4 Thinking Barriers That Keep You From Being a Successful Novelist
Unedited Guest Articles by Holly Lisle
Most successful novelists don’t become successes overnight. They have to overcome obstacles to create the masterpieces we enjoy today. Each one has to deal with the four thinking barriers: Safe, Perfect, Victim and Feel.
Each of you in your own way has had to deal with these barriers at one time or another. Your particular obstacles that fall into these categories may be of a different size and shape, but they are nonetheless causing problems in your writing life and life at large that require attention.
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SAFE is a matter of comfort but also non-commitment. As long as you don’t trouble the waters, everything will work out for the best, right? But, whose “best” is being worked out here? If you still don’t have the first page of your novel written or even the idea fleshed out on paper, obviously SAFE isn’t benefiting you.
PERFECT lives in fairytales where there is a “happily ever after” that no one gets to see but can only speculate about. Advertisers and scriptwriters create PERFECT every day with a wave of the CGI pointer or the writer’s pen. As I recall, it is also the name of the town in the Walgreen’s commercial. Wow, it would be great to live there…in theory. PERFECT has various limitations and all seem to focus on you and not the rest of the world.
VICTIM is a dirty word in most circles. It is the scarlet word that marks your entire life. No one knows about this particular mindset unless you voice it, but the nature of the condition requires that you broadcast your infirmity to the world in order to gain a measure of pity. Living as a victim says more about you than you know, including the fact that you are not living at all.
FEEL is a touchy one (no pun intended). If we don’t show emotion then we are cold and stoic. On the other hand, too much emotion makes you prone to flights of fancy and every twisting of the wind. Either extreme leaves you in a precarious situation where you are a slave to something and none of it good. A bargain must be struck between the Muse and the mind in order to reap the benefits of a completely functioning brain.
A writer’s life is one that draws on the real to create the fantastic and mold it into a believable reality. To move forward towards this marvelous end you must overcome the obstacles that stand in the way. Remember my saying:
SAFE never starts,
PERFECT never finishes,
VICTIM never acts,
FEEL never thinks.
Want to create compelling characters that help sell your writing? Holly Lisle is a full-time writer who has sold 30+ novels to major publishers and is the creator of How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers. Visit the site and access 3 free lessons that teach you how to write a novel that sells — straight from her highly-acclaimed course.
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