I’m not going to act like this is all about me, or that whatever meager sort of career I’ve somehow managed to eek out has been done by myself. But I’ll tell you this: This writing stuff — especially music writing — is exhausting. And the internet requires the full monty, so be prepared. Like, fully prepared to do work that you’re honestly not good enough yet to do and to fail mightily until you get good enough or you give up. This is how things are.
You’ll find a way, against all odds. Your parents may or may not find it in their hearts to support you. After all, they expected you to have a stable enough career to buy a house and have a car and be married, but this is 2016, so yeah, right. You might not have parents. You might have one. But know this: All you’ve got are your stupid dreams and your stupid feet and your life curling up before you like a cat on a windowsill.
That’s fine and all, but don’t come into this thing unprepared. Don’t get it twisted, it is about clean copy and great ideas. It is. But there are other things you need to consider before you fire up your WordPress blog and think you’ll be galloping your way to being Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah or Doreen St. Felix or Rembert Browne or Mary H.K. Choi in no time at all. I’ll start with the basics:
Cash
You will need it, most of you won’t have it, and this will complicate things in a way you might not yet understand. You’ll need to do something else for it at first, unless you are one of the fully-accepted-right-away writers. Which, in that case, you’ve come here for a laugh or you’re a voyeur. Either one I can get with, to be honest. Do whatever you can for it that won’t kill you. Or, you can live with your folks (if that’s an option) and scrounge through the change jar where they were saving for your baby cousin’s education for train and bus fare (I’ll pay you back, guys, don’t act like that).
But do what you can. This is the hard part. It’s harder for some than others. While getting cash, you’ll feel things that will drain you. But this shouldn’t worry you, that’s life. You’ll write anyway, and you’ll be so tired there will be times when it physically hurts to lift a finger. You might insist that getting to that photo shoot or that interview will be impossible. It won’t be. Calm down. Get your cash and spend it on getting to gigs, reading, writing, self-care and emails.
Time
I was at a reading of Junot Diaz incredible “The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao,” one time. There, he said something like “we live in a world where we need to be alone, to be reflective, but nothing will give us the time to do that.” And it’s true, you won’t get time. You must make time.
Plan your time out, schedule it, or come to it through a seance. Whatever you need to do, do it. You have to make time to write and come up with ideas. This is a requisite. If you don’t, you can’t succeed as a music writer. You’ll have to turn your friends down sometimes. Turn off your phone. Stop binge-watching for a while (unless that’s either your material or how you stay focused) and write — preferably about music, you future Touré, you.
Here’s where the hustle comes in.
A music writing internship, a fellowship, a hope
For all of you who didn’t need an internship, you’re my heroes. Seriously. I don’t care how you broke in, but you seemed to do it on your terms. That’s amazing. For the rest of us, there’s the internship. It’s tricky. Even free labor these days costs something to the person you’re working for. Just far less than it costs you in time and money. Still, you need the experience and you need to learn from the people who can teach you how to do it. So whether you’re sending your poems to people in hopes that they’ll see a spark (Ta-Nehisi Coates) or you’re at every networking event there ever was, you’ll eventually find your way to a person or an organization who will be okay with teaching you. The competition for music writing internships can be fierce, so differentiate yourself by being a face-to-face person instead of a resume on a computer screen. That works too, no doubt. But sometimes a personal touch is what really matters.
Perseverance
This will save you. This will allow you to dress your wounds at the end of the day and get on with it. This is everything else. Through this, you will beg the muse and she will throw you crumbs. You will find the stories you want to tell and you will try your best to tell them. When you’re on a train and all you have is your self-worth and a laptop that looks like a war zone, this will be your salvation. When you think you can’t be reliable, you’ll find out that you can and you must. This will help you push through awkward Thanksgivings where nosey family members will ask you if you’re still doing that writing thing, dates that look at you like you’re crazy for even attempting, and getting ignored by Jaden Smith when you finally work up the courage to DM him for an interview. This is where you will your own personal magic. Hopefully, you find it.
