutes after that, I am sitting.
How Teaching English Made Me a Better Writer
In my experience, English teachers read so much classic literature that when we get to our beloved Christmas breaks, we go straight for the stuff that is much less emotionally and intellectually challenging.
So, we end up with this mix of influences that are some of the most challenging books ever written (Melville, Joyce) and a bunch of books about superheroes punching each other.
It’s a heady mix.
I do think teaching made me a better writer because it kept my mind both flexible and working. It’s a dynamic job with a lot of dynamic challenges so, while it’s possible to fall into an intellectual rut, the job naturally encourages you to do otherwise.
I definitely did learn from my students. Their enthusiasm and their idealism was infectious. They are also a great barometer for the changing times.
I recall using a George R.R. Martin blog post about privacy in a class in 2006. The kids loved it and were highly inspired by his thinking. I taught the same class in 2016 and thought to myself, “let’s try that blog post again.”
This time the students all called him an unrealistic Libertarian. Time waits for no man.
What Is Missing from MFA Programs
I had a professor at University of CA, Santa Barbara who recommended it [a master’s degree in creative writing] to me.
I had been thinking about a PhD, but what I really wanted to do was write books, so it seemed like a good alternative.
The program itself was very bohemian and fun and got me writing and thinking in ways I hadn’t before. It also qualified me to teach college, and to teach at private high schools both of which I loved.
I have no real complaints, though if I was running such a program I would have AT LEAST a few courses on the process of finding an agent and working with a publisher, as well as marketing and even self-publishing. The writing portion is only about half the journey, but I was left blissfully unaware of that fact until well after I graduated.
How Writing Script Coverage Helps Me with Writing Novels
Script coverage is basically the first stage of analysis for a screenplay being considered for production.
We read the script, suggest improvements, and ultimately give it a recommendation (highly recommended, recommended with reservations, not recommended etc…). A select few of those scripts move up to the next level of analysis, where someone else does basically the same thing all over again.
My journey isn’t easy to replicate in that regard. An ex-student had a father who was a principal investor in the company. He knew I had an interest in Hollywood, so he recommended me, and they offered me the work.
It’s a part-time gig I do in addition to my full-time job and my writing.
As for lessons in my own writing, I think it keeps me open to suggestion. Most of the screenplays are great, but they also have one or two qualities that are very weak—the author’s attention is simply elsewhere, but the viewer/reader still catches the problem, and it lessens our enjoyment of the work.
As artists, it’s hard to see our own blind spots, so we have to remain open to other’s observations and help.
How I Find Time to Write
I currently work for the County of San Diego on various social welfare programs. Like teaching, it’s an emotionally taxing job.
Generally, I write a few hours every night once my wife and kids have gone to sleep, but I’m not afraid to give myself nights off if I’m not feeling up to it. If I have a big revision due, I’ll dedicate ten or so hours to it on the weekend as well.
It used to be more difficult to stay motivated when I was still searching for an agent and/or publisher. At that point my pace was much slower. Now that I have both, there’s the additional motivation of not wanting to let them down.
One thing to remember is what a writer friend of mine once told me, “Writing begets writing.” I think it’s a lot like working out in that way.
Once you get going, you tend to keep going. Once you stop, you’re often stopped for a while.
Advice for a Young Writer: Don’t Quit
Two pieces of advice come to mind.
The first is, don’t quit.
The only thing that can actually stop you is if you stop. However, you will be tested enough that it’s best if you really love the craft (or if you simply must write for the sake of your own sanity).
Ironically, you have the best chance of making money writing if you’d be willing to do the job for free.
Second, find an agent that believes in you and likes your style.
I vividly remember the years of hoping for an agent, any agent, but like all other good relationships, you MUST find one that you mesh well with. Take the time to do more than simply look for what kind of books they accept.
Do a little online stalking to find an agent that you share a lot of interests with – and be honest with yourself, don’t imagine you like them just because they’re successful. Otherwise, they’re much less likely to sign you and even if they do, you’re much less likely to make it through the tough times together.
I got very lucky in the sense that my agent shares my tastes and (I think) enjoys reading my work. Without that, I suspect she would have been less likely to stick around through the literal years when working with me earned her absolutely no money.
* * *
Ash Bishop is a lifetime reader and a lifetime nerd, loving all things science fiction and fantasy.
He has been a high school English teacher, and worked in the video game industry, as well as in educational app development.
He even used to fetch coffee for Quentin Tarantino during the production of the film Jackie Brown.
Bishop currently produces script coverage for a major Hollywood studio, but he spends his best days at home in Southern California with his wonderful wife and two wonderful children. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State University.
For more information on Ash and his work, please see his website and connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc.:
Finding work is easy. Staying alive is a little bit harder.
When Russ Wesley finds an unusual artifact in his grandfather’s collection of rare antiquities, the last thing he expects is for it to draw the attention of a ferocious alien from a distant planet.
Equally surprising is the adventurous team of intergalactic exterminators dispatched to deal with the alien threat. They’re a little wild, and a little reckless.
Worse yet, they’re so impressed with Russ’s marksmanship that they insist he join their squad . . . whether he wants to or not.
Available at CamCat Books, Amazon, and wherever books are sold.