I keep wondering if there's actually a chance in hell that a nobody with no connections can get a book published. I keep wondering if I could get that good or that lucky. Some days my daydreams make me feel like I can do anything with enough time, patience, and practice, but then reality gets in the way like it did this week.
All right, I'm done ranting now. Back to your regularly scheduled chit chat....
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I seriously feel like quitting this morning.
Christine, surely you can't be serious!
The name you gave to this thread tells me that you have answered your own question. There is more to writing that finding the approval of some ponderous publishing company. Besides, the crunch of a computer hitting the driveway isn't all it's cracked up to be. You'd be disappointed, and your first instinct would be to write about your disappointment to all your Hatrack friends. You'd need a computer to do that.
[This message has been edited by Doc Brown (edited September 08, 2005).]
I know how you feel though.
The amount of time i've plowed into the novel i'm working on & it's still only 60 odd pages!!
Some days I just think, holy sh*t, I've spent so much time on this and it's rubbish.
And then on normal days, I carry on and persevere.
I think I've started writing it for myself now though, more than anyone else. I reckon it would be an achievement if I ever manage to finish it.
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I keep wondering if there's actually a chance in hell that a nobody with no connections can get a book published.
Of course there is. It's happened to people we know, but it either took them longer or they went to conventions and made connections. Connections don't just happen, you have to cultivate them and develop them.
I just threw out some old computer stuff. If I'd known that someone wanted to try throwing it out a window...
Seriously, Christine--I feel your pain. I sometimes wonder what on earth I'm doing this for--but then again, I can't imagine myself stopping.
I just swapped emails with autumnmuse who was feeling a little like the same way you are, only she was suffering from post-first sale blues and wondering if she could following it up after receiving a number of rejections following that high she'd been on after making that first sale.
Bottom line: have a whale of a time whilst writing. Really get into it, roll with it and enjoy it. Never mind what may or may not happen to your story after its written; thinking on that is just gonna rip all the fun out of the actual writing of the story itself. Writing's gotta give you pleasure, right, or else you wouldn't ever have gotten into it in the first place. Focus on that. Getting actually published - yeah, sure, wouldn't that just be a swell bonus. But that's it, think of it as an added bonus or else you won't stop thinking about it at all.
Although I've been printed in the non-paying small presses, I've yet to make a sale - but it hasn't stopped me writing five novels and four dozen novellas/short stories and having a ball of a time whilst doing it!
[This message has been edited by BuffySquirrel (edited September 18, 2005).]
Mary -- I'm going to my first conference in two weeks. It's probably not the best one to get started at but it's only four hours from here and I'm afraid that until I have this baby I'm going to be limited in terms of how far I can travel. Next year I'm hoping to attend the Columbia writer's conference, which has more opportunities for speculative fiction writers.
Nothing specific set me off...just been kind of a low week. Between getting four rejections piled up on me all at once (none even personal ones) and gotting some disappointing feedback on my WIP that I'm not entirely sure what to do with I'm just kind of feeling like my skill level is going no where. I'm also pregnant and hormonal. (I love using that as an excuse...it's such total bull...oops did I say that out loud?)
And when you're tired, it's a lot easier to feel down about things. It's even possible to get "premonitions" that you are going to die soon, if you get tired enough.
Even if you don't really know me and have no reason to feel that a hug from me would help, I offer you one, too, because I've been there, and done that (pregnancy as well as being down about my writing).
I have no options on making contacts, living where I do. So I have to trust that the quality of my work will speak for itself. I'm sure if you stick with it you will find an agent who knows more about marketing your manuscript than you do. Then you concentrate on the part you love - the writing.
My favorite quote:
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Success comes to those who hold on long after everyone else has let go.
I have a very large monitor that just up and died yesterday. I could mail it to you and let you get a good, cathartic explosion of glass and plastic!
(But it's waaaay heavy, so I'll have to save up a bunch of stamps.)
I'd offer you a hug too, but we both know that would just creep you out
P.S. Thanks for NOT offering a hug Survivor!
But the bottom line is that there are stories inside me that have to be told, and I have to write them or I will explode. From that standpoint, it doesn't matter to me if I'm ever published. I'm grateful to be able to enjoy writing without the pressure of feeling OBLIGATED to publish. I take joy in the sheer act of writing. If I wrote with the fear of rejection/not being published hanging over my head all the time it would suck the joy right out of my writing.
As a suggestion for you, Christine-- maybe you should give yourself a "vacation" from publication worries. Say, from now until six months after the baby is born, write only what you love and don't worry about selling it or being published. Plan on it being for your own joy alone. Get in touch with why you love to write in the first place.
You asked the question "Who am I writing for?" It is hard to answer that question when you've been writing for others (editors) for so long. Try writing for just YOU for a while, and then you'll have your answer. You can always make a different choice in a few months to write with the eye for publication once more.
Oh, and just wait till you're postpartum. And about a week and a half after that you've got a toddler running around (or climbing...kids in my family tend to climb).
The point is...keep writing. It isn't about getting published, it's about keeping your sanity intact.
Obviously, I have my own reasons for being a writer
There is only one fact that is important here: you are an excellent writer.
No one else has mentioned this, but I offer it as the resolution to this crisis. I've known you for years on this board, and you have a wonderful way with words. That trait distinguishes you from most aspiring writers and many published ones as well. When it comes to clarity of written communication, you are at least two standard deviations above the mean.
Forget critiques, most of them are written to satisfy the ego of the critiquer.
Forget sales, they are a combination of beautiful writing that lands in the right place at the right time. You've got the tough one in the bag, the other two are a matter of finding a subject and the opportunity to exploit it. Be patient, be passionate.
