Women in the Arts: Maggie Jaimeson

I have known Maggie Jaimeson for many years before our New Year's Resolution blog tour at the beginning of the year, but I really enjoyed getting to know her better. So you bet I was excited when she said she would answer my interview questions!


What do you tell people you do?
I tell them I’m a novelist.  This is something new for me. Though I’ve been writing novels for publication for almost 10 years now, until recently I referred to myself as an Academic (professor, instructional designer, or administrator depending on the time in my career). In October 2012, I decided it was time to “retire” and do what I’ve wanted to do for 30 years—write full time.  I do occasionally take on an educational consulting gig when the write opportunity comes up. But now I consider myself a full time writer.
 

When did you know it was time to stop treating your art as a hobby and start it as a career?

  Prior to that I had written and sold short stories, the occasional poem or essay, off and on since the late 1970’s.  I did write two novels during that time, but never submitted them or felt they were good enough to submit.  But when I turned 50 I realized that if I was going to become a full-time writer I better get cracking, because who knows how much time I would have left in my life. Seven years later, with six novels completed, I sold my first novel to a small press. 

What are some of the aspects of your job that people don’t see? For example, most people don’t understand how much marketing is done by the authors themselves instead of a publisher, and most audience members don’t see how costumes and props are designed/chosen.

 

The thing I believe most people don’t see is the amount of editing, re-writing, re-thinking, re-editing that authors do.  Most people seem to think that an author writes a story from beginning to end then goes back over it once or twice and sends it out for publication.  I wish it were that easy.   

Once the first draft of a novel is completed, the writer usually goes through an editing process which may have her editing the entire book five, six, or even fifteen more times before it is published. I wrote a guest post on this titled How Deep Editing Changes Everything.

Name a few of your current projects. For example, conferences, publicity, design process, what you have for sale.

On the writing side, I am branching out to Young Adult fantasy. I have completed 1-1/2 books in a seven book series that I’ll start shopping when the second book is done. I’ll still be continuing my romance series with Sweetwater Canyon book 3, Heartstrings, and book 4, Two Voices, scheduled to publish this year. I’m also considering how to continue my two suspense books. I wrote them with series potential and I’m evaluating when and how I want to pursue that.

This question is a chance to meander or talk in greater depth if you’d like. Here you can talk about what hobbies you pursue, how you refresh your well of ideas, what you would recommend to other women interested in a career in the arts.

I do have three recommendations for women, and men, who are interested in a career in the arts. The first is, only pursue a career in the arts if you can’t do anything else. If you can find another career and still be happy, then don’t choose the arts as a career.  Keep it as a hobby. To pursue a career in the arts requires full commitment. This means it is something you HAVE to do, not just something you want to do. It means that doing anything else would be useless because you would always be thinking of your art and how to get back to it.

The second recommendation relates to the first. It is okay to choose a career other than the arts and then change your mind.  The type of commitment the arts require may be a commitment that you are unable to make when you are young. That was the case for me. Don’t worry, if it calls to you enough, you can still have that career later in life.  Choose art only when you can truly commit.

The final and most important recommendation is:  Believe in Yourself!  It is the hardest thing to do, but the most important. Whether it’s writing, painting, sculpture, dance, or theater, you are judged on the product you produce. For most people that critical judgment is the most difficult part of art because art, in my opinion, requires you to share something of yourself in a most intimate way. When we are judged on our art, we can’t help but take it personally.

To survive a career in the arts you must believe that what you are producing is the best it can possibly be at that moment when it’s released to the world.  This is not to say that what you produce is perfect.  It is also not to suggest that you should never listen to feedback.  But it is belief in yourself and your work—belief that your point-of-view is important—that allows you to accurately filter feedback and reject that which doesn’t fit with your direction. If you don’t believe in yourself and your point-of-view, you will fall into the quagmire of competing views that can only end in defeat.

A career in the arts is not easy. Most often it is not very financially rewarding. However, the intrinsic rewards are limitless. What you learn about yourself, and your relationship to the world beyond yourself, is never-ending. For me, that is the reason to pursue a career in the arts.  I will always be learning, and therefore I am living life to its fullest.


Find  Maggie on the web: Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter