Some words in English are pretty much single-purpose words. "Faucet," for example, pretty much means one thing and one thing only. Other words might have a dual purpose, either because of meaning or part of speech or both. "Knife" might be such a word: as a noun, it's a bladed weapon or tool, while as a verb it can mean to sort of find a way through obstacles or clutter ("he knifed through the coverage into the open field"). It can also, of course, mean to attack someone with a knife, but that's not all that different from the noun meaning.
Other words are sort of hybrids--they have many meanings and even within those meanings have different connotations. "Hustle" is one such word. As a coach, I use this word all the time to mean "move quickly and energetically." My wife just watched the movie Hustlers, which was about a group of women who, through a complex and systematic mechanism of deception and trickery, fooled people out of their money.
There's a kind of middle ground with that word, meaning "to obtain through forceful action or persuasion." Or to go and get something because you put a lot of effort and energy into getting it. Or being indefatigable. This aspect of the word doesn't have a negative connotation--it means to work hard at something until you get it.
In the world of the arts, we usually apply this word not so much to the actual effort involved in creating the art (we won't usually say "I hustled until I created my sculpture" but rather in selling it, in getting the word out about your work, in getting eyes or ears on your project. Say what you want, but the creation of good art is not always enough for the world to notice it (and, conversely, the creation of bad art can be noticed through hype and hustle).
So what does this all mean? The publisher I've worked with on my last two novels (Beltrunner and Silent Manifest) sent me a marketing guide that included a list of questions for the writer to answer. Stuff like "is this a hobby or a career?" and "what are you willing to do in order to market your work?" Maybe the good folks at EDGE Publishing didn't know it, but those questions really stuck with me.
Here it is: I'm not huge on New Year's Resolutions, but since we're sort of close to that, here come a few.
I resolve to commit to marketing my writing, not just to writing.
I resolve to up my social media footprint.
I resolve to overcome my natural reluctance to self-promote.
That seems good enough, right?
Be seeing you?
Other words are sort of hybrids--they have many meanings and even within those meanings have different connotations. "Hustle" is one such word. As a coach, I use this word all the time to mean "move quickly and energetically." My wife just watched the movie Hustlers, which was about a group of women who, through a complex and systematic mechanism of deception and trickery, fooled people out of their money.
There's a kind of middle ground with that word, meaning "to obtain through forceful action or persuasion." Or to go and get something because you put a lot of effort and energy into getting it. Or being indefatigable. This aspect of the word doesn't have a negative connotation--it means to work hard at something until you get it.
In the world of the arts, we usually apply this word not so much to the actual effort involved in creating the art (we won't usually say "I hustled until I created my sculpture" but rather in selling it, in getting the word out about your work, in getting eyes or ears on your project. Say what you want, but the creation of good art is not always enough for the world to notice it (and, conversely, the creation of bad art can be noticed through hype and hustle).
So what does this all mean? The publisher I've worked with on my last two novels (Beltrunner and Silent Manifest) sent me a marketing guide that included a list of questions for the writer to answer. Stuff like "is this a hobby or a career?" and "what are you willing to do in order to market your work?" Maybe the good folks at EDGE Publishing didn't know it, but those questions really stuck with me.
Here it is: I'm not huge on New Year's Resolutions, but since we're sort of close to that, here come a few.
I resolve to commit to marketing my writing, not just to writing.
I resolve to up my social media footprint.
I resolve to overcome my natural reluctance to self-promote.
That seems good enough, right?
Be seeing you?
RSS Feed