This is not unique to writers. Anyone in a creative field, or anyone trying to build a career for that matter, faces this hurdle. How do you get people to sit up and take notice? How do you draw attention to what you are building?

The comedian Steve Martin famously said, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” The simplicity of this statement is stunning. Those seven words contain the secret of getting noticed, building an audience, and all the other things writers and creatives want.

It’s worth asking ourselves whether we are committed enough to our writing craft to keep going until people notice us. Are we willing to put in the early mornings and late nights? Are we willing to keep rewriting and editing until it’s as good as we can possibly make it? Are we willing to try different things even though there is no guarantee it will work?

The answer to those kinds of questions will determine whether people will ignore us… or they will eventually sit up and take notice. It’s the willingness to do the work and to keep getting better—not necessarily your level in talent—that makes all the difference.

Question: Have you committed to becoming so good they can’t ignore you?

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Let me ask you an honest question. Do you love the work of being a writer?

Here’s what I mean. Do you love the process of coming up with ideas, writing multiple drafts, editing, and working on the design or layout of blog posts or books? Do you take pleasure in the overall creative process?

Or are you more interested in the end result? Do you see all those other things as an irritation or annoyance on the way to getting to the end result?

This is an important question. I believe if you’re going to be successful over the long haul as a writer, you must learn to love every step of the process. The author Dorothy Parker said, “I hate writing. I love having written.”

We all can relate to that, but it’s also a sad commentary on our obsession with the end result.

Sometimes you hear about world-class actors who really relish the process of bringing a character to life, or even living in character on set. Heath Ledger and Daniel Day-Lewis were famous for that. They loved the process, not just going to the movie premiere and seeing themselves on screen.

If you don’t love the drafting or editing process so much, I want you to start seeing it as your friend, as a companion that helps you to produce a better end result. When you come to love the process as much as the end result, the writing life becomes something you can enjoy every day, not just once every year or two when you release a book.

Wouldn’t that be so much more fun?

Question: Do you love every part of the writing process? Why or why not?

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