Frustration 5

Over the past month, we’ve been looking at the frustration that is a built-in feature of the business of trying to break into the writing game. Last week I told you about my own struggle, moving to LA and being forced to get a temp job to survive.

Can you imagine how low I felt? I was too smart for this, too good for this. Various people I temped for never really even gave me much to do beyond answering the phone and typing the odd letter—after all, I was a temp so I couldn’t be too bright, right?

Once my ego got over the shock, I realized something—I had the perfect job! They always wanted you to look busy—you weren’t supposed to just sit and read a book or something until the next phone call came in—so I started bringing my writing projects to the office. And I was busy all day long.

When I got into temp jobs where people realized I was good and therefore had me working all day, I’d bring my lunch and write during lunch hours and I’d stay after 6 at night when everybody else went home and write for a couple of hours—this had the added advantage of having me miss most of the crazy evening commute.

I didn’t enjoy office work. I didn’t enjoy being looked at as if I wasn’t as smart as the other employees. I knew I didn’t want this to be my life. So guess what? I never worked harder on my writing than while I was temping.

That’s right. When I was working only two days a month as a consultant and therefore had tons of time to write, I produced LESS than when I was working all day, five days a week. I never produced more pages per week than I did while I was temping. If I’d been satisfied with my life, my work, I wouldn’t have tried as hard.

So I realized right then that I had NEEDED that lack of a safety net to push myself to work harder for what I DID want, and that was to be a writer.

It worked out and after about three years in LA I was making enough as a writer to quit temping and concentrate on writing. I tried to use some of that discipline I’d had while temping to push myself to continue to write as much as I had while I was a frustrated writer.

But you know what? Without that frustration, I don’t think I DID write as much. I wrote plenty, but not AS much. I think, in some way, that frustration can be a positive.

So even if you start to get paid to write, I think it’s a good idea to understand that. Because there will be other things you’re frustrated about as you start to make a living as a writer, and you can either give into them and just throw up your hands in defeat or you can make them motivate you, let them push you to work harder. In many ways, life is all about overcoming obstacles, so you need to become a person who does that… who doesn’t let frustration stand in the way of pursuing your dreams.

Copyright © Diane Lake

01Jul18

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