writing advice from the playground
Kickball was the Olympic Gold Medal sport of the playground. Daily Super Bowl excitement without the high-octane Beyoncé halftime show.
As soon as the recess bell rang, we ran for the door and our parking lot kickball empire.
No one thought of me as the sporty kid. I was a book nerd. Not to be confused with the class genius. The genius was the kid who raised their hand at every question and aced all the tests without visible effort. I sat at the back of the class daydreaming about dragon infested worlds and sword-wielding badass women.
If stories had ruled the playground, I would have been king. In our empire of kickball, I ended up on whatever team got stuck with me.
JT was the kickball rockstar. The Tom Brady of 6th grade. First captain always picked JT. JT guaranteed an automatic win. The rest of us milled around, watching JT do his thing, catching balls, throwing balls, and scoring points. Unless he was having a bad day. Then he’d storm off and disappear for the rest of recess.
Had I been team captain, I would have ditched JT. Aside from my envy of his athleticism, I knew relying on one temperamental eleven-year-old was not a brilliant game strategy.
So why do we do this over and over to ourselves with our writing? Whether it’s insecurity, ego, mythology, finances, trust—we depend on ourselves to do everything. We are our own JT.
It’s not only exhausting, it’s unsustainable.
Every author—whether you’re Stephen King or an unknown self-published romance writer—has people helping them reach their goals.
Check out the acknowledgements page of any book and you’ll find lists of people who helped that author get that book in your hands.
Agents
Critique partners
Editors
Assistant
Beta readers
Illustrators
Marketing minions
Cover designers
Website designers
School teachers
Partners
Friends
Parents
Pets
Whether that’s having a friend sit with you in a bar while you eat nachos and cry into a bellini about your rejected novel, or an assistant manage to handle your social calendar because you’re so wildly successful you don’t have the time to return all those calls. It may even be as simple as a pet sitter who takes the dogs once a week to give you an extra hour to write.
Even if you feel you’re writing alone, you’re not.
You’re amazing and you’re doing great.
Keep going.
Hello!
My name is Jocelyn.
Story warrior, book lover, day dreamer, gardener, and creative. I help serious writers roll up their sleeves, get their novel ready for publishing, and reach readers. When I’m not elbow-deep in the story trenches, I’m outside world-building in my garden and battling weeds with my three criminal mastermind cats.
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