Dear Writer: Pondering And Puzzling Discouragement

Dear Writer,

I'm off track again. The real world intruded on this fantasy writer and I about left writing behind. Yes, I do recognize the melodrama. I've heard that writers can be drama queens. It's probably true.

I've been discouraged lately and real life hit me with a curve ball and I'm trying to work through that. I've been wondering for a while what sort of plan I should have but keep drawing blanks. I did finish a few more short stories, and I'll list those in an update soon, but I thought about not writing anymore and maybe trying to focus on other things in life for a change.

Have you felt that way?

If you have, I'd like to hear about it. I'd like to hear from fellow writers because I honestly need to camaraderie and 'shop talk.'

I don't know what the next step will be. To write standalones or series? If series, what kind? Episodic or grand epics? Smaller epics? Sword and sorcery or high fantasy? Urban fantasy? It goes on and on. What makes it all exhausting is that I'm feeling lousy about my writing. I know that practice is the only way to get better but I'm just too damned impatient sometimes.

I want readers. I want enough readers to make this writing thing a viable career.

I want to tell deep, intense stories filled with drama, comedy, love, and action. And so on.

Maybe you want that too, dear writer. I hope you get it sorted out too. Maybe you're thinking the same for me.

Dear Writer: Making Course Corrections

Dear Writer,

It's been some time since we've talked. I've been away and doing things to continue my own writing life. Sometimes, real world events pierce what is admittedly a bubble that separates the creative writing life from all the rest.

I've had that happen lately. You see, one of my cousins died recently. It was mostly unexpected and she was only 55 years old. I wasn't especially close with my cousin, but the loss struck me hard and affected me deeply. It made me think about all of life and about death in a way that nothing else can. These kinds of happenings are a part of living. How one views fundamental things like death can shape what they do next.

For me, as  writer, I feel like writing about death. I feel like reading about it. I want to understand it more--even if that means coming to terms with its mysteries and accepting that it is a natural part of living. When these kinds of events shake up the normal course of life, all that each of us can really do is  try to make course corrections. We cannot change what has happened. Words may fail us when we try to relate these deep feelings we're having. The sadness and the mourning of the loss weigh us down.

But, as writers, we can direct these feelings and these flows into something. Writers can express something of how something like death has impacted us even while we seek to keep going with our own lives.

Some events are so disruptive that we're left spinning and wheeling around in confusion and pain and there is no solace to be found even in the pen or typing on the keyboard. We have to take the time  that we need to grieve and then, with hope and luck, we can start writing again (and start living again too).

Dear Writer, I hope you are well. I hope that you are keeping to the course and making the needed corrections so you can keep on writing. What we do is an important thing. Remember that. I know I am trying to. Take care.

Dear Writer: Writing Plans

"The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with." 
~William Faulkner

I've been over this many times already. I've made plans about the books and stories I planned to write during a given period of time. None of those plans have panned out. Right now, I'm contemplating the formulation of another plan and also wondering if it is all for naught. (Yeah, just a bit of melodrama in my choice of words, I know.) But, I'm still going to make another plan. I recognize the importance of having some sort of plan even if it isn't a detailed one. It's something that many writers agree about at least in theory though often those plans never get past the first thoughts had about them.

I think one of the reasons I keep thinking in terms of plans is that I am also an indie publisher. Publishers have plans and schedules for publications that need to hit. Meeting deadlines is even more important when you're trying to build up an inventory of titles. Publishing imprints have regular monthly releases. This present a unique set of challenges for a writer who is trying supply the new books and stories to fill that list month after month.

I have not established any reliable schedule of writing to get that new material published, but I am well aware that it is exactly what I need to be hard at work doing. If I were able to make a realistic plan for writing new books and stories, I would be able to make measureable progress towards publishing goals too. I want the viablity of an imprint that is releasing titles regularly. The more titles that are up and available for purchase, the more likely I am to approach earnings that constitute a viable living.

If there is one thing I've learned as a freelancer it is that having multiple income streams is a far safer way than being totally reliant on a single income source. Relating this fact to writing plans it is clear that if I plan to produce a certain amount of stories over a given period of time I create the chance that those stories will sell in modest amounts, combining those smaller numbers to produce a decent amount of money each month.

Is this guaranteed money like working for a wage would be? No, not exactly. You are beholden to readers to buy those stories. I am not saying that traditional jobs are just more secure than freelancing and indie publishing are. They often are not anymore stable. Employers can hire one day and then fire or layoff the next. You can't count on an employer to always be there.

