How to Defeat the Dream-Stealers

I hadn’t been careful enough, and the creature had my scent. Fight or flight, but there’s nowhere to run. With my dream exposed, I came face to face with the very real beast known as the dream stealer.

All writers face dream stealers in their lives, but the scent of the speculative fiction writer draws them more powerfully than any other. They might look like your mom, or your dad. They could be your husband, or wife. Maybe they wear a face of a good friend. But if you aren’t ready to fight, they will kill your dream, and you’ll push away from your manuscript, never to return.

Why do they attack,?

Sun Tzu famously said, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Dream Stealers, like any good antagonist, are the hero of their own story, gallantly trying to save you from yourself. They have your best interests at heart.

They know, from their own painful experiences, how much it hurts when a dream is left unfulfilled. They will rescue you from heartbreak and ruin before it’s too late. It’s not just you they want to save, but also themselves. It’s hard to watch someone you care about walk through a painful experience. Better to steer them off the path before they get hurt.

They want you to take the path more traveled. The safer path. They are the voice of the future. There will be time to pursue your dream of publication later, they say. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. After college. After you get married. After the kids are gone. To the last syllable of recorded time.

How can you fight them? How do you hold on to your dream of being a published author when they tempt you to take the easier path?

Know your odds, know your definition of success, know your season, and know your why.

Know your odds

The Dream Stealer will quote the odds to you. Whether you opt for traditional publishing or go the route of Independent publishing, the odds are stacked against you. Many will enter, few will win. For every publishing contract awarded, or agent signed, they reject hundreds of other writers. Knowing the odds before the Dream Stealer throws them at you neutralizes their power. This isn’t a once and done battle, it’s one you have to fight repeatedly. Look your Dream Stealer in the eyes, channel your best Harrison Ford, and say, “Never tell me odds.”

Know your definition of success

Dream Stealers take a narrow view of success when they talk of the odds. It’s not enough to have finished a manuscript, or even gotten an agent. No, their only criteria is if you become a Best Seller. They never look at the smaller accomplishments. You must celebrate the small wins: the finished draft, the compliment from your critique partner, a contest victory. Those are the oxygen your dream needs to stay alive.

A struggle with a deep, philosophical issue gave birth to my current work-in-progress manuscript. If the story helps even one other person navigate those waters, the book will have been a resounding success.

You are not a failure just because you didn’t achieve someone else’s definition of success.

Know your season

My kids tire of me saying ‘a time and a place’, but it’s true. There’s a time and a place for everything. It’s important to understand your current season of life. Pursuing a career as a professional writer takes a serious commitment of time, passion and resources. Not every season lends itself to making that commitment. Perhaps today you’re in a growing season which will provide a fertile ground of emotions and conflict to fuel your future novels. Don’t let anyone define the timetable for you.

Know your why

Like our characters, we need deep motivations to maintain our quest for publication over the long haul. You need to connect your dream to something bigger than yourself. From my experience, fantasizing about a huge advance check won’t do it. There are easier ways to make money.

Whatever your reason is, write it down and read it every time it’s time to write. That why will motivate you to put the butt in the chair when you’re tired, or aren’t feeling it. Your why will get you to grind out words that won’t come.

Gird yourself for battle

The moment you pursued the dream of being a published writer, you put a target on your back. Your scent wafts in the breeze and every Dream Stealer in your life picks it up. They mean well and they sincerely have your best interest at heart. But they give voice to the fears and doubts every writer harbors in their heart. We have to be careful to choose the voices we listen to. Those will be the ones that influence us.

“Life’s full of lots of dream-stealers always telling you you need to do something more sensible. I think it doesn’t matter what your dream is, just fight the dream-stealers and hold on to it.”

Bear Grylls.

Ted Atchley is a freelance writer and professional computer programmer. Whether it’s words or code, he’s always writing.  
Ted’s love for speculative fiction started early on with Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, and the Star Wars movies. This led to reading Marvel comics and eventually losing himself in Asimov’s Apprentice Adept and the world of Krynn (Dragonlance Chronicles). 
After blogging on his own for several years, Blizzard Watch (blizzardwatch.com) hired Ted to be a regular columnist in 2016. When the site dropped many of its columns two years later, they retained Ted as a staff writer. 
He lives in beautiful Charleston, SC with his wife and children. When not writing, you’ll find him spending time with his family, and cheering on his beloved Carolina Panthers.
He’s currently revising his work-in-progress portal fantasy novel before preparing to query. 

• Twitter: @tedatchley3,
• Twitter: @honorshammer (gaming / Blizzard Watch)