This is what my boyfriend recently yelled at me. And ever since, I’ve screamed those same words over and over into my head.
To force myself to stop obsessing over everyone else who’s been (super) successful, and why I’m not there yet.
We’re writers, right? So for the love of GOD—just do some dang writing already! And stop worrying about “making it.”
Success Obsessions Gone Wild
You know those cool, collected writers with 500,000 Twitter followers? Who’ve been published in The New Yorker and the Boston Review, all while running a blog that everyone drools over (didn’t you read Entertainment Weekly’s review on it last week)? They always seem to sport those geeky/chic wired glasses with a quirky beret.
Yea, I want to be that writer.
And since I’m not, I’ve spent time reading their success stories. And then I analyze: When did they start their blog? How did they word their entries? Who are their connections? How long did it take them? The list goes on and on, my friends …
But in the midst of this obsessing, I’m missing one key component. I’m not writing.
Just F-ing Do it, Man!
Perhaps understanding how the “big ones” made it can help the rest of us begging to just lick the bone. However, trying to craft our success strategy around their journey is only to our detriment.
As my boyfriend pointed out, I’m wasting all my energy on analyzing and planning. Meanwhile, I have no finished products to promote to an agent or editor, since I’m not writing.
Over the past week, I’ve finally forced myself to stop reading what everyone else is doing, and just start doing sh!t myself. And you know what? Stuff’s gettin’ done … finally.
Do you ever struggle with this curse of success obsession? If so, how do you overcome and just get back to your own writing again?
C’mon, you MUST be thinking something.