How to Relieve the Pressure of the Perfect Writing Life

Writers are under enough pressure without adding to it.

But add to it we do.

This book has to be perfect.

I have to reach my daily word quota no matter what.

I need to write faster and produce more books per year.

This book needs to sell well or it’s just not worth it.

I have to deliver another perfect romance to my publisher in three months. 

Unfortunately, creativity doesn’t do well under pressure. Studies have found that time pressure, in particular, actually hinders creativity.

Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile, who’s researched the issue for years, stated that overall, “very high levels of time pressure should be avoided if you want to foster creativity on a consistent basis.” When people are pressured to create quickly, she said, they don’t have the freedom to think about various ways to approach the issue or solve the problem:

“Think of it as the way you might enter a maze and explore for a solution. With increased time pressure, you take the simplest pathway, not one that’s elegant or creative. But if you’re able to spend more time exploring the maze, you’re more likely to hit on exciting or new solutions.”

What about other sorts of pressure that aren’t associated with time? Like pressure to be perfect, to have only 4- and 5-star reviews, or to sell at least X number of copies? I didn’t find any studies on these yet, but as most any writer can tell you, after awhile of living under these and other forms of pressure, we start to buckle. Writer’s block, stagnation, and burnout are typical consequences. Some writers quit altogether.

These outcomes aren’t good ones, obviously. The question is, what can we do about it?

Some Writers Under Pressure from Publishers

It’s true that one of the pervasive forms of pressure today is coming from publishers.

“In an age when reading for pleasure is declining,” writes David Mehegan for the Boston Globe, “book publishers increasingly are counting on their biggest moneymaking writers to crank out books at a rate of at least one a year, right on schedule, and sometimes faster than that.”

He goes on to say that though lots of top-selling writers regularly write and publish a book a year, many of them are unhappy about living under the expectation that they will continue the pace: “In today’s intensely competitive marketplace, readers will turn to another author if a writer fails to come through at the usual time, which could cost a publisher big bucks.”

Julie Bosman, writing for the New York Times, agrees, saying, “the e-book age has accelerated the metabolism of book publishing. Authors are now pulling the literary equivalent of a double shift, churning out short stories, novellas or even an extra full-length book each year.” She adds that the pressure comes from publishers and booksellers “desperately looking for ways to hold onto readers being lured by other forms of entertainment….”

Authors know that if they stay out of the publishing light too long, their readers can forget them, so they’re also putting pressure on themselves to step up the pace. Thriller writer Lee Child publishes short stories in between his novels to keep the momentum going, saying, “It seems like we’re all running faster to stay in the same place.”

“It’s no problem,” thriller writer Patricia Cornwell told the Boston Globe, “as long as you don’t have a life.”

I’ve talked to writers experiencing this sort of pressure from publishers, and have seen the strain on their faces. They get stuck between a rock and a hard place—they’ve got the multi-book deal from the publisher, and they’re “living the dream” so to speak, but meanwhile they’re drowning under the pressure to produce and produce and produce, no matter what may be going on in their lives.

One writer I spoke with had just gone through a devastating loss in her family, and still had managed to deliver a completed manuscript to her publisher that month. The bad news? She had another due in six months. She didn’t know how she was going to deal with her grief and create a brand new story at the same time.

How indeed?

The Pressure Writers Put On Themselves

Even if you’re not under pressure from your publisher, you may be suffering from the pressure you put on yourself.

“I quite literally feel a weight and pressure every single day I write,” says author Glen Rothlisberger. “It is a pressure that every writer feels (I presume). Sometimes we can even taste it—generally in the form of vomit in the back of our throats. And who creates this pressure? Readers? Fans? Family? Fellow authors? No. WE DO!”

You may be nodding your head. It sounds familiar, right?

“Have you ever noticed how, unlike other artists, most writers put pressure on their art?” says literary agent Amanda Luedeke. “They expect it to be profitable. They expect it to advance them. They expect it to become that side business that eventually becomes a full time business. And if they don’t see any of these things happen, they wonder why they’re writing at all.”

