The Mystery of the Mask
Crossposted to the Deadline Dames. Check us out!
Let’s talk about magic.
Plenty of magic[1] is the utilization of more-or-less psychological principles to effect a change in the practitioner. Where there’s belief, there’s a sword to be used. Swinging it effectively takes practice and self-knowledge. The things you believe about yourself and how the world works, especially those core beliefs you hold on a unconscious level, affect your daily (and indeed, the rest of your) life to an incredible degree.
This does not have to be a bad thing. There are thousands of tools for uncovering, reshaping, and altering those beliefs. Some of them are self-help, some of them are psychological theory, some of them are occult, some of them are just plain common sense. You’re bound to find something that works somewhere. The key is to practice consistently enough, to not fall prey to the ersatz jolt of accomplishment that simply learning about a principle provides. You also have to use the principle for a long enough period of time to discover if it works for you.
There are a few principles, however, that are as close to guaranteed as you can get with a tool meant to affect complicated human beings. One of them is the principle of the mask.
A very wise man once told me, “Beware what you pretend to be, because if you pretend long enough, you’ll become it.” It’s one of those cliches built around a grain of truth. The longer you wear a mask, the more it becomes your real face. It’s just one of those things about the way we’re wired. It is also an invaluable tool.
Say you want to write for publication. The best thing to do is to start treating your writing like you’re already published.
Note: I do NOT mean that you slack off, or think that you’re God’s gift to the written word and no editor shalt touch thy purple…prose. That’s a fast track to Never Getting Published, also known as Being Such A Speshul Snowflake You Shoot Thine Self In Thine Own Foot.
No, what I advocate is practicing behaviors that get authors published and keep them finding new work. Here’s a (by no means comprehensive) list, to show you what I mean:
* Act as if writing is a priority, and make time for it.
* Act as if you are open to revision, whether it comes in the form of a rejection letter or a (gasp!) personalized rejection letter[2].
* Act as if some part of your income depends on you being professional, pleasant, and well-informed about writing for publication.
* Act as if your writing time is precious and meant for writing, not for checking email, playing video games, or talking about writing.
* Act as if you already have a professional relationship to lose when you interact with other professionals. (Don’t know what I mean? Read this.)
* Act as if editors, agents, and publishers are your fellow soldiers, in this to make money from providing quality, just like you are.
* Act as if your fellow writers are colleagues, not enemies or ladder rungs. Colleagues are not buddies and they are not enemies, they are people you are in a professional relationship with.
* Act as if it is your JOB to WRITE. I can’t say this enough. So many times I see “writers” who don’t make it a priority to get the words out. This is not professional behavior. And guess what? Not writing is a really sure way to not get published.
Notice any trends?
Do I guarantee that you will get published if you start acting this way? No. I do, however, guarantee that your chances of getting something published will rise exponentially, if not astronomically. I do guarantee that making writing a priority will force you to produce more, which is one of the only sure ways to learn enough to start producing quality. I do guarantee that treating your writing career as an arena where you have a professional reputation to lose will help you avoid a few mistakes, not to mention some pain and grief.
A funny thing starts happening once you start this kind of pretending. There’s a few months where it feels like ill-fitting shoes–not quite natural. Then it becomes habit, which is your best of servants or worst of masters. The mask begins to feel natural, and it’s then that the magic occurs. It’s subtle at first, but it gathers strength the longer you practice and the more ingrained it becomes. Your chances of getting published, and getting published again (which is the trick to producing an income stream) go up to the point where you can start taking advantage and playing those odds effectively.
The mask, the pretense, becomes your real face.
Of all the metaphors I use to belabor the point that writing makes a writer, this is the one the majority of my students has found most useful. Like all useful tools, it isn’t as complex–or as simple–as it appears. What you get out of it is in direct proportion to how much effort you put into it. I cannot guarantee you publication, but I can tell you that this is a way to maximize your chances most effectively.
I like my magic to have a practical side.
So, Happy New Year to you, dear Readers and fellow writers. What mask do you want to wear this year? I suggest you make it one you like.
Now, if you’ll pardon me, I have some writing to do. Over and out.
[1] I am not talking about conjuring tricks here.
[2] A personalized rejection letter, or one with a personal note about what was wrong with the story, is one of the last wickets before acceptance. Oddly, it is also one of the wickets where a majority of people get discouraged and stop trying.
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Tags: deadline dames, Friday Writing, pennyworth advice, shooting from the hip
January 1st, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Thank you for yet another great post. The very last sentence [2]was particularly meaningful for me.
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:42 am
Hi! I’ve been reading your blog on livejournal for a few years now and this year I’ll be published for the first time (so I guess that makes us colleagues?). I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for sharing your take on the writing profession. I subscribe to your view that writing every day will make you a better writer and I take the time to do the work.
I have a writing group but I’m the only one that do this, the other ones are binge writers ‘when it feels right’.
It’s always a relief to know that you agree with me, that it works for others as well.
So, thank you. I’ll be reading your posts the coming year as well, and I’m greatful.
Good luck with all your personal stuff and I whish you a wonderful 2010!
January 2nd, 2010 at 12:02 pm
I’ve been stuck in that “last wicket” for a few years now, partly because I didn’t make fiction writing my priority (I’m a copywriter, which has helped improve my fiction writing but also distracted me from it) – but I agree with you and this is something I’ve decided to take with me into the New Year.
And finding inspiration in the strangest places – my boyfriend and I are both huge Bon Jovi fans, and a couple of months ago my boyfriend was telling me how Jon Bon Jovi wrote hundreds and hundreds of songs and sent them out constantly, week after week, trying to get his first big break. And now his band has been phenomenally popular for decades… but first, he created and created and never gave up. Saying you want to be a writer or a rock star won’t get you there; putting your nose to the grindstone every single day just might. I don’t know if my boyfriend brought this up in response to how I’d been bitching about never getting an acceptance, but it really opened my eyes to how I’ve been slacking off.
So now I’ve resolved to complete at least one short story a month from now on, though I’ve been distracted by two longer projects too. I’m proud to say that since the start of November I’ve written about 120,000 words of fiction, which seems like an awful lot to me. At least half of that will never be publishable, but it keeps me from stopping and stagnating, and it brings me a step closer to what I want to be when I grow up.
In short: I agree with you, and reading what you have to say about writing is always, always inspiring. Thank you so much.
(And congrats to Nene, and I hope to be joining you someday soon!)
January 2nd, 2010 at 3:28 pm
I think I am going to print your list out and tack it to my wall.
January 3rd, 2010 at 12:09 pm
In terms of novel-writing, I started at that “last wicket” and have been stuck there for seven years. There’s no “oddly” about why people eventually quit. Working hard for zero progress gets boring after a while.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:16 am
Happy New Year, Lili!!! I’m glad you’re starting 2010 off in a better place than you were in the past few months. You are such an inspiration and encouragement! Thank you for all the effort you put into not just your own work but paying it forward.
January 10th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
[...] Saintcrow has a great post on her blog: The Mystery of the Mask where she talks about acting like what you want to become. If I want to be published, I should act [...]