“I contend it is not the writing that makes writers miserable, it is the emphasis on publication.” - Janet Yolen
I couldn’t agree more. In the last 5 years I had joy every day because I was writing the great American novel. I was obsessed with how much fun it was to climb into another world, and look around at the colorful scenery, meet the people that lived there and create them and their personalities on paper. It was something beyond fulfillment for me.
Then I made the mistake of wanting people to read it. To tell me that I was a good writer/author. Therein, as Shakespeare put it, lay the rub.
“Oh, this is good! You should publish it.” Was the refrain that I heard over and over.
So, I did.
Then came editing, and cover design. Then came, trolling for reviews and sales and giveaways and speaking engagements. And then came - - nothing.
The books, of which there are now six can stand on their own. I know that I loved writing them, but somehow the desire to have other people love them ruined my joy in writing them and I forgot how to enjoy them for a while. I stopped writing for a long time. Long to me because I felt like I had lost a true love.
I learned a valuable lesson, about myself. Writing for writing’s sake, is not a popularity contest, it is a beautiful compulsion, that teaches you how your own clock ticks. I will begin writing again, even it is a few sentences a day. It is how I think, and it is how I see the wonderful world that surrounds me and fills my mind with incredible scenery. But now it is not a popularity contest, it’s just me loving the process.