Would you stop?

[Josh]

Here's a question that I pose to my fellow writers on this forum. It is one I first faced from some forum discussions over at Dan Simmon's website. And it kind of comes through him from Harlan Ellison, and if you know the kind of mythos Harlan carries about, then you may get a better understanding of the tone and purpose of this question.

Here's the situation. Someone has just sat you down and said, My dear Writer, who has labored over your work for these many years...you will never get published. You have no talent. No amount of perseverance will save you. No amount of passion will get your words ever exposed to the light of day, nor shall you see a single penny for any amount of blood, sweat, and ink that you drip from your forehead. It is hopeless, and a waste of your time and your life to pursue this any longer. Save yourself the heartache, save your life, and just stop writing.

Then they look at you and ask, So what are you going to do now?

I ask this: Would you keep writing?

I already hear a resounding chorus of those who rally to cry, "Of course! Writing is my passion and without my daily dose of muse I would waft away like ash on the wind!" Swallow that...sit and think on it seriously for about five minutes at least, and then answer. If you knew, absolutely for sure, that your writing would never see the light of day, never give you a cent...would you still pursue it?

And then answer this. What would it take to convince you to give up? The realization that you'll never be able to support yourself doing it? The harsh criticism of an older, established writer who tells you that you have absolutely no talent? I'm not talking people just bad-mouthing. I'm talking serious feedback from credible sources who tell you that you just don't have what it takes to make it as a writer. Would you even listen to them? Or would you clutch that pride and barge forward, certain that these people are wrong, you are going to prove them wrong, and you'll have the last laugh in the end? Is there any amount of rejection letters, disappointments, negative feedback, or any combinatin that would convince you to stop writing? I ask this seriously, and not just to test your artistic devotion. You don't have to defend that from me and prove you are a "true writer" by proclaiming your undying devotion to the craft. Just be honest.

Your answers are going to say a lot, methinks. I don't want this to seem like an attack or a hugely negative post. It's an sobering question and worth at least thinking through, I believe.


www.jrvogt.com

[swalizer]

I'd say the real question here is why are you writing? Personally I'm writing because I enjoy writing. If I get published that's great, but if not I'm still doing something I enjoy. Now if you're writing becuase you have dreams of seeing yourself in print and of making a living at it, then your answer may be very different from mine.

Don't get me wrong, I'm currently working on a novel because I want to get published. However, for the last twenty years I've found myself periodically writing something because I have an idea that I feel compelled to put down on paper. I have never gotten anything published (nor have I tried to very hard, I think I have a total of three rejection letters to my name). Just the simple act of writing gives me satisfaction.

Another example is playing guitar. I'm not very good, and I'll never have a record deal or make any money from it, but it is something I enjoy.

[blgarver]

In all reality...

Hell yes I would keep writing.

Sure, the dream is to get published and make a nice living at doing what I love, what I need, what - in my opinion - I was born to do, whether i'm any good at it or not.  But not a single word I have ever written has been put to paper with the assumption that it would eventually bring me wealth and fame.  Hell, I don't even want wealth and fame.  That isn't why I write.  It would be nice to make money doing it, that way I could quit my normal job and just write all the time.  That's the only reason I want money from writing.

In reality, I hope to get published, because what else is there to do?  I love writing and will always write, but face it...no single person can tell you that you will never get published.  No group of people can tell you you'll never get published.  How many doctors have told how many patients that they'll never walk again, and then in a few years, that same patient passes them on the sidewalk, striding defiantly in the face of medical science.  

I tell MYSELF that I will never get published, and that's much more discouraging than someone else telling me.  It's a much greater battle to convince myself to keep writing when I hit those spots of doubt.  Even if Stephen King came to me and said, "Just quit, you'll never be a successful writer" I'd thank him for his input, and show him the door, and then return to my keyboard and keep typing.  

All I ever wanted to be is a writer...and I'm already that.  Have always been a writer, since I first learned to manipulate the alphabet in Kindergarten. To be a successful writer would just be a bonus.

So, because I'm not writing for the material rewards, getting published and making money are really not that important in my passion for writing.  I write because I love to write, because if I don't write, I feel off-kilter, like I'm truly wasting my life.  And really, I don't think I have a choice but to write.  It's simply what I do.

Would a dog stop pissing on lamp poles if you told him he'd never make any reward from it?  No.  He doesn't care about reward.  All he knows is that that lamp pole hasn't been peed on yet.  

Dogs pee on things.  Cats meow.  Birds fly.  Fish swim.

And through hell or high water, for richer or poorer, writers write.

BLG

[terioncalling]

I write to write.  I love to write.  Can't help but do so since I was five or six.

If I didn't write my brain might explode from all the ideas I get swirling about in there all the time.

What if I never get published?  Well then I don't get published.  But I don't stop writing.  NEVER.  Writing is what I've wanted to do since people started asking that age-old "what do you want to do when you grow up?" question.

Writing is one thing I will never, ever give up on.  I know that for certain.

[Kali]

I have no dream of being published, no urge to be published.  In fifteen years, I've submitted two stories to two different markets, and did it both times on a whim within a day of finishing the story.  I still write.

