Authorpreneurship comes with its share of challenges.
As an indie-author, I’m not just a writer. I’m also the publisher, organizer, business manager, marketing department, and all-around entrepreneur. Most indie-authors evolve to become an authorpreneur when they wear all the necessary hats of self-publishing.
I’ve written before about how arranging cover art, getting an editor, doing layout, marketing, and the rest of the steps tend to be the hardest part of this. Writing, I say, is the easy part.
Except when it’s not. This comes in a couple of different forms. I’m going to address two of them here. One is a product of what Steven Pressfield calls “Resistance” – the force that presents obstacles, reasons, and other daily issues to get in the way of doing your work. The other is when you reach the end of one project and haven’t chosen the next.
Both hard parts of the easy part have their challenges. Recognizing and acknowledging this is the first step in working with and through them.
Battling Resistance
Resistance, according to author Steven Pressfield, is that force that manifests itself as every distraction, every reason and non-reason why you can’t do your work and make your art. It tends to manifest as fear.
To quote Pressfield,
“Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance.”
In other words, when you step out of your comfort zone to do the thing – write a book, paint a painting, start a new business venture, etc. – Resistance is the force that blocks you, unnerves you, terrifies you, and interferes with what you’re doing.
Even when you write daily, you face resistance. The pull of social media, email, cats, refilling your coffee – these are daily manifestations of Resistance you face.
At the end of 2024, I learned that I made my weekday writing goal – 1500 words of fiction (ergo, blogs like this do not count) – only 36% of the time. Why? Resistance. More often than not, I gave in to Resistance, and writing took a backseat to this, that, or the other thing.
Rather than let that upset me or defeat me – and hand a win to Resistance – I saw it as a challenge. I can do better than meeting my 1500-word weekday fiction goal 36% of the time. Hence, I determined I could do at least 10% better.
Does that fight the fight daily? No. Every day, I make the choice to sit down and do my work. Or not.
The hard part of the easy part
Writing, when it comes to authorpreneurship, is the easy part. Compared to hiring the right editor, getting cover art made, the publishing process, marketing, and sales, writing is the easy part.
It got easier for me when I shifted from writing as a pantser (or discovery writer, if you prefer) to more of a planner. Or, really, a plantser (since I plot the outline of the book, but the story itself is written by the seat of my pants).
Okay, so the hard part of the easy part? I’m at the end of writing 4 new books in my Forgotten Fodder clone, conspiracy, and crime sci-fi series. And I am following it with…
There’s the issue. Over the past few months, I’ve started some world-building for a few new ideas. Mostly sci-fi, though I also have a fantasy idea and a co-writing dystopia idea. And I think I’ve narrowed it down to 2 primary stories to start plotting.
The first is a series I’ll be calling the Gentlemen Space Pirate Saga. Yes, you guessed right – the story focused on a gentleman space pirate and the various trials, tribulations, and travails he goes through. Antihero? Maybe…maybe not. Though this idea originally fell behind several others, recent inspiration has made it a possible 4-book minimum series.
The second idea is as-yet untitled. The main character is a complicated woman who treasure hunts and salvages in space with a very specific goal in mind. She has a secret that drives her. Multiple secrets, in fact. I really love where this might take me, but while it was where I planned to put my focus for the next writing project, the Gentlemen Space Pirate Saga has potentially intrigued me more.
Resistance would be not writing
When I finish the Forgotten Fodder books, I will write something else. For a few weeks, that might be world-building and plotting to see which of the above ideas takes shape first. Because whichever doesn’t get first priority will still get written.
And the other ideas and worlds I’ve begun to create? Given that I am an authorpreneur, writing is my vocation. Whenever you reach “The end”, it’s not the end of your writing. It’s the end of a story, a series, a moment of time given to something you created. Yet it’s followed almost immediately by a new beginning.
This is part of what Pressfield references when he talks about “turning pro” versus writing as an amateur or hobbyist. Because this is my job, and storytelling is what I most love to do, there is always a next story when I finish what I’m presently working on.
Again, quoting Pressfield,
“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”
Resistance would be allowing “The end” to be THE end. No, thank you – I have more stories in me to tell.
What will I be writing next? Something. As to what form that will take – please, dear reader, stay tuned!
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you every week, please consider this: How are you inspired and empowered to be your own creator, whatever form that takes?
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