Occasionally we’ll run a quote from a provocative post and ask you, dear readers, to respond to it. Today’s comes from author Lara Schiffbauer:
“Now, as we know, some writers have (what appears to be) lucky success. I’m not saying they don’t work hard, or aren’t talented. But, how many hard-working, talented writers do you know? That’s right. Quite a few, huh? And what makes any one writer who has that crazy-good success better than any of the others that you know? See what I mean? For every one lucky hard-working, talented writer there are many hard-working, talented authors who just didn’t have the stars align in quite the same way.”
Start a conversation in the comments!
Killzoneblog.com
This is why I am patenting my new “Star Shaker Into Line-inator”. Guarantees beyond any shadow of a doubt that relevant stars will be lined up for those significant events in life.
Send in your pre-orders today, only $99.99 includes rush-shipping.
disclaimer – Star Shaker Into Line-inator LLC INC OBE BPOE VFW and its affiliates do not by any stretch of our imaginations, which is indeed very stretchy when compared to some people we know, guarantee exactly who’s significant life events said stars will line up for and hold absolutely responsibility if it is not the purchaser’s life rather than some total stranger’s…but rest assured, someone somewhere is getting it done to them with every purchase.
disclaimer appendix A -rush shipping means it will be packaged and personally shipped by the original members of RUSH, the band, as they do their 45 year anniversary world tour. Delivery dates to be announced as concert schedule becomes known.
Whew! Talk about a tough question. I don’t believe in luck–everything happens for a reason. But that doesn’t make it any easier when person A has wild success while persons B-Z work equally hard, have the same talent and don’t appear to have the same success.
But sometimes I think how we measure success may be part of the problem.
Yeah, I know. Ultimately that’s a non-answer. But it’s the best I can do on a tired Friday. 😎
BK Jackson
My first thought at the end of the quote was, “Yeah? So?”
I’ve made peace with this, just as I have with the sun rising in the east.
So it goes.
I know this is true. I deal with it by looking seriously at the definition of success. Does that mean NY Times best seller list, getting a six figure contract (or whatever your $??? happens to be, just getting published anywhere by anyone. I suppose each of us has to decide for ourself what success as an author means. Then there are those who write for the love of writing and may not even try to publish.
Different outcomes for equal effort is a reality of the world in which we live, not just for writers. It can be a right-place at-the-right-time, who-you-know, or even alighment of the stars kind of thing. You may never make it to what your definition of success is for whatever reason, but you’ll never even come close if you don’t try. Just because you don’t reach the goal you dreamed of doesn’t mean it wasn’t an incredible and worthy journey filled with a lot of wonderful fellow travelers along the way.
I, of course, am still dreaming.
Betty Sanders
I’ll bite. After letting those words sink in, my inner sociologist/human behavior student emerged.
The situation isn’t unique to writers, is it? There are talented actors who never made it to the big screen, musicians who never went platinum and brainiacs who never won a Nobel Prize.
I do indeed believe “the big time” simply isn’t in the stars for some, and likewise, we can all point to examples of those who have gained fame and fortune without working very hard for it (a Kardashian, anyone?).
However, most of the standouts I know — or know of — achieved their status by way of a strategic plan. They identified an end goal, studied what it would take to reach that goal, then worked like the dickens to get there. I have no doubt there are those who set the goal, worked hard, but for whom the stars never aligned. Sad, but true. Also the exception, not the rule.
I am fascinated by the standouts of our world, though. It seems some people are born with a success- or money-making-Spidey sense, and I believe we creative types are less likely to carry that gene. I’m curious whether artistic types (I call them reflective types) can overcome what I refer to as the Creative Curses to develop that success- or money-making-Spidey sense. I’m curious enough, in fact, that I’ve outlined a book about it.
Thanks for a stimulating tidbit to start the day, Jim! I look forward to seeing what other TKZers have to say.
I think luck definitely is a factor. When I read the first Harry Potter book it was fairly popular. I thought to myself, it was good, but was it really THAT good? I didn’t think so. And that was before the series became a HUGE international phenomenon. I enjoyed the entire series a great deal. But I after each book I kept thinking, is the series really THAT much better than everything else out there? I still don’t think the writing is so much better that it warrants the attention that it got. Don’t get me wrong, J.K. Rowling is an excellent author, but she’s human (I assume).