The bottom line is that nothing is ever certain. The same is true of any plan. Plans do not always go off without a hitch. More often, they fall apart when you get started making reevaluation and improvisation the norm. Does these facts mean that you should just skip a writing plan? No. I don't think so. It is always good to have a working blueprint of how you'd like things to go. Sure, life will get in the way of those carefully crafted plans, chew them up, and spit them out. But you can always draw up new ones and keep going. Better yet, have contingencies so you're prepared for failures. They will happen. If you can hit the ground running with a new plan, you minimize how your writing production is impacted.

Writing plans allow the writer a level of flexibility that they do not always afford themselves when lost in the white heat of creation. Some writer (this writer included) don't do any real planning when it comes to writing stories so any writing plan has to account for that and focus on general principles like how many stories to shoot for during a given timeframe.

So what is next for me, Dear Writer? Well, I think I need to make a new writing plan. Wish me luck. I wish you the same in all that you do.

Dear Writer: It's Okay Not To Write Sometimes

"I advise writing to oneself. If you don't want to read it, nobody else is going to read it." ~ S.E. Hinton

Dear writer, if you read my last message, you know that sometimes life gets in the way and you experience what is called a "life roll." It's bound to happen at one point or another. If ones takes over and you found you haven't written for some time, or at least not written to whatever level or standards you declared to yourself, you might feel guilt or disappointment. It is easy to blow things out of proportion. After all, most fiction writers are drama queens to one level or another. It's a bi-product of making things up all time in the stories we write.

Even if the events that sent you off on that life roll are now over or you're adjusting to a new paradigm, you might be wondering why the writing hasn't bounced back. You might be wondering, 'why haven't I gotten back on that old horse and resumed the pace I had set?' I don't know your reasons, but I have a few reasons besides the adjustments I've been making since I had to take on a part-time job.

I've been second-guessing myself and evaluating what I really want to do as a writer or maybe as a storyteller. I am really thinking about the subject that the quote at the beginning of this post mentions. I am not writing because I really am not sure whether I'm writing to myself or getting caught up in the idea of writing to readers or to some market in particular. The expectations that this can foster affects whether I am going to produce something or not.

I forget that I need to write stories that I find interesting and entertaining, first and foremost. All of the other considerations have to come somewhere beyond a distant second. I need to enjoy the stories I'm spinning. Otherwise, I have to wonder what it is I'm doing. I've said before that writing has to be fun or just won't do it. That basic philosophical point is a hard one to swallow at times. I believe it, but putting the ideas into practice can be difficult.

I do believe that if I'm not writing something that touches me on these kinds of levels that, ultimately, they will not be enjoyed by readers. What do you think, Dear Writer? Do you agree with me or no?

It's okay not to write sometimes. Especially when you just don't know whether what you've tried to write just isn't fitting that important criteria of being fun and entertaining. There no reason to beat yourself up about not putting down new words, if those words aren't ones written first for yourself. Just give yourself some time, seek out the stories that are fun for you and that speak to you. Then you'll be amazed at what might happen.

Dear Writer: Life Intervenes Sometimes

“I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.” ~ William Carlos Williams

It happens. Life can step in and turn you and your carefully articulated writing plans on your head. Nothing goes as good as it does on paper or in your mind. You might have decided, clearly, how many stories or even books you were going to write. You took the time to compile a list of concepts and set a timetable. You might even get off to a good start with a story and then...bam! Life intervenes and you're stopped cold.

Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch and her husband, author Dean Wesley Smith, have both wrote about this subject often. Here is one example from Rusch's weekly blog column, The Business Rusch.

The point of her article is that life is often messy and unexpected. As a writer (and really anybody) can be going along, going fine, and doing your thing, and then all of it get stopped by some unforeseen difficulty, a change in lifestyle, or something else. Some of these life rolls as Rusch calls them can be minor delays. Others, like an illness or a loved one's death, can ben long-lasting and capable of changing your whole life.

As a writer, heck as a human being, you'll have life rolls and they will send you spinning. Sometimes, only for a short spell so that you can get back to your work and everything is peachy again. Other times, the change is so tremendous that you might find yourself away from writing for a long time--or at least writing something else or writing far less while you adjust to the new circumstances.

It is also true, however unpleasant to acknowledge, that some life rolls take you away from writing permanently. I'm not even talking your death here. There are just things in life that can change everything forever and often there is not one thing you can do about it.

Pretty tough message isn't it? Why am I writing about this subject?

Well, the fact is, Dear Writer, I am in the middle of a bit of life roll right now. It's not a big one, but just enough of one to disrupt the schedule and the plans I had made. I'm working through it. I'm a bit discouraged but I'm pushing through that and working to come back to writing fiction.

