I may be crossing a line when I say this, especially as a writer, but I don’t like coffee. I really don’t. Unless it is mixed with heaping amounts of sugar and served up as ice cream, I never cared for the taste. It is too pungent and, dare I say, bitter. Maybe that bitterness is somehow synonymous with the business side of writing.
The Writer Without a Coffee Habit
That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the smell of coffee. My mouth doesn’t water but it does give me a taste for something else I crave — memories. Visions from the past spring into my mind with each cup.
Back in the day, I watched my parents brew coffee in the tiny kitchen of my childhood home. My friends gulped java by the gallon as we studied for medical school exams. Let’s not forget the hours upon hours I wrote in bookshops and cafes, breathing in the aromas around me.
With all these memories, I should not only like coffee, I should love it … but I don’t.
He liked the idea of coffee quite a lot — a warm drink that gave you energy and had been for centuries associated with sophisticates and intellectuals. But coffee itself tasted to him like caffeinated stomach bile. So he did an end-around on the unfortunate taste by drowning his java in cream.
Author John Green in An Abundance of Katherines
Why Do You Want to Be a Writer?
I don’t like the taste of coffee, but I have fond memories with coffee nestled in the background. If I want a caffeine fix, there are more than enough alternatives. I could dip into a box of chocolates (oh, yeah!) or I could choose from a variety of teas. Personally, I favor a chai latte. The baristas at Barnes and Noble know to whip one up as soon as I make my way through those double doors.
The problem is that many people will pretend to like something even when it is only the “idea” of it that they like. Take writing as an example.
Everyone wants to be a writer. They see it as a laissez-faire existence, a life of ease and simplicity. After all, you sit around and scribble ideas on paper while sitting back with that cup of java in hand. You can work from home in your bunny slippers or from any place you wish. The world begs for your words. You are so effortlessly creative, you are hardly working!
If this is one of the reasons you want to be a writer, you are in for a rude awakening.
Realities of the Writer’s Life
Writing is hard work, harder than many people realize.
On the days the ideas flow, the writing can be so gosh darn satisfying, but there will be days when that doesn’t happen. There will be days you stare at a blank page or days that your cursor blinks at you with a stink eye. Days the words are sparse and days they do not come at all. There will even be days you throw out sentences, paragraphs, pages, or whole chapters you spent hours or days trying to get just right.
Then, there’s the rejection. It comes for all of us, even the Stephen Kings of the world. Not all writers will get a traditional book deal. If they do, the average advance for a first-time novel is only $5,000 to $15,000. That’s great until you realize how long it took to write and it might take a year or more for the book to actually come out. Many writers will struggle to find an agent that will take them on in the first place, and even if they do, publishers may still turn them down. There are no guarantees.
Let’s not forget the critics. While you hope readers sing your praises, there will always be negative reviews, some constructive, others harsh, some flagrantly mean. Months or years of hard work could be reduced to a two-line zinger in a public forum.
If you want to be a writer, you have to have thick skin. Not everyone is built for it.
The Joy of Being a Writer
Ah, but those gains. They feel so good! When you land an agent or get a book deal. You get your first paycheck or advance for writing. You sell your first book. A stranger gives you a five-star review (love your reviews too, Mom!).
Better yet are the smaller everyday moments of being a writer. When your writing flows like water. The perfect word comes to mind. A sentence is so well-written it knocks your socks off. You shoot past your word count. You wake up with the idea that finally brings your plot together.
If things like this don’t thrill you, do you really want to be a writer? You have to love the process of writing, the ups and downs, the inevitable risks, the long and winding road. If you write for the accolades but not for the joy of it, the writer’s life may not be the right fit for you.
It’s time to ask yourself what you really want. Should you drink coffee even though you don’t like it? If that’s the case, why live life with a bad taste in your mouth, doing what you feel you are supposed to do when you could be chasing what actually makes you happy?
As for me, I know what I want. Pour me the biggest cup you’ve got but I’ll take the chai.