I can definitely raise my hand as having been one of those writers who heaped far too much pressure on my writing. I expected it to do all the things Ms. Luedeke mentions, and I felt the same feelings when those things didn’t happen when I thought they should—that maybe I shouldn’t be writing at all.

Why might a writer put herself in this difficult situation? One reason is that she zeroes in on only a narrow definition of success. She sees her heroes—the big bestselling authors that she admires and want to be—and tries to follow in their footsteps. When she doesn’t reach their level of success after a time, she imagines she’s failing, but really all she’s doing is suffering from a limited point of view.

According to a survey by the Authors Guild, between 2009 and 2015, the average income of a full-time author decreased by 30 percent. For part-time authors, the decrease was 38 percent, from $7,250 a year to $4,500. Full-time writers who had more than 25 years experience suffered the most—a 67 percent decrease from $28,750 to $9,500.

So when we imagine that “most” authors are making a full-time living and living the high life, we’re seriously uninformed. It’s even worse if we imagine that we “should” reach that level of success, otherwise we’re not “real” writers.

Despite income levels, there are many ways to succeed as a writer, and many ways that thousands of writers are succeeding every day. We just have to be wise enough to open our eyes and see the possibilities.

Another reason a writer may put pressure on himself is that he’s convinced he has to show some sort of return (usually monetary) for the sheer amount of time he’s putting into his work.

It can be difficult in many circles to justify spending hours and hours alone in a room with a laptop or pen and paper. Other people are not likely to understand, so if you put an outward goal on it—“I want to publish and earn money”—people are more likely to forgive your indulgence…as long as you eventually produce results.

But pressuring yourself to perform to unreasonable standards can easily set you up for creative failure, say nothing of how unpleasant it can make the whole writing endeavor.

“Yet, I seem to have trouble letting go of trying to keep up with everyone else,” says writer Jeff Barton. “And it’s because of this pressure I put on myself. This pressure isn’t coming from anyone else but me. I am making myself try to conform to this idea I should publish every day. But it is at the expense of myself and my writing.”

5 Ways Writers Can Ease the Pressure

Though situations vary from writer to writer, if you’re starting to falter under the pressure, consider these options.

1. Refuse to keep up with the “hamster wheel” pace.

If you’re a writer under pressure from your publisher to keep up with what bestselling author Dennis Lehane calls the “hamster wheel” pace of producing a book (or more) a year, realize that you can always refuse to do so. After trying that pace for awhile, Lehane realized it was hurting him, creatively, so he refused to do it again. Two years after making that decision, he published Mystic River, one of his most impactful novels.

Of course, if you’ve got a great deal going with your publisher, it can be difficult to leave it behind. Don’t forget to take into account not just the money or the great contract. Your health and your creativity depend on you being able to maintain a schedule that works for you. If you burn out or end up with a serious case of writer’s block because of the months or years of pressure, what will you do then?

2. Understand the difference between challenging and pressuring yourself.

There can be a fine line between challenging yourself and pressuring yourself. Most of us know whether we’re slacking off or not. If you’re working hard, putting in your time writing, and learning what you can to get better, but you still feel like you’re not doing enough, not succeeding enough, or are just plain not “good” enough, you’re probably putting too much pressure on yourself.

If, on the other hand, you’ve written one novel and you expect to reach the bestseller’s list, then you may be guilty of expecting too much too soon, and you need to do better at challenging yourself.

“I wrote six novels before I published my seventh, Blackbirds,” says author Chuck Wendig. “And I wrote God-Only-Knows how many unfinished novels before that — leaving behind me a trail of broken story-corpses like furniture that fell off a truck because somebody forgot to tie all the shit down.”

3. Follow your own path.

One of the reasons many writers pressure themselves is that they’re trying to live up to what other writers are doing. But each writer’s path is unique. Your job is to find what your strengths are, and then work to develop them.

Writers can succeed in many ways. Maybe your books don’t sell thousands of copies, but they touch readers who have emailed you and told you so. Maybe you can’t put out a book a year, but because you spend significant time getting your stories where you want them, you enjoy high praise when you do release them. Maybe you’ll never be a bestseller, but your work helps others because you’ve combined it with your advocacy efforts.

