Giving Your All for the Few

Pieous Tiffany Yates Martin

Giving Your All for the Few

I want to talk about pizza for a moment, but bear with me. I promise this is going to tie into writing.

One of our favorite local restaurants is called Pieous (@PieousATX on Instagram), and they specialize in—oddly—pizza, pastrami, and pastries. It’s a frequent darling of area foodies and “best of” lists, and we probably eat there several times a month. There’s always a fairly healthy crowd, many of them regulars.

The owners, Josh and Paige, left established careers and a life in LA and started this business when they moved to Austin to raise their family, having always dreamed of running their own restaurant. They use a family sourdough starter for their crusts and pastries that’s decades old, and they make everything from scratch every day, from the sauce to the mozzarella, as well as all their dessert and pastry offerings.

From the day they opened, they’ve put in astonishing hours, and are constantly innovating new menu items that they bring samples of out to customers to get their input. They have a passion for their food, and for this work–just look at all the art from their restaurant that illustrates this post (banner included).

How This Relates to Your Writing

Pieous has earned enduring local popularity and loyalty with a single location on the western outskirts of Austin. Josh and Paige do all of this work for a tiny fraction of the food-eating world—but that doesn’t seem to detract from their enjoyment of it, their dedication, and their constantly evolving craftsmanship.

Think about your favorite local restaurant, or artist, or musician, or podcast. Think about the satisfaction and joy you get from them and what they bring to your life.

Think of some of your favorite creative products, and the joy they give you. Your favorite book or film or TV show may or may not be a megahit. Mine are often niche-y little stories that barely made a blip marketing-wise.

Do you dismiss their value because they may not reach millions of people or have widespread name recognition? 

And yet I think many authors do this with their writing. You create your stories and they may not get published, but your critique partners and writing group and family and friends have read and loved them. Yet that doesn’t feel like enough.

Or you self or small-press or traditionally publish and your book never gains widespread traction with readers. But you’ve got a handful or dozens or even a few hundred reviews from people who loved what you’re doing, to whom it meant something. Yet perhaps you feel the work isn’t really a success if you’re not topping bestseller charts or making bank.

If we ourselves can love and appreciate art that never finds a ubiquitously wide audience, why do we often feel that’s not good enough for our own creative work? Why is a small audience any less valid or satisfying than a larger one?

Read more: “Why Do You Write?”

“How to Be a Working Writer”

Working Hard and Staying Small

Admittedly most of us get into this field not just because of our love of story, but because we dream of sharing it with others, as widely as we can. If we’re honest, a lot of us probably hope to be J. K. Rowling, world renowned, our books beloved by millions.

But if you’ve been in this business for any period of time you probably know the somewhat grim statistics. Not only is it astronomically unlikely that most authors will achieve those heights, but even moderate commercial, critical, and financial “success” as an author is achieved by only a small fraction of those attempting to make a career out of writing.

Read more: “The Happy Harsh Truths of a Writing Career”

It’s the same in a lot of creative fields—including cooking. The stats on opening a single successful restaurant are pretty daunting, let alone achieving the brass ring of multiple locations, franchising, and brand ubiquity—the “bestseller” status of the food world.

Yet here are Josh and Paige, showing up every day and giving their all to their restaurant, striving to create new recipes and perfecting existing ones. They worked diligently to attain an official VPN certification (Vera Pizza Napoletana) according to standards of traditional pizza makers required in Naples, one of only a finite number of restaurants in this country to achieve that honor. Their pastrami and pastries were featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.

For a while they talked about opening other branches, new concepts, and I’ve even asked them about franchising. But for now this seems to be enough. They are happy doing what they love for a finite circle of superfans who are equally passionate about their creative product. They have found their personal definition of success, even at this relatively modest level. They’re not waiting for their ship to come in or to garner the attention of millions around the country and the world. They’re already happy doing what they love, day after day after day.

What Makes Your Art Matter?

I think about Josh and Paige a lot when I find myself getting caught up in a rat-race mentality, when I feel frustrated or disappointed with how my business is growing, or worry that I don’t have the reach or platform that I’d like to have. When I fall into that mindset I can start to feel dissatisfied with what I do, unhappy and self-doubting about my own abilities. This is when my old familiar demons start to rear their heads: impostor syndrome. Perfectionism. Comparison.

I think about how hard Paige and Josh have worked from the day their restaurant opened. I think about the palpable joy that is always evident in both of them whenever we come in, no matter how busy they are, even during the pandemic when they had to pivot their entire business to takeout only (and incidentally, retained every single employee on salary). They are following their dream every day, even when it’s hard. 

When I think about this in my moments of dissatisfaction and inadequacy, it reminds me why I do what I do, and that I already love doing it, day after day after day. Like Josh and Paige, I’m pretty much always baseline content and fulfilled by the work that I do. A bigger platform would be nice, and it can be a long-term plan, but defining my success by that prevents me from enjoying the work that made me want to do that in the first place. It prevents me from relishing what I’m already doing, what I’ve already accomplished. It undermines that enjoyment and my confidence and faith in myself, and turns my passion into a flog to beat myself with.

Read more: “Are You Paying Attention to Your Progress?”

“How to Be a Working Writer”

Yes, in a perfect world of course we want everyone to read our stories and naturally to love them, and to support ourselves and our families with our work.

