Still Not Famous, Thanks for Asking

“How’s the wannabe author?” someone asked me recently.

“Just plugging along,” I said, already feeling that familiar cramp in my stomach—the one that shows up whenever someone starts fishing about whether I am still in pursuit of my dream.

Because the moment I tell someone I am a writer, the first response is always, “Oh! What have you written?” Then I get to explain, in as few words as possible, that I am an aspiring author currently seeking publication for my romance novel. By the time I reach the word “seeking”, their eyes glaze over and I know I have lost them completely.

Conversations like this are uncomfortable for me. Which is why I don’t tell people very often.

It’s like if someone were going to a university and you asked, “How is the wannabe accountant?” as if their entire future career were a cute little hobby they may or may not make into a real profession. As if their ambition were something that elicited a pat on the head.

And yes, Susan, I know I will not make a lot of money. I do not expect to. And thank you, Chad, for reminding me that the odds of my book becoming the next big thing are slim.

But here’s the thing. I am an artist. My voice, my style, and my journey are mine and no one else’s.

Like any art form, writing is personal. It is your heart and soul poured onto a page and then handed to the world to be critiqued, judged, or ignored. I am creating a story that came out of my own mind, and I am working my butt off to express that vision on the page.

It takes hundreds and hundreds of hours—at least for me. Writing, drafting, editing, editing again, querying, getting rejected, querying again, receiving a tiny carrot of encouragement from someone who knows what they are talking about, and then, when that is finished, playing the publishing waiting game while simultaneously starting all over again.

It is a hard, slow climb.

Thankfully, there are people who genuinely care about my stories (thanks, Mom and Dad, and of course, my husband). People who ask about my work in progress because they are truly interested. They want to know about the story, the process, the journey, and what my next big idea might be.

I should not be ashamed of what I am. I am a wizard constructing worlds. A director scripting action scenes. A conductor of romantic tension.

So, the next time someone asks, “How is the wannabe author?”

I will state with pride, “Still writing.”