Stoicism for Debut Writers

When I signed a contract with ECW Press for publication of Grounds for Murder, I didn’t expect an attack of jitters fourteen months later.  Now, as my novel goes to press and publication date approaches, I’m experiencing doubt. What if readers and reviewers hate my work? How could I cope with such a shattering disappointment?

The ancient practise of Stoicism suggests that the problem would be of my own making.

Stoics distinguish between what we can change and what we can’t. The Greek philosopher Epictetus (died 135 AD) opens his handbook with the following assertion: “Some things are up to us and some are not up to us.”  One of the things that are not up to us, he says, is our reputation. Writers, in other words, can want people to like their work, but have no control over how readers respond to their words.

“If we want things that are not up to us,” William B. Irvine says quoting Epictetus in A Guide to the Good Life (2009), “we will sometimes fail to get what we want, and when this happens, we will ‘meet misfortune’ and feel ‘thwarted, miserable, and upset.’” And even if we do achieve our heart’s desire, we will suffer anxiety in the process of getting it. Which is exactly what’s happening to me now.

It would be more useful to replace wanting and worrying with work. I could, for example, complete my second novel. Finishing it won’t necessarily make me a successful writer. But it’s something that I want to do. And it’s an action over which I have control.

So, I will return to my manuscript, adding to it and revising it as I go. You can watch this space for news of my progress!

My next blog will appear in late September, by which time Grounds for Murder will be on bookstore shelves. (You can also order it from ECW Press or Amazon.)