Comments on: Question: How Do I Know if I’m Ready?

By: Sara Aase

Sara Aase — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:02:19 +0000

@JES. I think that’s perfect. It takes some time to even get to the point where you have an awareness of waiting.

General comment 1: I’m reading “Outliers” right now and all of these steps sound like they are a natural part of the 10,000 hours, or 10 years, that it takes to master something. (So I should achieve awesomeness by 2011, 2013, or 2016, depending on which math I use!)

General comment 2: New bands with experienced members really get how important readiness is — they play out of town as much as possible before dreaming of playing a hometown show, because that first one makes or breaks the buzz. Not sure what the corollary is for writers but I liked Bets’s comment on public speaking. (I also like the “shockingly good” on your web site.)

@Dennis Cass: Followup Q: Michael Pollan is a great example but raises for me the question that is really always on my mind, and that is, how important is this kind of specialization in getting to where you want to go? I think it’s bothering me because I believe that I must be able to answer it, and I don’t yet have that answer — that I want to be known for X. And I know it’s not necessarily a matter of subject specialization (take Steve Almond http://www.stevenalmond.com/, for e.g.) but it does seem necessary to be known as the writer who views the world through a certain lens.

This is now the end of my ridiculously long comment.

By: bets

bets — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:38:58 +0000

I talk at conferences–three last year. People approach me and I have to speak to them coherently about my projects, as well as theirs. It’s a bitch–way harder than I thought. I fail at it more often than I thought I would. But sometimes I do Okay. And I pay attention to the famous writers around me and I listen and learn.

That’s how I know I’m ready to accept the publicity of writing.

By: denniscass

denniscass — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:13:52 +0000

@JES: The Castaneda *does* sound New Age-y (why can’t it be an accountant who is doing the waiting?), but also very right on.

@Lars: Thanks for the kind words. And I love the pyramid idea. My last class is next Tuesday. Then I bust out of much-talked-about Photoshop.

By: Dennis Lang

Dennis Lang — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:58:20 +0000

Great subject and comments. Personally, I find myself beginning to think I’m some character in a play by Beckett. Waiting. Then there’s just enough reinforcement–once in awhile you press the lever and the cracker is delivered–to keep you going until the next cracker. I guess you learn a lot about yourself trying to do this.

By: Lars

Lars — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:46:14 +0000

Outstanding post. This is like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for creative types. Call it Cass’s hierarchy of artistic readiness. Bring on the pyramid diagram.

By: JES

JES — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:49:04 +0000

Carlos Castaneda’s guy Don Juan once told him, in his quest to become a warrior (one step along the way to becoming a sorcerer), “A warrior knows that he is waiting, and a warrior knows what he is waiting for.”

No matter what one thinks of Castaneda’s experiences as a whole — of his books, for that matter — I always found that advice to resonate deeply in me. I don’t think you need to be able to articulate what the “what” is that you’re waiting for, but I do think you need to be alert to its arrival — with or without advance warning — and you do need to be ready to leap when it comes.

And then there’s the first half, easily overlooked: you have to know that that waiting is part of what you are. If you can’t “feel” yourself waiting, just assert that you are, I’m not sure I believe that you are indeed waiting.

Too soft, too touchy-feely or New Age-y? I don’t know. Feels right to me, though.