Diana DeSpain Schramer Owner, Write Way Copyediting LLC "It's All How You Say It"

The Write Stuff

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One of my favorite people, agent-turned-author Nathan Bransford, blogged last week that writers “kind of have to have” an addictive personality. In his view, compulsive drive is necessary to finish something, whether it is a book or a crossword puzzle. My immediate reaction to Nathan’s premise was “No, they don’t!” as the stereotypical image of a writer well into his cups slouched over his keyboard with a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a burning cigarette within easy reach filled my head. We certainly have our literary greats who fit this profile, such as Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, but not all writers have addictive personalities. Or do they?

I recently spoke with one of my clients, a twice-published author, who said, “I’m finding that I’m now running a small business, whether I want to be or not.” And she was so right. Published writers today are–and must be–entrepreneurs. So this got me to thinking. Nathan says that writers “kind of have to have” addictive personalities, and I’ve long known that in today’s world published writers must be entrepreneurs. Is there a connection between the two?

Fueled by curiosity, I hit the Internet to research the characteristics of addictive personalities and those of entrepreneurs. I was fascinated by my findings. Both addictive personalities and entrepreneurs are:

  1.  Risk takers
  2.  Nonconformists
  3.  Passionate, at times even obsessive

Of course, this is not to say, or even imply, that all entrepreneurs are addictive personalities any more than all addictive personalities are entrepreneurs. What it does say, though, is that there is a connection. But whether these common traits prove to be the right stuff (self-empowering) or the wrong stuff (self-destructive) depends on various factors. But that’s a topic for another time.

None of us are perfectly well-adjusted; we all have our guilty (and not-so-guilty) pleasures and proclivities that we believe we can’t live without. The difference is the degree that we can’t live without them. So in the interest of good mental, spiritual, and literary health, all writers would be wise to tack to the wall above their writing space The 12 Steps of Queryers Anonymous, one of the most clever posts I have ever read. Of course, my personal favorite is Step 6: Became entirely ready to pay freelance editors to fix our manuscript.

I’m assuming that Nathan Bransford was referring to writers who seek publication in some form, and I’ve taken the same approach here. But remember: being a successful writer is how you define it for yourself.