Over a year ago, I wrote this essay about what I've found is essential to living life as a freelance writer.
Following Flaubert’s Advice: Survival Skills for the Writer
A couple of decades ago, an acquaintance at the Bourgeois Pig coffee house on Franklin Street at the bottom of the Hollywood Hills, where I went every Sunday, made the following comment about a writer’s life, quoting Gustave Flaubert:
“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.”[1]
His remark made me realize that I had essentially been living this way for some time myself, though others around us weren’t so inclined, one of whom not only wrote, or seemed to write, at the counter where we sat but also expounded on what he was writing for whomever might listen.
Even while working and putting myself through graduate studies at Samra University of Oriental Medicine, I wrote whenever I could find time. Writing had been part of my life for over a decade at that time. When this acquaintance made his comment that early Sunday winter morning as we drank our coffee, I could relate to it. It’s the way I’d always approached writing – as part of my life, not as my entire life. I came to understand over time that what I had learned through the study and practice of taijiquan (t’ai chi ch’uan), as well as concepts embedded in Chinese Medicine as applied to self-care and wellness, would help me last longer as a human being and as a writer.
So what does it mean, to be “steady and well-ordered in life so that you can be fierce and original” in your writing? To me, it means preserving, conserving, and strengthening all aspects of myself – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – so that I have not only the stamina to write, but also so that I engage in my daily life so that my imagination has food for good stories. After all, “write what you know” is a well-known maxim in the fiction writing field. Even though I’m writing science fiction/fantasy, what happens with the characters is based upon personal experience, or my knowledge gained from others I’ve known, or research. Being “steady and well-ordered” also means, to me, to conserve my creative energies so that my characters and fictional settings remain alive each time I sit to write the work at hand, rather than dissipating it in casual conversation. I remember meeting an old friend from my high school and college days who was also a writer. She was more than happy to begin divulging details about the characters in her latest work though I hadn’t asked for them, and I wondered – does she know the energy she just spent telling me something that (while the work is in progress is really none of my business) actually depleted the energy she would have to meet those characters again as she approached the page and the keyboard? In that moment, I didn’t know how to broach the subject.
I can’t remember even now which author, read many years ago, suggested that to talk about the characters or plot of a work in progress took energy away from the work itself – but my years of internal martial arts practice and meditation had made this clear for me – not just with regard to any current writing project, but to many undertakings in life that aren’t yet finished. Whether it’s considered a jinx to talk about an opportunity before it’s solid, or it’s merely a matter of getting hopes too high by talking about that great job interview before finding out that the job went to someone else, not speaking about what isn’t fully manifest isn’t a bad idea to me. Just the opposite. It’s the flip side of the three monkeys of Buddhism, which often are called “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”
The moniker isn’t quite on the mark: what the monkeys are demonstrating are three precepts of Buddhism, which can be found in other monastic practices as well, of mindfulness. To be mindful is to pay attention not only to the moment, but to the moment as I need to be engaged in it at that moment. So, there’s no reason to watch things that don’t directly affect me; there’s no reason to listen to things that don’t directly affect me; and there’s no reason to speak about things that don’t directly affect me.[2] In that last regard, my characters don’t directly affect me – though I am in the process of creating them, getting to know them – even in ways that they surprise me. To speak about them while they are being conceived uses the energy I would use to write to simply create a monologue without beginning or end, theme or plot. When I get to my keyboard, where is that energy? Oh, yes. I would have already spent it, which leads to the other concept behind mindfulness: how to conserve, preserve and restore energy.
