Writing is awesome, except for how it sucks.

[taste_is_sweet]

Don't get me wrong--I love writing. Mostly. Black Hawk Tattoo (Woot; there it is) is now in it's second month of being available, and hasn't quite fallen off the face of the earth the sort-of reasonable rankings on Amazon.com, but I figure it's going to happen any second pretty soon, so I'm trying to prepare myself for it. One of the ways I'm doing that is by more writing, because the more books you have, the more books people might buy from you, yo. The other way is to try not to worry about it (because I'm so good at not worrying).

What I've come to realize about this writing gig is that even when you succeed, there's anxiety. The difference is that now I'm worried about my next novel. Will anyone want to publish it? Will anyone want to buy it if it's published? Will anyone like it if they buy it? And how long will it stay anywhere reasonable on the Amazon rankings?

Yep. Yet more fun and excitement for me! And to think I actually somehow didn't anticipate this happening. Yeah, I'm awesome.

I do realize that in the grand scheme of things I have absolutely nothing to complain about. I know I've done well and I'm lucky and I'm definitely happy with and grateful for what I've accomplished. I'd just love to be able to relax, you know? Just a little. Slightly. Sometimes.

Comments

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

I had to snort at this because, yes. I had a little backlog of stories to submit, and so I had a bunch of releases in a short period of time. Then all the sudden I sat back and realized I was publishing *stories*. I began reading books on writing--which told me I was doing everything *wrong*. I began to push myself to write more to put more stories in the pipeline because I figured out that in order to even remotely count on writing to pay the bills, I had to submit at least a story a quarter to expect any returns: it takes about a year from conception to execution to submission to printing to royalties.

And all of the sudden, the person who has essentially written a novella a month for the last five years found my creativity taking a hit under the pressure.

So my advice? Write for fun, write what you want to write, write what makes you happy. Read books and take classes if they help; ignore their advice if they don't. Don't worry about whether or not it sells. The stories people seem to like the most are the ones I toss in every improbable trope *because it makes me happy* The serious story that was my attempt at writing something 'worthwhile'? Has been languishing on the hard drive for over a year.

Of course, take this advice with a grain of salt too. I work full time/long hours. Sometimes there's very little creativity left at the end of the day, but it does seem the more pressure I put on myself, the less productive I become. ;-)

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Hey, all of that sounds perfectly reasonable to me. :)

I hear you about writing for fun--I've tried to write stuff that I didn't want to, but I could barely start it, let alone finish it. No emo teenage vampires with zombie-boyfriends for me, unfortunately.

It's hard not to worry about it selling, though. I just have to keep remembering to drag my mind back to the process, and not the product. It works most of the time. :)