Wisdom of the Ages
My daughter was telling me about her Radical Political Thought class at university, and her reading of 16th century political theorist Jean Jacques Rousseau’s thoughts on the origins of inequality. He argued it came from what he called “armour proper”, which is the desire to gain esteem from others and fulfilling your own needs in relation to what others have instead of absolute terms. She gave me an example. Instead of finding food until you are full, you search for more food than your neighbour—meaning you will never be fully fulfilled.
I love when conversations with my daughters results in connections to my own writing life. Isn’t this true about writers? That we look around us for what everyone else (seems to) have? We compare ourselves to the bestselling authors out there; we look to replicate their success so we’ll have it, too. Relational writing objectives vs absolute writing objectives.
I’m not suggesting we all put away our query letters, nor do we stop searching for our readers. But what if we stopped to consider what needs our writing serves us in its own right? Without the relational perspective, without looking at what they have compared to what we have, what is the purpose of your writing?
Remind yourself of your why and then let the publishing and marketing chips fall where they may.