Have you ever had a moment of self-loathing? I mean, an all out, what in the world was I thinking when I started this project I don’t even like this kind of drivel moment? I have. I recently decided that I would put some research into seeing what people are reading these days and try to write a book to cater to that audience. Okay, so I know what you are thinking right…what a sellout. Well, guilty as charged. I was curious about the idea of having a best selling book. I’ve had one of my books make it pretty close to the top. I wanted another one. So I started writing a book that I thought would appeal to the masses in the chosen genre and guess what? I HATED IT! Big surprise.
Somewhere between reading what I had already written and imagining how much better it could be if I hadn’t written it with the intention of selling it to other people I had an epiphany. It wasn’t a clouds-parting-ray-of-heavenly-light-moment or anything, I just suddenly realized that I don’t write for anyone else. I write for me. I didn’t become a writer because I wanted other people to read my work or buy my books. I became a writer because I wanted to get the whatever it was inside me that was making me restless and driving me crazy out onto the paper. Writing is kind of like breathing in my opinion. I may not always feel like it but I couldn’t live without it.
So, here is my advice to all of you who are worrying over what to write or how to write it or who will buy it or whatever else you might be worried about. Just write. Just do what you do and don’t stress about the what ifs. Unless you are writing to just sell books and make a living…in that case just ignore me.
What have I done with all this suddenly gained internal knowledge that I was being an idiot? I have gone back through my manuscript and taken out all the stuff I thought would make it squeeze into a different category and added all the things I wanted to put there in the first place.
I don’t love it yet, but I don’t hate it anymore either.
Who do you write for?
Great advice. Thanks – John
Thank you for reading. I ramble:)
I write for me too. I read somewhere you should write what you’d like to read, so that’s what I’m doing. Makes it easier to be yourself.
That is good and lasting advice. I am back to doing that now too.
I guess I would have to say I write for me to let some steam off but its always good to have people enjoy what I write, but definitely I write for myself out in the big world wide web..lol…. Great blog….~~~Kelly lynn
I think I just spent too much time one evening looking at stats for what type of books sell the best and it made me delusional. Temporary insanity. Thank you for the compliment!
Yes, I love this entry! I know exactly what you mean! I am of the feeling if you build it he will come crowd. If you write it they will come! Hmm, just to be clear, if you write what you want to write, somewhere out there is someone who will want to read it. IMO lots of some ones. Keep doing the awesome job that you are!
Well thank you for being the patient person you are and reading my ramblings:) I promise to ramble more. wait…where are you going, it wasn’t a threat!
I’m still here, anticipating.
anticipating my next rant and rave? lol. I think I love you.
Hehehe. Thank you!
I like rants and raves, it shows passion!
Now you made me blush!
It was your turn
Maybe…:)
Great post. I also know what you mean. I think that it is hard to stay excited about a work that you are writing “only because you know it will sell” I know if I don’t care about something I write, the apathy will show in my work.
That was pretty much what made me decide I had to get back to writing what I wanted to write. I went back over some of what I had written and thought..who wrote this crap?
That was what I really started noticing the second time I went back and read what I had written. It just didn’t have any heart. I was trying to hard to make it what I thought someone else would like.
I like this post and I agree with you. I go through the same with my blog. There are times when I feel so good about a post because It is exactly what I wanted to write and times when I feel not so good about it because I just wrote it so people would like it. I even agree with you about he letting of steam part, back then I used to do diaries and now well I Blog I guess
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I do the same. Sometimes I also want to post something but then worry over it so much I just don’t bother. That might be a good thing though, I can see the followers running away in herds If I didn’t self-moderate.
I write to find out what the story is. Like you, I had difficulty with my sophomore attempt at a novel. I tried to outline the story. Got nowhere for a few months. Then I ran across an admonishment, that a writer discovers the story by writing. The novel began to flow again. So, I write not so much for a person, but for the same reason that we all read: to find out what happens next.
Well judging by your book you certainly can’t tell that you struggled with anything. You made it seem effortless! Thank you for weighing in on the subject though. I don’t feel as bad as I did before.