The energy I use to write happens both at my keyboard and inside my head, and I’m sure that’s the way it happens for fiction freelance writers everywhere. What many artists may not have learned is that energy is finite. In the universe it’s infinite, yes…but within us? Not so much. That’s what causes the crash and burn of an immoderate life. So a good start toward conserving energy so that it’s available for writing is to not speak about what is being written in detail when people ask – and people will, they’re curious after all, or simply trying to be polite. A simple, general answer that can be put in one sentence is enough to satisfy the curiosity of most. If people press for details, what I do is simply say that I don’t discuss my stories in detail while I’m writing them. Not everyone gets that. I understand and respect that, but I’m not going to accommodate it to please them. Neither should you. If they really are interested in what we write, after all…they can either read it as one of our editors, or reviewers, or as a person who buys our book. It really is that simple.
The rest of Chinese Medicine brought home to me through my clinical practice the importance of a regular lifestyle not just for a writer, but for anyone in terms of conserving energies and preserving health. I realize I’m now going to sound like your mother. If you hear it that way, again, I understand and respect that, but I’m not going to accommodate your point of view to please you. I want you to consider the philosophy for the sake of your health, whether or not you like what I’m proposing. I’m sharing this information with you so that you don’t crash and burn, like other fiction writers of the past have done – Ernest Hemingway comes to mind (was shooting himself with his rifle the pinnacle of a good day? I don’t think so.)
Regular hours, both on work days and on off days, are a writer’s friend. Does it mean you may have less time overall to write? Yes. Is everything else you need to do, or want to do, important to your life on this planet as a human being? Well, I hope at least half of it is – at any rate, any of it could be the seed of a future story if you engage in the experiences of work, family, travel, and yes, reading. If you’re a writer, you need to be a reader too – time for this is also part of the “schedule”. When I first began writing a novel while working full time, I set aside four hours on each Saturday and Sunday for my “writing time” which, when I got hung up on a certain plot point (where are these characters going?) would require going for a walk for about twenty minutes, which was enough to let the ideas I needed come to me so I could complete my writing shift. So, set a writing schedule that is realistic and reasonable (if need be, write it in a calendar in pencil, because life sometimes may require your presence elsewhere, and being in the present moment as the person you are is the most important thing in life, because life sometimes requires rescheduling plans).
Food is important. The brain is a hungry organ, and if you don’t feed it well, eventually, you’ll find that when you’re at your keyboard what’s coming out is more deadwood than alive and growing. Sad state for the pear tree your novel or short story is hoping to grow into! When you eat, eat. Don’t eat while writing. Mindfulness needs to be applied to everything, including sitting at a table and eating your food – so that you actually know in body, mind, and soul, you had that experience, even if all you ate was a tuna sandwich with pickles and a small glass of beer. Don’t get so caught up in writing that you forget to eat. Even if you think sitting at the keyboard isn’t asking a lot of your body, it is (especially if the ergonomics of your desk area are lacking).[3] Free range glucose is what the blood carries to the brain so that it can function. Contrary to what others may have told you, there isn’t fat in your head, so the only fuel for thinking comes from what you eat. If you’re a writer on a tight budget, let me tell you, as someone self employed for nearly twenty years I know about tight budgets. As someone with chronic illness, I know that fast food is not an answer no matter how cheap it seems to be – eat real food, not, as one student of mine called it “the idea of food”. If you don’t know how to cook, learn – it’s an important life skill (and it can actually save you some time you can then use for writing – I plan one day a week when I don’t have scheduled work as a “cooking” day so that I can make several servings of something that I can eat during the week). Besides, if you are a novice cook and you have some disasters in the kitchen (those happen) that might give you something to use in your next novel or short story, and it will be an instance of writing what you know to which many people can relate!
Sleep well. Preferably at night. I know this will go over like the proverbial lead balloon. For some, especially the working parent with children, night may be the only time available to write. To cheat yourself out of sleep just to write may mean that everything around you in life suffers, including the quality of your writing. I’ve changed sleep shifts due to work over the years, and I’ve changed my sleeping habits for health reasons within the past few years, so I’m not going to be rigid about anything except this one consensus from 2,000 years of documented medical texts in China: human beings are a diurnal species by nature.[4] A chosen lifestyle may create the impression that this isn’t true; however, human physiology makes it plain that the night owl life is draining and impacts health, which in turn impacts the ability to spend as much time writing as originally planned. If keeping a regular sleeping schedule – including on days off – means not writing every day, then set aside one day a week when a few hours could be put toward a writing project. Or, as several popular writers have admitted to doing, devote just one hour a day to writing, even if that hour seems completely nonproductive from a page count perspective.
