Act As If
“Acting as if” is a personal development trick where you imagine how someone who’s in a position you aspire to would act, and then do those things yourself. For example, say you want to be a best-selling author. What would she do? Chances are she would set aside a certain amount of time to write each day, and allow no intrusions. If you want to be this writer, that’s what you need to do. Or maybe you want to be a magazine writer whose work lands in places like The New Yorker and The Atlantic. How much research do you think such a writer would do on his ideas? What style would this writer write in? Where would he find his ideas? You need to do the same.
This tactic can help you make decisions as well. For example, if you’re presented with a terrible payrate or an editor asks for a revision, ask yourself what your perfect writer self would do in this situation. You might get up the courage to negotiate more pay or handle the revision request with professionalism.
How can you “act as if” you’re the writer you want to be? Please post your ideas in the Comments below. [lf]
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Feb 5, 2009 Advice, Observations, Self improvement
I love this concept! I am going to “act as if” I’m a writer for O, The Oprah Magazine! Thanks for the inspiration!
Very true. There is a saying that I love about acting as if you have the job you want not the one you have… (I know, read that line a few times) and it really works well. I think it tricks the mind into thinking and behaving differently. And hopefully, in a way that brings success.
It’s funny. You hear similar advice pretty often with other careers (“Dress for the job you want, not the job you have!”), but I never thought about applying it to writing.
Now to start stalking Nick Hornby for “research”…
I have always believed in this concept, but it must be clarified that in doing this, you are not “pretending” to be an author or writer, but rather, you believe that you are one now and so you endeavor to behave like one. Thank you for sharing this thought.
I love this. OK–I am acting as if I am sane and solvent…Sane and solvent….sa…nothing…
I think this is a very important concept to remember and practice when you write a blog. Aspiring authors, IMO, should write blog entries as if they might be read by their readers, not just their close friends (hey, could happen, hopefully wtih happen!). It might affect some of what they choose to reveal…
So true, in many cases! Setting one’s eyes very firmly on the prize and not taking no for an answer is how to do it–at least one way of doing it.
So I visualize my byline in the mags I want, and my name on the cover of my novels. And I pointedly remind myself that all the wishful thinking in the world isn’t going to do squat if I don’t follow-through by applying the seat of my pants to the seat of my chair (thank you, Mark Twain) and just WRITE. Thanks for the reminder…
Thanks for the post! Just seeing the title in my blog reader yesterday reminded me that I try to actively employ it (on a day when I wasn’t doing such a hot job of it).
There are those that want to be writers and may or may not do certain things to try and accomplish that. There are those still that *need* to be writers. They probably don’t need any reminders or tricks. They just write.
I love this. I have implemented it into my queries. I am a new freelancer. I visulize that all of these magazines are just waiting for my queries to “Make” their magazine. I write down specific deadlines for things and it gets the work done. I know successful freelancers have deadlines they must meet and I too fake it until I make it w/ my deadlines! As the previous responders said it gets my butt in the chair writing.
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I think this is a great idea. Everyone acts a little bit, and eventually you’ll be comfortable enough and you won’t have to act it’ll be second nature, and when you become that expert you won’t have to worry about it.
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