I'm sure some of you reading this might be facing something similar. The only thing I can say to you is that you're not alone, it most likely won't last forever, and I promise you'll write again someday soon. Don't give up. You'll make it, Dear Writer. And so will I.

I'll catch you next time.

Dear Writer: When Ideas Become Barriers To Telling Stories

"Every novel should have a beginning, a middle, and an end." ~ Peter De Vries

Picture a writer sitting at a desk, hunched over the keyboard, staring forlornly at the screen, with the blinking cursor flashing at a steady rhythm bordering on hypnotic. There are no reassuring taps of the keys, just the groaning silence of that moment. That writer is feeling all sorts of emotions from desperation, to aggravation, boredom, and so on. That writer may have a whole host of ideas brimming in his mind, but not a one of them has made a strong enough impression to get you moving.

Some early writers groan about not having enough ideas for the books and stories they hope to write. They make excuses about how they just can't find one. They make a show of researching--in other words, reading, browsing the web, or resting the laurels on the couch in front of the television. Later on, with a good body of work under the belt, a new issue might arise from time to time: you have too many ideas flowing at once and they start to overwhelm the mind and become blurred at the edges.

The writer doesn't know what she will do. Which idea is worth pursuing, which one has enough going for it to be viable past a few sentences? It can all just leave the head spinning and cause the poor writer to break out in a cold sweat.

Does it bear noting that ideas can be had in endless quantities but that the decision to pluck one of those fruits from the vine has more to do with one's ability to focus and follow through than anything inherent in the ideas themselves? Under such circumstances, the real point is that the writer must be able to make a decision and take a bit of a risk with a particular idea and just let the creative mind step up and take a hit.

Yet, a glut of ideas, can cause the writer to spin around and become hyper critical about all of those ideas to the point that none of them get the air needed to breath and bloom.

I realize that I may not be speaking to all writers when I talk about this. I know that nonfiction writers tackle ideas in almost a wholly different  manner than the fiction writer does. Still, it is true that not all writers are the same on how they do the job of storytelling. They have methods and plans they employ to get a story to take shape and help nurture and coax it towards a full-blown story or novel. Others, like this writer, just grab an idea and apply heat and pressure to forge a gem out of it.

Do I get bogged in the sea of ideas so that I can't always see the life preserver? Heck yes I do. But what do I do about--other than write this blog about the topic?

Maybe I sit staring at that cursor for a bit. Have a teenie weenie pity party for myself that lasts seconds. In the end, though, I am still a writer, which is somebody who writes. So I have to get on with it and forge a story by trusting in the creative mind, the seat of imagination and wonder.

And so do you, Dear Writer.

Dear Writer: Where It All Started

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it!" ~ Toni Morrison

It started in my head.

It always starts in my head.

It probably starts in your head as well. We writers are often those peculiar and foolish sorts of people who spend a great deal of our time imagining things in our heads and then attempting to put them out on pages using words. We started out innocently enough, absorbing the stories that we were told as children, watched on television, or read in books. Humans need stories. It is one of the main ways they, social animals that they are, communicate with one another. Writers took that a step in one direction and said that it was not just that stories needed to be told, shared, and expressed in some fashion to others, but rather our stories.

Quite the egomaniacs, aren't we? I'll admit it.  I write because I want people to read what I wrote. It's not enough just to write the story and put it away in a drawer somewhere or store it on a flash drive. That line of thinking makes me an author. (Shh, it's not a dirty word as long as one doesn't use it as a badge that keeps them focused too long on one book or one story.) I can say with a hint of pride that I'm the author of more than one book. Still, I am a writer first and foremost, meaning I'm someone who writes rather than merely someone who has written. (In case you're wondering, that could be a simple way to explain the difference between the words 'writer' and 'author.' Many newer writers might be shaking their heads at this point. Sorry about that. Maybe I'll talk about it more in a future post.)

It started in my head when I was very young. It started then in your head too. While it's true that no writer is the same as another writer, it might be fair to say that we all cross a line between just playing and using imagination as other children would and really thinking that the things we made up are worth sharing with others. I don't know when I crossed that line. I could think of many instances throughout the rest of my childhood when those impulses reared up and sometimes even found outlets. You could too.

Dear writer, if it's okay with you, I will talk about this thing we do. I'll come back to this space every so often and unpack what we writers do, think, and grapple with as we, hopefully, continue writing. Thank you for tuning in and reading. It makes this writer happy.