THE QUACK

It was 1959, On the Waterfront, when Marlon Brando said the famous line, “I could’ve been somebody.” It’s a simple line, but it sums up the fear within us all, which has grown significantly in our generation. The rise of social media and reality TV shows proves we’re terrified of being a nobody. We encourage strangers online to ‘follow us’ and choose livelihoods that give us a chance to stand out, become notable – become a somebody.

Some choose to be entrepreneurs who ‘do things a little differently’, some are bad boy chefs who have magazine-style photos in front of their steaks, and others become writers.

People often claim that they want to write a book, but as my tutor pointed out, quite rightly, people don’t want to write a book; they want to have written a book. Being a published author means you can sit back at a dinner party knowing you’re impressive. However, the reality of writing a book is uncomfortable and, at times, tedious, and if you finish it, it’s unlikely you’ll ever be published.

In 2020, my life plan unexpectedly changed, and I felt like I had failed somewhat. And so I decided to use the Lockdown to write my first novel, Can of Worms. The process of crafting a story and working towards a goal was the thing that got me out of a hole. After a year and several redrafts – my little green self sent it off to agents – who all rejected it.

Of course, being published was the dream, but I don’t regret a single second of working on that novel. It gave me escapism, self-belief, a learning curve, and structure during a time when there was nothing solid. If my sole purpose had been to be somebody, then that hole would have gotten a hell of a lot deeper at that point.

I visited New York this month, and there is nothing more sobering than looking across a city of windows and realising just how many people there are in this world. I’m not saying you can’t strive to reach these millions of people, but you have to face the reality that you may never be a somebody to everybody.

So Lesson 3; write for you, not for the world.