Obviously, something accounted for the success of the series (which is now better described as a franchise). People have debated at length on what that something is, but people haven’t agreed on any one thing. I think J.K. Rowling just wrote the best book she could and then got lucky.
So, luck is definitely a factor, but you’ve got to write well, too.
(I reserve the right to change my opinion if everything Rowling writes becomes a HUGE international success. Then maybe she isn’t human.)
Call it luck, call it God’s grace, call it being in the right place at the right time…I certainly recognize that there are more talented writers than I who are as yet unpublished.
However, as I’ve heard attributed to everyone from Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Goldwyn, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
Well there is always the element of “right place, right time.” However, the true result is what you do with the opportunity.
I am sitting here drinking tea in a cute snug little mid-century modern house. One year ago, I was living in a 200 sf room inside a drafty, leaky, moldy warehouse where I ran the family business. Divorce had left me essentially homeless.
I was scheming for a way to buy this house. I had zero credit and all my savings had been wiped out by medical bills. I was working every angle I could think of. By spring I had essentially given up.
On April 20, 2012, a hail storm swept through my town and tore the roof off the old warehouse. I was insured and had a decision to make. I took the insurance check and paid cash for my little dream house and abandoned the warehouse for back taxes.
Am I lucky or did I make the most of the situation I was presented with?
Same with writing. A writer can work and scheme and plan for months or years and when they least expect it an agent or editor says, “OMG I GOTTA HAVE IT!” that we all know isn’t always driven by objective quality, (50 Shades anyone?)
Sometimes an overnight success is the culmination of years of trying and failing or years of living such an interesting life or just being the one gutsy enough to send out a vampire stalker trilogy or series starring a boy wizard into the world.
It’s about making your own luck.
Terri
You should write a book about this whole experience. Seriously!!
What I have a problem with is when really poor writers snatch up a hot news item and whip out a book that sells like hotcakes. The rest of us research and revise, and… what happens?
Not to go too highbrow here, but here’s another good quote from Seneca: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
I believe that luck, the fates, kismet, does enter into big success. But I also am convinced luck can’t kick in unless you have prepared yourself to take advantage of it. As others have pointed out, this equation figures into every arena from arts to sports to everyday lifestyle choices. Are you “lucky” if you enter retirement in good financial shape and decent health? Or is it the product of wise choices buffered by genes and some luck?
Alert to Joe Moore: I am going to do a major name-drop here. Back in my newspaper days, I got to interview Michael Jordan. I asked him what one thing contributed most to his success. He said, “practice.” Jordan was great but he worked his ass off all his life and when the stars finally aligned and the Bulls put a good team around him, he got his championship.
Hey Kris, Samuel Goldwyn once told me, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
OK, that’s TWICE sam Goldwyn as been quoted here! I thought about adding another, but include me out.
I think I’ve said this before, so I might be repeating myself: We must not confuse necessary and sufficient conditions. Many things can be considered a necessary condition for writing success. Creating a well written book that tells an entertaining, etc, etc, story is one. Writing the next book with similar qualities is another. Good cover art, a great title, and other things represent other necessary conditions. But there are no sufficient conditions!
What that means is that there are no silver bullets. Call it luck if you want. I’ve accepted this. I don’t think my books have done well by any measure (what is “well”? 1000 books sold? 10000? NY Times’ rather arbitrary bestsellers list?). I just keep plugging away, writing the next book, doing what promotion I can, etc. I do it because it’s fun. I’m finally a full-time writer and enjoying every minute of it (including participating but mostly lurking in blogs like this one).
So forget “hitting it big”! Just keep writing, folks, because that’s where the fun is.
r/Steve
A quote for a quote:
“I’m a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.”
F. L. Emerson, in Reader’s Digest, March 1947. See The Yale Book of Quotations, ed. Fred R. Shapiro (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006)
So true. And so frustrating.
OK, so here’s a more realistic comment and more thought-provoking as well…
“Knowledge of human nature is at the foundation of almost all success.” – Charlie Chaplin, What People Laugh At, American Magazine, 1918
Hard work doesn’t always matter if you’re doing it wrong. I think Mr. Chaplin was on to something. Or in other words, work smarter, not harder.
That quote is why big publishing is having trouble. They still can’t predict what people will go apeshit over, and what they’ll ignore completely. So they put a lot of eggs (dollars) in a few baskets (Snooki’s advance vs. actual sales, anyone?) and ignore the rest of the talented, hard-working writers.
Oh, this was a great quote / excerpt to get us started, thanks.