Try to keep your focus on what you’re doing, what you need to learn, and where your writing wants to take you next. Avoid comparing yourself to others and enjoy your own journey, and the pressure will dissipate.

“And instead of putting the pressure on myself to keep up with others,” says Barton, “I will now keep up with only myself.”

4. Focus on the process instead of the outcome.

When we look at successful authors, all we see is their success. We don’t see the years and years of effort that went into that success. So when we come up against difficulties in our own careers, we can feel that we’re not talented or creative enough, when really the only thing is we’re impatient.

As long as you’re focused on the outcome of your efforts, you’re going to feel that uncomfortable pressure to get to a certain point. If you focus instead, on the process—the daily activities of writing, editing, and marketing—with the goal of simply learning and getting better, the pressure will dissipate, and you’ll start enjoying yourself more.

Bonus: When you’re having fun, you’re more likely to succeed.

5. Pay attention to how you feel.

Sometimes writers thrive under pressure. If you’ve got a launch coming up and you’re excited, you may sail through the month-long period of writing umpteen guest posts and giving just as many interviews without blinking an eye, just because your passion levels are so high. You may feel pressure during that time to meet your deadlines and remember all your appointments, but it’s not a pressure that’s bringing you down. It’s a temporary pressure that accompanies feelings of excitement and accomplishment, and it’s unlikely to be detrimental to your writing future.

If, on the other hand, you’re starting to dread your writing times, and you’re suffering in other areas of your life—you’re not sleeping, you’re irritable and moody, or consistently fatigued—than it’s time to ask yourself if the pressure is getting to be too much.

You always have the power to step back. There may be consequences you don’t like—you may have to push back your publication date, or make peace with the fact that you will have fewer book sales because of less time spent on marketing—but if your physical, emotional, and creative well being are at stake, it’s much better to deal with a few short-term consequences than to continue on and risk more serious, long-term negative outcomes.

It may help to remember: A pressure cooker that can’t let off steam is destined to explode.

Do you put too much pressure on yourself as a writer?

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Sources
Barton, J. (2018, June 13). The Pressure to Publish All the Time. Jeff Barton. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@jeffthewriter/the-pressure-to-publish-all-the-time-28f831edb5bb

Bosman, J. (2012, May 12). In E-Reader Age of Writer’s Cramp, a Book a Year Is Slacking. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/in-e-reader-age-of-writers-cramp-a-book-a-year-is-slacking.html

Khedhaouria, A., Montani, F., & Thurik, R. (2017). Time pressure and team member creativity within R&D projects: The role of learning orientation and knowledge sourcing. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), 942-954. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.04.002

Luedeke, A. (2016, February 25). Thursdays with Amanda: Writers Put Way Too Much Pressure on Themselves – MacGregor and Luedeke Literary. Retrieved from http://www.macgregorandluedeke.com/blog/thursdays-with-amanda-writers-put-way-too-much-pressure-on-themselves/

Mahegan, D. (2008, June 9). Top writers feel heat from publishers’ presses – The Boston Globe. Retrieved from http://archive.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2008/06/09/top_writers_feel_heat_from_publishers_presses/

Murray, B. (2002, November). A ticking clock means a creativity drop. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov02/tickingclock.aspx

Preston, D. (2018, June 18). Why Is It So Goddamned Hard to Make a Living as a Writer Today? – The Authors Guild. Retrieved from https://www.authorsguild.org/the-writing-life/why-is-it-so-goddamned-hard-to-make-a-living-as-a-writer-today/

Rothlisberger, G. (2017, November 7). Pressure of writing a book series | Lore of Energy and Light. Retrieved from https://www.loreofenergyandlight.com/pressure-of-writing-a-book-series/

Silverthorne, S. (2002, 29). Time Pressure and Creativity: Why Time is Not on Your Side. Retrieved from https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/time-pressure-and-creativity-why-time-is-not-on-your-side

Wendig, C. (2014, January 21). It Takes The Time It Takes. Retrieved from http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/01/20/it-takes-the-time-it-takes/