{"id":46739,"date":"2025-12-10T23:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T23:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isafespend.com\/?p=46739"},"modified":"2025-12-10T23:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T23:58:06","slug":"author-susan-orlean-on-trusting-your-instincts-and-your-weird-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isafespend.com\/?p=46739","title":{"rendered":"Author Susan Orlean on Trusting Your Instincts (and Your Weird Ideas)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Susan Orlean is a longtime staff writer for <em>The New Yorker<\/em> and the author of multiple bestselling books, including <em>The Orchid Thief<\/em>, which was adapted into the Academy Award\u2013winning film <em>Adaptation. <\/em>Her new book, <em>Joy Ride, <\/em>is a gripping and funny memoir that details her incredible writing journey, and also serves as an inspiring guide filled with actionable tips for anyone embarking on a creative project.<\/p>\n<p>Orlean built a wildly original career by following her curiosity, taking big creative risks, and treating her writing like a business she runs herself. We\u2019ve broken down her recent appearance on the How Success Happens podcast to help you apply her advice to launch your own success in <span style=\"color: red\">three, two, one! <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=EML6711692519\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe now: Apple | Spotify | YouTube<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: red\">Three<\/span> Key Insights<\/h2>\n<p><strong>1. How to Know If Your Big Idea Is Worth It<\/strong><br \/>Susan says the instinct to know whether an idea is worth years of work is \u201cprobably the single most important\u201d skill you can develop, whether you\u2019re writing a book or building a business. When a new idea hits, she does not jump in immediately; instead she \u201cpushes it away,\u201d tries to forget it, and pays close attention to whether it keeps resurfacing and \u201cnagging\u201d at her as both a writer and a reader. She also normalizes doubt, explaining that losing faith in an idea mid-process is not automatically a sign to quit but a natural part of starting from zero and testing what you\u2019re doing. The real challenge is learning to distinguish ordinary fear and laziness from the deeper realization that \u201cthis really isn\u2019t as good an idea as I thought.\u201d<br \/><strong>Takeaway:<\/strong> When a new idea excites you, deliberately step back, see if it keeps coming back, and only then commit the time, money, and energy to build it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Treat Your Creativity Like a Business<\/strong><br \/>Even though she\u2019s a <em>New Yorker <\/em>staff writer, Susan describes herself as \u201cessentially self-directed and self-employed,\u201d choosing each project the way a founder chooses what to build next. She spends months or years purely researching\u2014interviewing, reading, and going deep\u2014before she writes a single word, saying she must be \u201ca student\u201d of a topic before she earns the right to become \u201cthe teacher.\u201d To avoid overwhelm, she types up her notes, transfers them to index cards, and then sets a strict daily quota of 1,000 words, comparing it to running exactly three miles instead of an undefined workout. That concrete metric \u201cdemystified\u201d the work and kept her from sitting down to vaguely \u201cwrite my book,\u201d which she says is impossible.<br \/><strong>Takeaway:<\/strong> Run your creative work like a business by defining clear tasks, building a repeatable system, and holding yourself to simple, concrete daily goals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Editing (and Feedback) Makes You Stronger<\/strong><br \/>Susan is blunt about writers who romanticize \u201cdeathless prose\u201d and hate edits, saying people who think editing ruins their work are \u201cprobably not very sophisticated writers.\u201d She credits good editors who respect her voice and focus on clarity, repetition, and what needs more or less emphasis, calling them \u201creally good readers\u201d whose confusion or questions always have \u201cvalidity.\u201d For her, being open to discussion, debate, and occasionally pushing back is part of a mature creative practice, not a threat to it. She even likens that back-and-forth to the constant testing entrepreneurs do when they hit walls and have to decide whether to adjust or abandon an idea.<br \/><strong>Takeaway:<\/strong> Seek out tough, thoughtful feedback, and treat it as market insight on your ideas rather than an attack on your talent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to the How Success Happens newsletter for more insights and inspiration.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: red\">Two<\/span> Ways to Learn More<\/h2>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Keep up with Susan through her Substack newsletter <em>Wordy Bird<\/em>, and pick up her new book <em>Joy Ride<\/em>\u2014a candid, funny look at her career and craft.<\/li>\n<li>Check out one of Entrepreneur.com\u2019s most-read articles on getting your writing project started \u2014 and finished: 7 Writing Hacks Every Writer Must Know<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: red\">One<\/span> Question to Ponder<\/h2>\n<p>Susan discusses the inevitable moments when you lose confidence and have to decide whether you\u2019re just tired or truly need to walk away from an idea. What\u2019s one project, business, or creative idea you nearly quit\u2014but didn\u2019t\u2014and how did you know it was worth pushing through that doubt?<\/p>\n<p>Send your answer to: howsuccesshappens@entrepreneur.com. We\u2019ll read the best answers on a future episode of How Success Happens!<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About How Success Happens<\/h2>\n<p>Each episode of How Success Happens shares the inspiring, entertaining, and unexpected journeys that influential leaders in business, the arts, and sports traveled on their way to becoming household names. It\u2019s a reminder that behind every big-time career, there is a person who persisted in the face of self-doubt, failure, and anything else that got thrown in their way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe now: Apple | Spotify | YouTube<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Susan Orlean is a longtime staff writer for <em>The New Yorker<\/em> and the author of multiple bestselling books, including <em>The Orchid Thief<\/em>, which was adapted into the Academy Award\u2013winning film <em>Adaptation. <\/em>Her new book, <em>Joy Ride, <\/em>is a gripping and funny memoir that details her incredible writing journey, and also serves as an inspiring guide filled with actionable tips for anyone embarking on a creative project.<\/p>\n<p>Orlean built a wildly original career by following her curiosity, taking big creative risks, and treating her writing like a business she runs herself. We\u2019ve broken down her recent appearance on the How Success Happens podcast to help you apply her advice to launch your own success in <span style=\"color: red\">three, two, one! <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=EML6711692519\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"tw:justify-center tw:bg-gray-100 tw:flex tw:flex-col tw:sm:flex-row tw:rounded-lg tw:p-6 tw:align-middle tw:sm:text-left tw:text-center tw:mt-4 not-prose\">\n<div class=\"tw:flex tw:flex-col tw:justify-center tw:align-middle tw:mr-0 tw:sm:mr-16\">\n<p class=\"tw:text-sm tw:leading-5 tw:my-0 tw:font-sans\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe rest of this article is locked.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"tw:text-xl tw:text-black tw:font-bold tw:leading-5 tw:my-1 tw:font-sans\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoin Entrepreneur<span class=\"tw:text-yellow-300\">+<\/span> today for access.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/leadership\/author-susan-orlean-on-trusting-your-instincts-and-your\/500696\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Susan Orlean is a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of multiple bestselling books, including The Orchid Thief, which was adapted into the Academy Award\u2013winning film Adaptation. Her new book, Joy Ride, is a gripping and funny memoir that details her incredible writing journey, and also serves as an inspiring guide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[32],"class_list":{"0":"post-46739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-money","8":"tag-featured"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.12 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Author Susan Orlean on Trusting Your Instincts (and Your Weird Ideas) | iSafeSpend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Susan Orlean is a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of multiple bestselling books, including The Orchid Thief, which was adapted\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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