Ionia, you make a point that is so often forgotten when one starts writing. I had a similar issue recently. First, I just wanted to tell my story. And then when I had done that, it became a question of “will others like my story?” Soon enough, it turned into “I need to put things in my story that I think people will like, so my story will become as popular as XYZ other story.”
I had to take a step back and remember why I wrote anything to begin with. Just write. Write the best you can, and if the love of what you’re doing is there, the rest will come with patience and time. One cannot force it, and I frankly believe that if you’re trying to write fiction only for dollar signs, you’re not only missing the point, but there won’t be any soul to your work.
Again I stand by disagreement with the phrase “writing is a business”. No, no it’s not. It’s an art. The only way it can be a business is if you’re doing something like translating technical manuals, writing self-help books, or perhaps getting involved in certain forms of journalism. There’s nothing at all wrong with any of that, but fiction and novels have to be about art first. A keen-eyed reader can tell when a book was written just to make money.
Remember the song Eye of the Tiger? “So many times, it happens so fast — you trade your passion for glory.”
Don’t trade your passion. If glory is going to come at all, let it come on its own.
I totally agree. I guess I let myself get caught up in what if they don’t like this or that and lost sight of my original goal. I think it’s pretty easy to do sometimes. Thank you for your opinion and your continued support. It is writer’s like you that make doing this worth while.
Thanks Ionia, that’s an encouaging thing to hear. It seems I didn’t make the cut into round 2 of the ABNA competition, but you know what? Who cares? I bet what held me back was that they didn’t think the idea was original enough in our world of Harry Potter and Narnia, but I didn’t write the book to win some competition. I think that idea lends itself well to this thread. Sure, getting somewhere in a contest would be nice, but that can’t be one’s reason for writing in the first place. Book II shall proceed as planned
On the contrary, what I loved about your book was the originality. I think it is exactly the opposite, just my opinion, but I think that everyone now expects fantasy of any kind to fall into the harry world of Harry category. Don’t get me wrong, I liked those books well enough, but people tend to get stuck on a theme and use it as their example of what all such genres should be. If you stray from the cookie cutter and make a snowman in a bunch of Easter bunnies they run the other way. It happened with teen romance too, you can’t have two teenagers fall in love anymore and have it be a good book unless a werewolf breaks in and tried to eat the vampire.
When you put it that way, I can very much agree. These days whenever I am told a book has vampires, zombies, elves, dwarves, or dragons in it, my initial thought is “here we go again”. I have nothing against any of those concepts, but if you’re going to write a book focusing on any of them, you have your work cut out for you. To obtain my interest, not only does it have to be compelling, but it has to find a way put an original spin on what has already been done, done, done to death. Angsty vampire romances were something I was already well familar with before Twilight came along, so for me there was nothing new and interesting there. Perhaps the fact that it managed to break the typical genre and appeal to many types of readers who had otherwise not experienced such stories did it. Likewise, Tolkien is pretty much the father of modern fantasy from the standpoint that it’s actually somewhat difficult to write a fantasy story at all these days without at least a little of his influence creeping in.
Thanks for your vote of confidence. I actually tried to make a point of being original in my book. Naturally not every single thing that happens in the story is something people haven’t seen before, but at least I wanted to do fantasy without all the usual races and circumstances. The problem with a “pitch round” is that you can only tell the reader so much, and I think that might have been the kicker. Again, que sera, I say.
Since we’re on the subject of vampires, you know what I’d like to see? A Bela Lugosi vampire in a modern story. Good old 1930′s Dracula in all his “I vant to sahck your blaad” glory. Every vampire these days is full of regret for what they are, self-loathing, and desperation for love, warmth, et cetera. The original vampire cliche is no longer a cliche, in place of the new one.
You are brilliant! I totally agree. I have a fascination with Bella Lugosi and Max Von Shrek in general so I’m probably predestined to feel this way, but I actually considered writing a book featuring a “real” vampire. I really don’t even care if it sells copies or not, I just wanted to do it to say I actually did!
“Real” vampire. I love it
Okay Scott, so we all know I’m a dork. BTW real vampires turn into bats and don’t sparkle. I said so.