As freelancers, we don’t have deadlines that give no accommodation to our other responsibilities, so considering our needs for eating, sleeping, and our other obligations and avocations is available to us. Rather than write at the end of a very long day, consider going to bed earlier and getting up earlier and writing before others in the house get up. Get enough sleep, whether it’s all at once, or through a bimodal sleeping pattern, or through a shorter night’s sleep with a nap during the day so that you feel rested. If rested, there’s enough energy for anything that needs to be done during the day, including writing if it’s on the day’s activity list.
Rest, relax, contemplate or meditate a little every day. No, rest is not sleep. Rest is rest. Sit and watch the grass grow for a few minutes, outdoors if possible. Woolgather. Bird watch. Walk around the block and introduce yourself to neighborhood cats. These moments are a different way to be mindful of the present moment as the present moment without it being tied to a goal-oriented task (which the American mentality pushes us to think is the only way time is well used, to the great physical, mental, and emotional harm of us all). We are human beings, not human doings, as psychologist John Bradshaw said, and these moments of rest, of engaging in a non-goal-oriented task, makes us more human. By being more human, we become more aware of ourselves and the world around us, and the other people in it when we engage with them, which brings us more understanding of ourselves as well as more ideas to fuel our writing.
Finally, which for some, may be the most difficult endeavor of all – learn how to let things go. When the writing is done, it’s done. When it’s as good as you’ve gotten it, it’s time to hand it over to an editor, and at some point, it’s time to let it fly out into the world by publishing it. As Sartre pointed out, our work as a writer is never finished – it’s the reader who finishes our work, and each reader finishes it differently. The finishing goes on in the reader’s mind. My personal rule of thumb is that I give a work three editorial passes. I’m ruthless when I do it – I worked as a proofreader and a typesetter for a few years – and when those three passes are done, I consider the work as good as I can do for now. If I’m not satisfied with it, I may set it aside for several weeks or even months, and then approach it with a fresh eye. If I’m confident I can go ahead and publish it or send it to an agent, I do, without succumbing to the temptation to make it “perfect” first. Nothing is perfect on the face of the planet, so neither will my writing be. As Jet Li says on his website[5]: “Do your best – it’s good enough.” While he’s speaking of martial arts practice, it applies to any art. Our best in the moment of completing a creation is as good as it’s going to be in that moment. The alternative would be to never move on to the next writing endeavor, and, as someone who writes as part of my life, I want to move on to that next endeavor. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus’ axiom, Panta rhei (“everything moves”, sometimes translated as “a man can’t step into the same river twice”)[6] applies even to the writer’s ability to let go of the work at hand when it is ripe. A space for rest is created, which leaves an opening for the next idea to blossom in the creative mind.
Consider the well-ordered daily life as helpful a tool for writing as a room of your own (if you have it); your keyboard or pen and paper; your reference books; your bookmarked websites about writing; even this essay. By creating such a life, you’ll be creating a space for a life that will bring you a wealth of themes, characters, ideas, places, and details that will bring your fiction alive, one fiercely written page at a time.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5890
[2] Quach, Tan. Explanation given during Acupuncture Techniques Lecture at Samra University, Los Angeles, CA, 1995.
[3] Maciocia, Giovanni (1989), pg. 266, The Foundations of Chinese Medicine.
[4] Maciocia, Giovanni (1994), pg. 281, The Practice of Chinese Medicine.
[5] www.jetli.com (site now defunct and replaced by other fan and project sites).
[6] Barnes (1982), page 65, and also Peters, Francis E. (1967). Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon. NYU Press. p. 178. ISBN 0814765521. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, 1313.11.
