The Benefits Of Being A Pocket Messiah

Nearly a year ago (let's see…after my agent and I parted ways; before I landed a publishing deal for The Great Lenore), I wrote a post called Why You Need A Fellow Writer Who Makes You Fly. Some of the news and information in that post is outdated, but the foundation that post was built upon remains as solid as ever.

In the post, I discussed my relationship with Mickey Diamond. As you'll see when you visit that link, Mickey is both brilliant…and rather inactive as an Internet participant. Part of the reason for his Internet inactivity is that he is actually doing, rather than just spending time pretending. The other reason is that he is still searching for his place online…something that seems to be ever-more difficult the more brilliant a writer is.

Or maybe I am only romanticizing. Maybe I am blowing Mickey's brilliance all out of proportion…

And maybe that is exactly what he and I have needed from one another all along.

You see, Mickey and I came across one another's paths several years ago in some serendipitous manner or other, and since that time we have shared writing thoughts with one another, have shared ideas, have shared trials and triumphs and frustrations and joys. Sometimes, we have passed about an email per week back and forth to one another. At other times, we have gone a month, (sadly) two months, between fits of correspondence.

When Mickey needed someone to lend him breath during a tough time in his life and his writing, I was able to give him some of mine.

When I needed to know whether The Great Lenore was actually as wonderful as I thought it might be, he was able to read and advise and exalt and encourage.

Although neither he nor myself have remained as consistent in our correspondence as we would like (or rather, "as would be optimally beneficial"), we have nevertheless forged a conduit of shared struggles and triumphs.

The basis of that post from nearly a year ago? It is important – I daresay, it might be vital – to possess one such writing relationship…to find someone with whom you can walk alongside throughout the writing journey.

Since that time when he and I began to correspond, he has attended the MFA program at Goddard and has begun teaching creative writing at a high school in New Jersey. I have gained an agent, lost an agent, and inked a publishing deal. As he said in a recent email:

"When I first emailed you (via myspace! Ack!), we were full of lust for a lifestyle, for a career of words, and for a comrade in that world…And I think we have landed where we aimed, to a certain extent."

But he went on to discuss how we are both still thirsty. How we long for so much more. And I believe that it has been our side-by-side journey along the writing path that has enabled us to reach this point with such speed as we have reached it, and it is our continued joint-travel that will help us avoid the false trails that call to us…and that will help us as we persist forward, forward, forward…

I have spent much time ruminating over that relationship and its importance in my life.

I have spent less time ruminating over the relationship I am about to discuss…

Journey alongside me, Dear Reader. It won't take much longer. I don't have a lot to share on this topic…Yet. But I am eager. I am hungry to explore…

A couple months ago, I crossed paths in the blogosphere with a fellow writer named Paul Joseph.

What do I know about Paul? Very little. Except that he is as hungry as nearly any writer I have ever come across. He fights for his thoughts like he is waging war against those birds of Distraction that try to swoop in and steal his seeds. He spills words on his website that are eager and hopeful and thoroughly honest. I know that he will write, no matter what happens. I also know (or, I should say, "I get the feeling") that he sometimes questions whether he will write no matter what happens. I know this…because I have felt that way myself. And I know that if he ever tries to stop – if he ever just walks away – he will boomerang back. He cannot not write. This is one thing about him that I have especially spotted.

Over the last couple months, he and I have sent a few emails back and forth. He has learned things from me, and I have learned things from him. But what I realized in examining our relationship is this: It is an altogether different relationship from the one I share with Mickey.

One of the keys was buried in that email where Mickey mentioned the point in our respective writing journeys where we met up with one another – we were both in such similar places, and we have traveled along the winding road together (even straying from the path and finding our way forward again together). And now – as I have shared some thoughts with Paul and have read blog posts of his in which he presents me as some sort of pocket messiah who has helped to guide him forward – I realize the importance of having writing relationships such as this.

I'll admit – I am no pocket messiah. But I do know things that some other writers may not know. I have traveled farther along the path. And now, I have spotted someone behind me who is traveling the path as well…and I feel that it is my duty to call to him. To direct him. To help make his path clear. "Paul, there's a false trail there – don't follow it!" "There's a hole buried beneath that scattering of leaves – careful not to twist your ankle." "Hey, once you get around that corner, things clear out a bit. Keep coming!"

And I do not do this only for him – I do this also for me.

Just as traveling alongside Mickey has helped me immensely, I have found that guiding someone else along the path has helped me as well.

No one knows so much about writing that they cannot learn more – and oftentimes, the places from which you will learn more will be absolutely unexpected.

I imagine how much steadier my own journey would have been had I found someone ahead of me on the path who was willing to pause and call back to me with help. Perhaps I would have avoided some of the mistakes I made. And perhaps their aid to me would have enabled them to see patterns in the obstacles along the path, thereby assisting them in their own way forward.

I do not have a tidy closing for this post. I do not know how this will or will not help you in your own journey.

I will, however, say this: Writing is a journey. And if you find someone with whom you can share the journey – and if you can find others behind you on the path who you can help, and if you find others in front of you on the path who are willing to help you – the journey is far more likely to lead you to the landmarks along the path you wish to reach. And heck, even if that's not the case, some partners in the journey will help you enjoy the darn thing a whole lot more.




Keep your feet on the path, Dear Writer.
Keep moving forward.
~J

Other Places Where I Hang Out:

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