In Finding Support Part I, I described how Harrison Scott Key’s memoir Congratulations! Who Are You Again? let me be a fly on the wall as he wrote, submitted, and then promoted his first book, The World’s Largest Man. In addition to knowledge of that process and warnings about its potential pitfalls, Key’s book provided moral support while I submitted my first book—also a memoir—to publishers. Similarities between Key’s experience and mine made it easier to view the setbacks I ran into as temporary detours rather than journey-ending roadblocks. Pairing Congratulations! with another book made both more helpful; their opposing pulls leveled emotions that wanted to seesaw while I bore the interminable wait between submitting my memoir to publishers and receiving their responses (or not, in some cases).
If Congratulations! is the Yin of Chinese philosophy, the book I paired with it by chance, is the Yang. Yin and Yang are opposing energies that, when present in equal amounts, complement each other to create wholeness and balance. The same is true of Congratulations! and a book called The Hero Is You by Kendra Levin. Like Yin, which is passive and receptive, Key’s book allowed me to sit back and observe, learning as if by osmosis while Key stumbled but ultimately succeeded. Levin’s book channeled Yang’s active energy, making me the hero of my story—a journey in which I climbed toward writing goals with Levin serving as my Sherpa. While Key uses raw honesty softened by humor to narrate a cautionary tale, Levin cheerleads, encouraging readers to shake off fear’s shackles so they can tackle increasingly taller peaks. Together, the two authors keep writers’ feet anchored in reality as they reach for the stars.
Levin is a certified life coach who applies Joseph Campbell’s theory of the Hero’s Journey to mapping a path to success that any writer can follow. She presents challenges, such as distraction and self-doubt, as antagonists who represent Campbell’s universal archetypes. Her approach makes formidable mental and emotional obstacles concrete, finite, and, therefore, surmountable. Although Hero’s premise and structure rest on an academic foundation, the book’s language and concepts are accessible to any adult reader. Its airy metaphors are accompanied by practical exercises that writers can complete to move from brainstorming to planning, drafting, developing, revising, and submitting their work for publication. Some of Hero’s content is familiar, like sticking to a weekly writing schedule and creating systems of accountability, but Levin frames it with a fresh approach. In one exercise, for example, she poses questions that readers can answer to create supportive scaffolding. She asks them to identify their writing twin—someone with similar reading interests and writing habits who shores them up when they falter. She suggests identifying a writing witness—someone who provides a competitive nudge and/or models follow-through. She guides readers through identifying a soothsayer—someone who tells the truth, even (and especially) those truths the writer might not want to hear.
It seems appropriate that I wouldn’t have come across either book if not for my writing twin, a friend and colleague named Kelly Lundquist writing a memoir who recommended them while we talked about our goals and what we’ve learned so far. Her suggestions led me to cultivate a list of books that writers find helpful to navigating the writing, submitting, and publishing process. If you have a title I should include, post it in the comments here or contact me via Twitter @LisaIrishWhalen. I’ll share the list in a future post.