Following Flaubert’s Advice: Survival Skills for the Writer
A couple of decades ago, an acquaintance at the Bourgeois Pig coffee house on Franklin Street at the bottom of the Hollywood Hills, where I went every Sunday, made the following comment about a writer’s life, quoting Gustave Flaubert:
“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.”[1]
His remark made me realize that I had essentially been living this way for some time myself, though others around us weren’t so inclined, one of whom not only wrote, or seemed to write, at the counter where we sat but also expounded on what he was writing for whomever might listen.
Even while working and putting myself through graduate studies at Samra University of Oriental Medicine, I wrote whenever I could find time. Writing had been part of my life for over a decade at that time. When this acquaintance made his comment that early Sunday winter morning as we drank our coffee, I could relate to it. It’s the way I’d always approached writing – as part of my life, not as my entire life. I came to understand over time that what I had learned through the study and practice of taijiquan (t’ai chi ch’uan), as well as concepts embedded in Chinese Medicine as applied to self-care and wellness, would help me last longer as a human being and as a writer.
So what does it mean, to be “steady and well-ordered in life so that you can be fierce and original” in your writing? To me, it means preserving, conserving, and strengthening all aspects of myself – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – so that I have not only the stamina to write, but also so that I engage in my daily life so that my imagination has food for good stories. After all, “write what you know” is a well-known maxim in the fiction writing field. Even though I’m writing science fiction/fantasy, what happens with the characters is based upon personal experience, or my knowledge gained from others I’ve known, or research. Being “steady and well-ordered” also means, to me, to conserve my creative energies so that my characters and fictional settings remain alive each time I sit to write the work at hand, rather than dissipating it in casual conversation. I remember meeting an old friend from my high school and college days who was also a writer. She was more than happy to begin divulging details about the characters in her latest work though I hadn’t asked for them, and I wondered – does she know the energy she just spent telling me something that (while the work is in progress is really none of my business) actually depleted the energy she would have to meet those characters again as she approached the page and the keyboard? In that moment, I didn’t know how to broach the subject.
I can’t remember even now which author, read many years ago, suggested that to talk about the characters or plot of a work in progress took energy away from the work itself – but my years of internal martial arts practice and meditation had made this clear for me – not just with regard to any current writing project, but to many undertakings in life that aren’t yet finished. Whether it’s considered a jinx to talk about an opportunity before it’s solid, or it’s merely a matter of getting hopes too high by talking about that great job interview before finding out that the job went to someone else, not speaking about what isn’t fully manifest isn’t a bad idea to me. Just the opposite. It’s the flip side of the three monkeys of Buddhism, which often are called “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”
The moniker isn’t quite on the mark: what the monkeys are demonstrating are three precepts of Buddhism, which can be found in other monastic practices as well, of mindfulness. To be mindful is to pay attention not only to the moment, but to the moment as I need to be engaged in it at that moment. So, there’s no reason to watch things that don’t directly affect me; there’s no reason to listen to things that don’t directly affect me; and there’s no reason to speak about things that don’t directly affect me.[2] In that last regard, my characters don’t directly affect me – though I am in the process of creating them, getting to know them – even in ways that they surprise me. To speak about them while they are being conceived uses the energy I would use to write to simply create a monologue without beginning or end, theme or plot. When I get to my keyboard, where is that energy? Oh, yes. I would have already spent it, which leads to the other concept behind mindfulness: how to conserve, preserve and restore energy.
The energy I use to write happens both at my keyboard and inside my head, and I’m sure that’s the way it happens for fiction freelance writers everywhere. What many artists may not have learned is that energy is finite. In the universe it’s infinite, yes…but within us? Not so much. That’s what causes the crash and burn of an immoderate life. So a good start toward conserving energy so that it’s available for writing is to not speak about what is being written in detail when people ask – and people will, they’re curious after all, or simply trying to be polite. A simple, general answer that can be put in one sentence is enough to satisfy the curiosity of most. If people press for details, what I do is simply say that I don’t discuss my stories in detail while I’m writing them. Not everyone gets that. I understand and respect that, but I’m not going to accommodate it to please them. Neither should you. If they really are interested in what we write, after all…they can either read it as one of our editors, or reviewers, or as a person who buys our book. It really is that simple.
