Sometimes people have the wrong idea about what it means to be an author. They paint up fantasies of sitting back and watching millions of dollars roll in while texting inside jokes to our favorite authors.
Thankfully though, Michael Scott, our fearless leader from the NBC hit show The Office, is not just the Worlds Best Boss, he’s also super understanding about what it means to be an author.
Here are 10 times Michael Scott perfectly summed up what it means to be an author.
1. So ready to start, but then staring at that infamous blank page
Sometimes, it isn’t until after you sit down to start writing that you realize you have no idea how to formulate a complete sentence. Suddenly, you’re sitting there asking yourself if there really is a difference between its and it’s, and, what’s that rule again of e coming before i?
Don’t worry. Michael Scott knows just how you feel.
2. Well, they say research is key…
Whoever is using anything other than Wikipedia as their only source of research is clearly doing it wrong. If anyone can add anything to a particular page, it has to be right. Right?
3. Don’t stop me now
Once those gears finally click into place, nothing can slow you down. With a blink of an eye, you’ve already written two chapters. Wait, make that three!
4. When you share your plot with someone else and they say, “Oh! It sounds just like [insert name of any other creative piece in the same genre].”
Just like with Michael Scott, sometimes someone else beats you to that super creative and unique idea you came up with. Don’t let that deter you. Keep at it and make it your own!
But also, don’t listen to them. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
5. Alright, we’re really doing it now
After your schedule opens up from blocking all your haters, you finally have time to sit down and finish writing that manuscript. Sometimes you’ll have the perfect sentence planned out and it sounds great. But that only happens about 5% of the time. The other 95% of the time is spent praying that the sentence you started somehow will make sense.
6. Re-reading
No words are even needed.
7. Realizing you’ll never make it
There is quite possibly nothing worse than sitting back in your desk chair— or whatever sitting apparatus you use when you write— and thinking you’ll never make it as an author. Looking back at all the countless hours you spent writing and editing, not to mention the costs you may have spent on services so far, it can make you just want to throw in the towel and live nomadically for the rest of your life. Honestly though, what’s the worst thing that could happen by declaring bankruptcy?
Personally, I’m still trying to get over this one myself.
8. But then you think about your fans
They say, even I’ve said, not to write for your audience. However, it is nice to think about all the people who’ll one day be lining up in dozens, if not hundreds, to buy your book. Because there’s no way people will hate what you wrote. You know it, and they all know it.
They also know to praise you and your book until the end of time, right?
9. When it’s all said and done
Nothing beats the feeling of either finishing your manuscript or holding the author copies in your hands. It’s this simultaneous sinking and floating feeling of joy and fear. Will the fans I’ve made up in my head actually read it and praise me like I need? What if everyone hates it? Or worse, what if no one even reads it!?
At the same time, you can see your physical accomplishments there in your hands. Letting that terrifying joy sink in is probably my favorite part of being an author so far.
10. Staring Success in the eyes
As you watch friends and family share your book with more and more people, you sit back and ask, “How could I have ever doubted myself?”
No matter what obstacles and successes you face as an author, always remember Michael Scott’s most inspirational quote:
If you never try and write, you’ll never succeed.
Caitlyn Grey 