And remember the late genius writer Hunter S. Thompson, who would surely caution you about permitting the $*&@ bastards to get you down.
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my oh-too-serious friend
That's me. Every so often I even get it in my head to write humor. If I ever suggest that you should read one of those attempts you need to run away...quickly! Sometimes you just have to give in to who you are.
I started working on my novel again yesterday. For the very reasons that Elan mentioned, I want to finish it before November, although I still plan to continue writing over the next few years. (I know it will be tough, but when something's important enough to you I figure you just have to make time, although I don't see anything wrong with choosing to stop. I'd warn against never writing a word for 5 years though.)
Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. It seems that about 2-3 times a year I hit these low spots where I think I should just give the whole business of writing up and go find a "real" job. (Although now would admittedly not be the best time in my life to start that job hunt.) Also, 2-3 times a year I feel like nothing can touch me and I'm great and everything will work out perfectly if I just stick with it. I like those times better. In between, though, is when I actually get my writing done.
It was actually sales I was getting frustrated about this time, but I also wondered about this...
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Forget critiques, most of them are written to satisfy the ego of the critiquer.
I've often wondered if non writers make better critiquers for this reason, assuming you can get them to be honest. Sometimes when I see advice from writers I swear I'm hearing something out of their last epiphany. I know I hear a lot out of the "rules of writing" without any real thought to how they actually work or don't work in the story in question. But we've had this conversation before, I think, so I will not belabor it over-much.
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It seems that about 2-3 times a year I hit these low spots where I think I should just give the whole business of writing up and go find a "real" job.
Everyone goes through those spells. What makes it more difficult is if you MUST keep that real job to feed the three kids and keep a roof over their heads, and have to squeeze your writing around piano lessons, flute lessons, trumpet lessons, boy scouts, working late, fixing toilets, and helping with homework for kids that can't say anything besides "I don't get it." I still managed to write a 75000 word novel and all the revisions within 6 months. You just have to be disciplined and keep plugging away. Even 50 words is progress on a day you just can't bring yourself to write. Sometimes those 50 words are all that stand between finishing the story and quitting.
[This message has been edited by Spaceman (edited September 13, 2005).]
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Sometimes when I see advice from writers I swear I'm hearing something out of their last epiphany.
That sounds like something I read in a book by Thomas McCormack on editing (The Fiction Editor, the Novel and the Novelist: A Book for Writers, Teachers, Publishers, Editors and Anyone Else Devoted to Fiction).
If I remember correctly, he said that some editors will tell you to do the same thing that worked on the book they edited before yours, whether it is relevant to your book or not.
That book is an interesting discussion of the editing process, and I'd recommend it to all writers but especially those who have a book accepted and who are waiting for the editor to send back the copyedited manuscript.
When she died few knew her except her family. She'd asked her sister to promise go through her things and burn the papers she'd collected and stored in her dresser. So the sister started from the top and one by one burned manuscripts, possibly as many as twenty books which contained uncounted stories and poems. Finally as the sister got to the bottom drawer she was overcome with curiosity so she read one of the papers...a poem. She read another and another could not continue the burning.
In her lifetime Dickinson published a total of 7 poems. We'll never know what her loyal sister burned.
It doesn't matter how much you publish. It matter how much you enjoy writing. Having a baby is tough so you may not enjoy writing or anything else much now. But you will enjoy it again in a few months or a year or two. If things get worse tell your doc and s/he can help in all probability.
[This message has been edited by keldon02 (edited September 18, 2005).]
I think that writers must write first to themselves and second to the world.
[This message has been edited by keldon02 (edited September 18, 2005).]
I can relate (kinda... I'm a guy, so I don't know about the pregnant hormone stuff) but I also get down. I've been kicking the idea for a novel around in my head for almost 10 years now, and I've only recently really started to write.
Some days I feel so down, and think that it's total trash. I read stuff from guys like George R. R. Martin, or other fantasy writers (I write fantasy) and think, "holy crap, these guys are just awesome. My work really sucks compared to this."
My best advice? Write for you. If you like it, do it. If you can sell it, its a bonus.
Ronnie
I remember, a few years ago, reading an issue of Asimov's, and realizing that three stories published within it had exactly the same plot. The details varied, but all broke down on the plot point of: "I know a terrible secret, but I won't tell anybody." I wondered why the editor published all three stories in one issue.
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I wondered why the editor published all three stories in one issue.
Having worked as an editor, I'm tempted to guess.
Perhaps the editor thought it would be interesting to see if anyone noticed.
Perhaps the editor liked the idea that the same story could be told in three different ways.
Perhaps the editor was consciously or subconsciously doing a "theme" issue.
I know that I have printed articles with the same "theme" in the same issue of the SFFW newsletter before. I have done it because either I felt they worked together and supported each other or because they gave alternate ways of looking at the "theme."
One, sit down and quietly wait for it to pass. Okay, you don't have to sit, and you don't have to be quiet, but it will pass.
Two, power through, and write even though you don't feel like it. I don't do this often, because whatever I turn out inevitably ends up sounding like crap, but this if you only write when you feel like it...well, I don't suppose you'll write very often.
I wanted to say something profound, there. Nothing came to me.
Coffee helps.
It helps me, at least, but I drink it in dangerous amounts.
I don't know if I'd reccomend it to a pregnant woman.
Still it's something to think about. Especailly as I try to be selective about what books I buy.
Interesting art springs from the desire for self-expression rather than pleasing an editor/agent or whoever.
That said, I've enjoyed many genre-bound works written for a market no doubt.
I now seek the 'other', however - the stuff that transcends barriers.