The rest of Chinese Medicine brought home to me through my clinical practice the importance of a regular lifestyle not just for a writer, but for anyone in terms of conserving energies and preserving health. I realize I’m now going to sound like your mother. If you hear it that way, again, I understand and respect that, but I’m not going to accommodate your point of view to please you. I want you to consider the philosophy for the sake of your health, whether or not you like what I’m proposing. I’m sharing this information with you so that you don’t crash and burn, like other fiction writers of the past have done – Ernest Hemingway comes to mind (was shooting himself with his rifle the pinnacle of a good day? I don’t think so.)
Regular hours, both on work days and on off days, are a writer’s friend. Does it mean you may have less time overall to write? Yes. Is everything else you need to do, or want to do, important to your life on this planet as a human being? Well, I hope at least half of it is – at any rate, any of it could be the seed of a future story if you engage in the experiences of work, family, travel, and yes, reading. If you’re a writer, you need to be a reader too – time for this is also part of the “schedule”. When I first began writing a novel while working full time, I set aside four hours on each Saturday and Sunday for my “writing time” which, when I got hung up on a certain plot point (where are these characters going?) would require going for a walk for about twenty minutes, which was enough to let the ideas I needed come to me so I could complete my writing shift. So, set a writing schedule that is realistic and reasonable (if need be, write it in a calendar in pencil, because life sometimes may require your presence elsewhere, and being in the present moment as the person you are is the most important thing in life, because life sometimes requires rescheduling plans).
Food is important. The brain is a hungry organ, and if you don’t feed it well, eventually, you’ll find that when you’re at your keyboard what’s coming out is more deadwood than alive and growing. Sad state for the pear tree your novel or short story is hoping to grow into! When you eat, eat. Don’t eat while writing. Mindfulness needs to be applied to everything, including sitting at a table and eating your food – so that you actually know in body, mind, and soul, you had that experience, even if all you ate was a tuna sandwich with pickles and a small glass of beer. Don’t get so caught up in writing that you forget to eat. Even if you think sitting at the keyboard isn’t asking a lot of your body, it is (especially if the ergonomics of your desk area are lacking).[3] Free range glucose is what the blood carries to the brain so that it can function. Contrary to what others may have told you, there isn’t fat in your head, so the only fuel for thinking comes from what you eat. If you’re a writer on a tight budget, let me tell you, as someone self employed for nearly twenty years I know about tight budgets. As someone with chronic illness, I know that fast food is not an answer no matter how cheap it seems to be – eat real food, not, as one student of mine called it “the idea of food”. If you don’t know how to cook, learn – it’s an important life skill (and it can actually save you some time you can then use for writing – I plan one day a week when I don’t have scheduled work as a “cooking” day so that I can make several servings of something that I can eat during the week). Besides, if you are a novice cook and you have some disasters in the kitchen (those happen) that might give you something to use in your next novel or short story, and it will be an instance of writing what you know to which many people can relate!
Sleep well. Preferably at night. I know this will go over like the proverbial lead balloon. For some, especially the working parent with children, night may be the only time available to write. To cheat yourself out of sleep just to write may mean that everything around you in life suffers, including the quality of your writing. I’ve changed sleep shifts due to work over the years, and I’ve changed my sleeping habits for health reasons within the past few years, so I’m not going to be rigid about anything except this one consensus from 2,000 years of documented medical texts in China: human beings are a diurnal species by nature.[4] A chosen lifestyle may create the impression that this isn’t true; however, human physiology makes it plain that the night owl life is draining and impacts health, which in turn impacts the ability to spend as much time writing as originally planned. If keeping a regular sleeping schedule – including on days off – means not writing every day, then set aside one day a week when a few hours could be put toward a writing project. Or, as several popular writers have admitted to doing, devote just one hour a day to writing, even if that hour seems completely nonproductive from a page count perspective.