Two years ago, I found myself in the comparison trap, so-and-so just inked a six-figure advance, so-and-so sold millions of copies of her self-pubbed book, whereas I was puttering along in the ole Model T. I’m older, I get more tired, and a setback takes me a week to chew through. But I get back up, dust myself off, and say, I’m committed. And I may be committed before long! (LOL) Such is the writer’s life.
A screenwriter instructor said a long while ago, “Be happy for other writers. Be happy when they’re successful.”
My husband says, “If you’re envious of another person’s dumb luck, what will happen when dumb luck happens to you?”
Today, I surrender my path to a higher power, to God, and sing the Doris Day “que sera, sera.” When I start treating this gig like a job – like a job where I’ve got to keep at it, not complain, keep improving – and stop seeing it as a magical path to Oz – seems like that works for me. Stay humble and hard-working and stay away from envy as best I can.
Because success can be all over the place. Some writers I know sign with uber-splashy agents and their published books receive a lukewarm greeting. Other writers sign with less-known agents and wind up on the USA Today and NYT bestseller list. Others self-pub and languish for years, invisible, while another person self-pub’s and sales explode. Who can predict any of that? You can’t.
Yep, some authors are very lucky, and I also think we’ve got to write for “our times.” “50 Shades” sold like hotcakes today – why is that? What does it say about readership and women? “Peyton Place” sold like crazy in the late 1950’s. Why? Why did “Harry Potter” resonate with readers of all ages?
We writers don’t work in a vacuum. We work within the context of our time. And books are often about timing, right? The right time, the right audience.
Woody Allen had this to say about luck: “People are afraid to acknowledge or to face what huge dependency they have on luck. There’s a tendency to think we have great control over our lives or some control, but the truth of the matter is that we don’t have the control that you think. You think you have control – you think if you get up in the morning, you exercise, you eat right and don’t smoke, you will be healthy. But it doesn’t work that way – you still get cancer and you still get hit by a bus. So much is luck. But if you face that, it’s a very unpleasant feeling. You like to feel ‘I have some control over events. You do have some control, but much less than you think, and that’s why I wanted to make the movie.”
If you believe JP Morgan was “lucky”–think again.
In many fields, it’s who you blow more than who you know (Hollywood, Music Industry).
Mass Media entertainment has an agenda, and if you ain’t part of it, then you have to rely on talent.
Fiction writing: a great story gets the snowball effect by word of mouth, and with today’s Internet (Goodreads and social media), the only reason your story ain’t moving is because it’s just the same old same old.
Most fiction out there is just lame and tired. It doesn’t push any buttons. Harry Potter was fresh. The DaVinci Code pushed buttons (note that Brown’s latter work isn’t pushing any buttons, hence isn’t that popular). Hunger Games pushed buttons, and so did The Help.
Fiction writing–you don’t need a publisher if you have something written structurally great (see storyfix.com) and it pushes all the right buttons.
Think about a good Journalism article–it pushes buttons, is compelling and sucks you into reading it. Note it’s called a “news story”.
Most fiction today is incomplete and is hanging on its hopes of a cool allure: vampires (okay used to be cool), Star Wars (yawn), US Military Agent hero (snore–and propaganda…gag).
Consider what IS compelling and pushing people’s buttons out there in Journalism (not the Miley Cyrus crap). How about the tens of thousands of India farmers who are committing suicide over GMO and Monsanto? Or the Fracking that is making a handful of people rich while destroying the water for everyone permanently. Bankstas gone wild. How about the ridiculous scam of expensive higher education?
Many of the above are themes that can be a catalyst for a good premise on top of a good story concept.
Or you can just keep making the same old tired stuff that we skip over.
Cause it ain’t pushing any buttons.
And call yourself unlucky.
“If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.”
I’m up for Basil’s Luck-Aline-Erator. Sounds like my Weed-Erator invention. We could sell these as a package deal.
Who was it said,”Luck’s a strange girl”? I think it might have been Phil Jackson. So now we have this big flap going on about who “gets” to play the MC’s in the movie version of 50 Shades of Whup-Ass.
James Patterson, eat your heart out.
I think it comes down to storytelling ability, a desirable voice, and skilled creation of characters readers can connect with. Great writing creates its own luck.
(Also, with my music students, they can practice or hours a day, but if they don’t learn and use correct techniques, their work won’t help them advance as they might like it to.)
And the right publicity! (Sigh)