Wednesday for Writers #6: Why You Should Never Be the Smartest Person in the Room

Last night on Twitter, I chatted on and off with my friend JL Bryan. Since you read my blog, you might remember that he is the awesome author who wrote Jenny Pox and that maybe sometimes I can be a bit fangirlie.

BUT DON'T TELL HIM.

It's weird because, I have a hard time remembering that my buddy Jeffery is this dude I had a writer crush on before we 'met'. Here's how it happened: I read an excerpt of Jenny Pox in some Amanda Hocking novel. I don't remember which. I have read all of them and it hurts my head to remember timelines back that far. So at some point I started stalking Jeff on the internets. Only it was odd, as there didn't seem to be a whole lot of other people doing that. Jeff had sold a crap ton more books than me--so the fact he didn't have a twenty thousand Twitter followers, and like ten times the number of blog followers was sort of in direct contrast to EVERYTHING I KNEW ABOUT SELLING BOOKS ON THE INTERNET. Which I thought at the time, was quite a lot.

As it turns out, it really wasn't.

To make a long, painful, and humiliating story very short; one night I was sharing my, "Goals in life*," on Twitter. One of them was to have JL Bryan follow me, and it happened! We have come a long way since then, now I get to call him a friend and not just some idol.

I told you that story to tell you this one.

Every author has an ego. Finding a healthy balance is necessary and almost impossible. Too little ego and your books will never see the light of day. With out ego, an author wouldn't care if anyone ever read their books. Too much ego, and you will develop what I like to call, "Smartest person in the room syndrome." Or SPITRS for short.

SPITRS come in all varities but the main SPITRS are fools, the ones dumb enough to think they are the coolest, bestest, most awesomest person they knew when they aren't and the people who make sure they are. Sounds heavenly! If I were to have SPITERS that would be the way I would go, trust me my ego would love it. People who make sure they sit atop the mountain and look down on everyone else. It sounds great, but what will you learn if you refuse to associate with people who do know more than you?

I'd be lying if I said my ego wasn't wounded every time I re-read Jeffery's bio and remember he studied English at Oxford--I was a Drama Major some place not nearly as impressive! But it doesn't sting like it used to, because I have learned so much from hanging out with people who are cooler than I am. It makes me sick thinking I could have missed out because of pride.

Speaking of Jeffery, he has a new book coming out and I know a lot of you are going to LOVE it. Check the deets:

A new dystopian novel from the author of Jenny Pox - coming July 26.

They took everything: her family, her home, her childhood.

By the age of nineteen, Raven has spent most of her life in the sprawling slums of America, fighting as a rebel against the dictatorship. When the rebellion steals an experimental time-travel device, she travels back five decades to the year 2013. Her plan: assassinate the future dictator when he is still young and vulnerable, long before he comes to power. She must move fast to reshape history, because agents from her own time are on her trail, ready to execute her on sight.

Cover by PhatPuppy Art

Stalk Jeffery on Twitter.
@JLBryanBooks

*BTW, doing a goals in life post Friday. Because I'm down to my last one.