As freelancers, we don’t have deadlines that give no accommodation to our other responsibilities, so considering our needs for eating, sleeping, and our other obligations and avocations is available to us. Rather than write at the end of a very long day, consider going to bed earlier and getting up earlier and writing before others in the house get up. Get enough sleep, whether it’s all at once, or through a bimodal sleeping pattern, or through a shorter night’s sleep with a nap during the day so that you feel rested. If rested, there’s enough energy for anything that needs to be done during the day, including writing if it’s on the day’s activity list.
Rest, relax, contemplate or meditate a little every day. No, rest is not sleep. Rest is rest. Sit and watch the grass grow for a few minutes, outdoors if possible. Woolgather. Bird watch. Walk around the block and introduce yourself to neighborhood cats. These moments are a different way to be mindful of the present moment as the present moment without it being tied to a goal-oriented task (which the American mentality pushes us to think is the only way time is well used, to the great physical, mental, and emotional harm of us all). We are human beings, not human doings, as psychologist John Bradshaw said, and these moments of rest, of engaging in a non-goal-oriented task, makes us more human. By being more human, we become more aware of ourselves and the world around us, and the other people in it when we engage with them, which brings us more understanding of ourselves as well as more ideas to fuel our writing.
Finally, which for some, may be the most difficult endeavor of all – learn how to let things go. When the writing is done, it’s done. When it’s as good as you’ve gotten it, it’s time to hand it over to an editor, and at some point, it’s time to let it fly out into the world by publishing it. As Sartre pointed out, our work as a writer is never finished – it’s the reader who finishes our work, and each reader finishes it differently. The finishing goes on in the reader’s mind. My personal rule of thumb is that I give a work three editorial passes. I’m ruthless when I do it – I worked as a proofreader and a typesetter for a few years – and when those three passes are done, I consider the work as good as I can do for now. If I’m not satisfied with it, I may set it aside for several weeks or even months, and then approach it with a fresh eye. If I’m confident I can go ahead and publish it or send it to an agent, I do, without succumbing to the temptation to make it “perfect” first. Nothing is perfect on the face of the planet, so neither will my writing be. As Jet Li says on his website[5]: “Do your best – it’s good enough.” While he’s speaking of martial arts practice, it applies to any art. Our best in the moment of completing a creation is as good as it’s going to be in that moment. The alternative would be to never move on to the next writing endeavor, and, as someone who writes as part of my life, I want to move on to that next endeavor. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus’ axiom, Panta rhei (“everything moves”, sometimes translated as “a man can’t step into the same river twice”)[6] applies even to the writer’s ability to let go of the work at hand when it is ripe. A space for rest is created, which leaves an opening for the next idea to blossom in the creative mind.
Consider the well-ordered daily life as helpful a tool for writing as a room of your own (if you have it); your keyboard or pen and paper; your reference books; your bookmarked websites about writing; even this essay. By creating such a life, you’ll be creating a space for a life that will bring you a wealth of themes, characters, ideas, places, and details that will bring your fiction alive, one fiercely written page at a time.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5890
[2] Quach, Tan. Explanation given during Acupuncture Techniques Lecture at Samra University, Los Angeles, CA, 1995.
[3] Maciocia, Giovanni (1989), pg. 266, The Foundations of Chinese Medicine.
[4] Maciocia, Giovanni (1994), pg. 281, The Practice of Chinese Medicine.
[5] www.jetli.com (site now defunct and replaced by other fan and project sites).
[6] Barnes (1982), page 65, and also Peters, Francis E. (1967). Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon. NYU Press. p. 178. ISBN 0814765521. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, 1313.11.