Keep Moving
“A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.” —Alvy Singer, Annie Hall, Woody Allen
Yes, Woody Allen has made his mistakes, but his characters often say things in his movies that stay with me forever. Or, in the case of the poorly reviewed Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), the sight of a rather fetching sheep wearing fancy lingerie and Gene Wilder drinking Woolite after that sheep leaves him. Anyway, let’s talk about the shark otherwise known as a creative project that has risk attached, a novel, a film script, a poem, an unsolicited article. This shark is going to need to keep moving or it will not survive—in fact, it may not survive anyway—or maybe you are the shark. Anyway, keep moving.
Diane Keaton as Annie Hall
As soon as I finished my latest novel I had ten pages of a new novel written, an idea for how to find a publisher for my college essay handbook, I had found an old play that deserves to be revived even though it’s typed on stationary from a college where I taught twenty-five years ago. This is not a humble brag. I literally suffer the fate of the damned when I’m waiting to hear whether an agent or a publisher wants my work, so focusing on something else helps. At the moment I am seeking a new agent. It is nerve-wracking and awful. My shark slows down, I play many games of solitaire, I watch bad TV, I escape to the gym which is actually helpful.
I have always worked on long writing projects, years of writing, a job to help pay the bills. Currently I am coaching a wonderful high school student who is taking an AP class in comparative politics. We read about Russia, China, and Iran. I am appalled by the behavior of these governments and begin to think my stories about mothers, children, loss, and marriage are stupid compared to what is revealed as part of the Cultural Revolution when people were forced to eat their neighbors to survive. Comparisons are not helpful unless they provide context or inspire one to create. Reading about the People’s Republic of China just made me feel bad and guilty about my current lack of patriotism.
Keep moving. Read a terrific novel that’s different from yours and be inspired not discouraged. Go to the art museum and admire art and people watch, eavesdrop, start planning another project. I saw paintings of scenes from WWI and decided that I might attempt a multi-generational novel about my Catholic grandmother who was a nurse in the trenches. Don’t pitch a single idea or your only piece of writing. It’s like photography, one picture will probably make you look old, crazy, or fat while one out of thirty will show you as the beauty you actually are. Never mind who or what is the shark. Just keep moving.
—Molly Moynahan, author and writing coach