Are you seeing things clearly in your writing career?
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Last August, I had LASIK to correct my eyesight. It was something my father always tried to convince me to do, and I thought it was a fitting tribute to him once his estate was settled.
Let me tell you, LASIK surgery was the thing of nightmares. I have never been so freaked out in my whole life as watching those doctors operate, but I got through it with their help…and Xanax; beautiful, wonderful Xanax.
When it was over, I could see better, but my eyes were so jacked up that they were still blurry even months afterward.
I figured they botched the procedure, but I was still decently happy. After all, I could see things pretty clearly without wearing thick Coke bottle glasses for the first time since I was a child.
Let me tell you, seeing is wild, even if you don’t see perfectly. Before LASIK, I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Afterward, everything was visible, if slightly out of focus.
Huge improvement.
Still, I paid a not-insubstantial amount of money to see clearly and wanted that elusive perfect vision if I could get it.
While I was healing from the first surgery, I tried to convince the doctor for months that my eyes weren’t quite right, but they kept saying I just needed to heal and my eyesight would improve with time.
False. It never got substantially better than it was in those first two weeks, but they refused to operate for six months from the first procedure.
It got to the point that I had to visit an optometrist in Barcelona while I was on vacation because there was no way I was going through two weeks in Europe without being able to see things.
Finally, when I went in for my follow-up appointment in January, they agreed to schedule me for February.
Turned out they didn’t botch the procedure, as I thought. Instead, what happened was both of my eyes were slightly nearsighted, instead of far-sighted like the original plan.
They recommended that instead of fixing both my eyes to be far-sighted, I would be better served to keep my left eye near-sighted and only make my right eye far-sighted.
Did you know that your eyes can have very different prescriptions and it doesn’t mess up your ability to see clearly?
I didn’t.
I knew that pirates might have worn eye patches so that one of their eyes could always be trained to see at night. That way, when they boarded ships and had to go into the dark hold they were prepared. I had no idea you could have one eye near-sighted and the other far-sighted without messing up your whole existence.
The brain is bonkers.
They were clearly right about me being near-sighted in both eyes, though. I could see everything close to my face perfectly. It was only far-away stuff that was out of focus.
I was nervous that even after this procedure it wouldn’t work, and I would have to go through this horrible surgery again only to be disappointed on the other side of it.
Then, the doctor said something along the lines of “we’re not the best because we do things halfway. We’ll get you where you need to be if you trust us.”
I loved that, and it’s something I tell our students all the time. We might not always get you there the first time, but we’ll always strive to deliver until we get it right in the end.
That’s what makes us the best.
After they said that, I was 100% excited to give them a second chance. So, even though I had no idea how it would work, I told them I trusted their opinion and took their suggestion to only operate on one eye.
After the surgery, I can now see everything, everywhere, all at once.
I cannot get over how amazing it is to just see things. Still, my eyes have different prescriptions, which took some getting used to for a few days.
When I close my left eye, everything close to my face is blurry. Meanwhile, when I close my right eye, everything close is crisp and clear, while things far away are blurry.
Sometimes, I will look at something with the wrong eye and freak out when it’s blurry. I have to remind myself that my eyesight is perfect, I’m just looking at things the wrong way to see them clearly…
…which got me thinking about writers and writing careers.
How often is our vision perfectly good, but we are looking at something the wrong way?
How often do we think everything is wrong, but we’re just seeing it from the wrong perspective?
How often do we suffer with things being hazy and out of focus for months or years before we finally get help to see clearly?
I know at least once a month this happens to me in my own career. I’ll be confused about something I’m looking at or think I can’t see correctly, only to have somebody I trust help me tilt my head slightly to see it properly.
With their help, I realize I was just using the wrong eye to see the wrong thing. It had nothing to do with my ability at all.
I’m still not used to seeing without glasses, but I can’t deny that life is totally different when everything is in focus.
It’s important to remember, though, that I couldn’t get there by myself.
I needed my dad (and my sister) to needle me about it for years. Then, I needed the motivation (and money) to take a leap I had been hesitant to take for years.
Even once I got over my own blocks, a doctor had to analyze my eyes to make sure I qualified for LASIK. Then, a surgeon had to do the procedure…twice.
After all that, I’m still in recovery and don’t see everything as crisply as I will in a few months.
I didn’t get there alone, and it wasn’t quick.
There were over a dozen medical professionals who looked at my eyes before and after my procedure(s). Even when they agreed, it still took months to get it right, and a bevy of follow-ups to make sure I was healing properly.
It took a small army to get me other the finish line, even though it was me who walked every step of it and had the courage to overcome my own fears. It took my trust in their process to get to the other side.
Now, though, I’m kicking myself that it took so long. I see everything in a way I never could before, and shouldn’t need reading glasses until I’m in my mid-50s.
For somebody that has been in glasses since I was 10, it’s an unreal experience to see things clearly when I open my eyes in the morning.
But I couldn’t get there on my own.
So often, I talk to authors trying to get to the next level without help, but they can’t see the path clearly. They bang their heads against walls, trip over cracks, and walk in the wrong direction because they can’t see the right next step by themselves.
They need help, and time, to make it where they want to go. That is the power of coaching, community, and finding a team who can help you see clearly, maybe with a little nudge or maybe for the first time in your whole life.
The Author Stack sits at the intersection of craft and commerce, helping writers build more sustainable businesses that allow them to thrive while creating work that lights them up inside. We strive to give authors agency in a world that too often seems intent on stripping it away from them.
We have hundreds of articles in our archive, along with fiction and non-fiction books for paid members.
If you are not a paid member, you can read everything with a 7-day free trial, or give us a one-time tip.