But that’s not the barometer of its worth, and it has less than nothing to do with the creation of that work and what that brings to you and your life as an artist.

What if your career always stays more modest than you might have hoped? Will it still be worth doing? Would you feel satisfied with simply the privilege of doing what you love? Could that satisfaction and joy it brings to your life be its own end, whether three people appreciate your work or three million do?

What if your career always stays more modest than you might have hoped? Will it still be worth doing?

Knowing that answer can be the difference between a fulfilling, satisfying writing career that you can sustain, and one that leaves you feeling disheartened and dissatisfied, never measuring up to some uncontrollable external standard.

Josh and Paige give their answer every single day they show up at work, with every customer they greet by name and with a smile, and by the way their faces light up when they watch someone dig into their food and swoon over it.

I find mine every time I sit down to work on an author’s story or a presentation or an article; every time I see an author bring her manuscript to the fullest expression of her vision for it.

What’s yours?

Your turn, authors. Do you define success by a specific metric? What is that? Would your writing feel worthwhile to you even if you knew you would never achieve those things?

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10 Comments. Leave new

  • I absolutely loved your John and Paige story. I’d forgotten writing for a crowd, for a while now, but yet it is always wonderful when we renew our vows through posts like this.

    Thank you so much for this moving article and to my few readers who help me polish this writing craft everyday!

    Honestly I had hung up my classes, removed my writing books and I had committed to the tools of my heart, paper and pen. And even dropped writing out like one drops a rope of a well-drawn bucket.
    But once I promised to myself that if I write, it will be my rules, I see the passion erupt much like owning a personal business.

    Thank you

    Reply
    • Thanks, Radhika. I am often inspired by them–I seriously think about them when I feel discouraged or caught up in reach/readership, and their contentment in their restaurant, their passion and joy for it. That’s true of so many small business owners I know, like my trainer who owns his own gym and does dream of expanding, but also just gives his all to his current level of business, his enjoyment of it palpable every day.

      I also think about the fact that I enjoy a Pieous pizza infinitely more than a Pizza Hut one–and yet PH is ostensibly more successful, as far as “audience” size. My world would be impoverished far more without Pieous than without Pizza Hut. I translate that to my own work–I don’t need to be the bestseller, or even “the best.” I just want to do what I do with my whole heart, and enjoy the privilege of getting to do it, and the effect I do see it have on the people in my orbit who believe in it.

      I think you’re right on the money that the key to that is claiming and fulfilling the passion you describe–by your own rules. That’s what makes my own business and creative pursuits so fulfilling for me, anyway.

      I also love that you call it “renewing our vows. 🙂 <3 Thanks for the comment!

      Reply
  • Thank you for a great article, Tiffany. Telling stories, especially unknown ones, is extremely important, yet it is daunting to get them published. When people tell you you should only write to make money, or you query agents and only hear back that it’s not a fit, or you see you only have a few reviews, we wonder why we are doing this. But the love John and Paige pour into their restaurant is a great reminder of why we should write and inspires me to keep going.

    Reply
    • It is SO daunting! And if that’s the main measure of success, then you’re setting yourself up for feeling like a “failure” because of the nature of this business. But I don’t consider it failure to express our creativity, to put our stories into the world on any level. As you said, I do think it matters–enormously. Maybe not to the world at large, but at least to you, and I bet to more people than that.

      I do honestly think of Josh and Paige often when I fall into those thought patterns. It helps. And then I want pizza. 😉 Thank you for being here!

      Reply
  • Your thoughtful post reminded me of a quotation I read somewhere. It was said by a postmaster. He said, “I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not fail to do that which I can do.”
    I’d love to sell a million books and movie rights, and there’s no penalty for hoping. But even if I don’t get published by a big house, I’ll have told my stories. It was very satisfying to dig them out of that mess I called the first draft. I learned a lot about stories and what makes them work and I learned a lot about myself, a subject I feel very strongly about.

    Reply
    • That quote brought the cliched lump to my throat, Bob. What a lovely sentiment–as was your own. That’s kind of all we can do, isn’t it? In writing and in life–do our best, tell our stories, be the best we can be, and let that be enough. More is nice–but it doesn’t change the intrinsic value of doing the thing to our utmost. Thanks for another thoughtful comment. Always nice to see you here.

      Reply
  • I’ve been there from naples Florida. It is over the top. Ordered the pastrami platter.MMMMMMM DELICIOUS

    Reply
  • Dear Tiffany, I have come across this old post and made me smile. I thought about myself last year, after publishing my first book. While handling a full time job, sudden brain fog due to perimenopause, and doing a lot of soul searching. I should have been very proud. I was not. Not even when a lovely reader posted an 8 minute video on enjoying my book. I just thought “So what?” It’s only one person, right? I feel like I have missed out big time, and I am glad I have just been reminded of that through your wise words. Thank you very much all the way from London, UK

    Reply
    • This makes me happy to hear–your comment actually illustrates the same point for me: that our work has value inherently in the doing of it, but also in the people you reach with it who may take something valuable from it as well, no matter how many or how few. This made my day, and I’m happy to hear the post helped yours too. Congratulations on your first book–that’s a hell of an achievement all on its own, and the eight-minute giddy video by a fan is the kind of reward I think a lot of us dream of for our work–that it has that much of an impact on someone else.

      Thanks for sharing, Antonia!

      Reply

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