Now, that said, if everyone got together and agreed I had no talent for it, that my writing is so awful it causes small puppies to spontaneously combust and makes butterflies wail in fear... that'd sting.  But since I only show my writing to a very few people anyway, I'd keep writing as long as *I* liked what I wrote.  I just wouldn't tell anyone that I wrote, anticipating the inevitable, "Can I read something you've written" followed by the equally inevitable sound of the reader attempting to remove the memory of my awful writing via a handy Ron Popeil Home Trepanning Kit^tm.

But I'd still write.

[Darrington]

If it was an unwavering truth of existance that I would get nowhere and do nothing with my writing skills, I would, for the most part, stop.  Now that I feel like a failure of a writer, I'll elaborate a bit on that 'for the most part' bit.  I would stop striving to write novels, especially considering the problems I've been having with writing lately.  Lately being the last two years.  I would, however, not stop writing little short blurbs once in a while.  It wouldn't be complete and utter abandonment, but I'd give up on most of it.  I write for others more than myself.  So if no one was enjoying what I was creating, there'd be no purpose to it.

[pathele]

Interestingly enough, I was asked this same question last week, by my wife.  I will give you the answer that I gave her.  I would write, yes. I probably wouldn't sacrifice time with my family, time with her to do it, as I sometimes do now, but yes I would continue to write. If for no other reason than to get the story ideas out of my head (tends to get crowded if I don't)

-paul

[Qualapec]

Well. If there was no hope of ever getting published I wouldn't even attempt writing novels/publishable things. But I would keep writing fanfiction and posting online just like I'm doing now. I do dream of getting something published though, that would be nice. But in any case I do it for fun, and if somewhere along the line I manage to write something that's good then that would be fantastic.

Short answer: yes. I would keep writing, just on a more personal basis.

~She-Wolf

[Maiafay]

Well, since the online market is fair game...I've seen some pretty horrible stories and authors published --so you would have to be really really really bad I think for your writing to never see the light of day. There is always fanfic, and original story sites that cater to well, original stories. Most Fanfiction sites have a original section--so chances are, someone would read your work. I'm speaking in general of course, not to the original poster.

Me personally...not sure if I have what it takes. Hmm, I've been told I can be published, but I lack the confidence in my work to pursue it. I've also been told I have 'raw' talent. Hence, the safe route of fanfic. I'm a big fish in a little pond where that is concerned, and fear it would be the opposite in the 'published ocean.' I did give up my writing for a while, but now have rediscovered the passion for it once more. Granted, I have my artwork to fall back on and my super duper swell retail jobs if something happens and I give up...again.

Though, sometimes I do wonder if I'm wasting my time--but whenever I feel like that, I always find a published story that I can write rings around...and think I might have a chance...


But no, if I was told I was horrible, I wouldn't give up writing...I may not publish it online and feel like major crap for a while, but I would still dabble with prose for myself.

[[beatle mania]]

I feel that crappy about my writing right now. But will I stop? Naw. It's too much fun. My characters would never forgive me. And maybe, one day, if I had enough money, I could always pay someone to write my stories for me.
Because it my characters that I love. I build stories and worlds around them, making it to best suit and torture my lovelies. And, if I don't cater to their needs, they haunt me. My characters act as my muse, despite how much they love to sit by and let me torture myself while staring and lamenting at a blank word document.
But that's just me.

[Donna]

Words of wisdom from Miss Snark.

An excerpt

You recognize that doing something difficult over and over again, and trying your utmost to improve is a worthy endeavor even if you fall short of your goal.

[Josh]

Some great discussion so far. I've seen this type of discussion devolve into flame wars over who is a true writer or not, but of course I never expected anyone from this forum to track down that sticky sidewalk.

My own answer is similar to what a number of you have said so far. If I knew there was no chance of ever getting published, I wouldn't hang up my writer's hat. It'd just become more like a fly-fisher's hat to take down on the weekends and relax by the pond while trailing my line through the water.

Yes, part of it is asking yourself why you write. If it's for money, fame, women...well, rejection and all is going to hit that ego hard and hold up a cracked mirror to reality. But neither is it wrong, in my opinion, to set a limit for yourself in your efforts. Even Dean Koontz said that his wife gave him an ultimatum early in their marriage. He had five years to break into his writing career, or else he had to stop for the sake of their relationship. Of course, seeing where he is nowadays, we can see that effort paid off. But one has to wonder...what if he'd hit that five year mark and still hadn't made it?

Anyways, again this isn't a question to make yourself question your worth or talent as a writer, or to establish some inner cabal of "true writers." I'm simply curious if anyone out there had any specific mental limits or deadlines. At one point I joked to a friend that if I received 1,001 rejections without any acceptances, I might then have to cut back on the effort and time I'm putting into my writing. Meh. Make it 1,002. 1003? Please?

www.jrvogt.com

[Mickey Finn]

A story about Uncle Harlan:

The man was, at one point, silly enough to publish his phone number in the back of one of his books. One day, a young writer called him up and asked (and this is from my memory, not his, so I'm paraphrasing and mutilating and otherwise boiling it down to its bare essence, so don't sue me if you know the exact words) why he couldn't seem to get published. He'd work, and he'd hone, and he'd sweat, and no one would buy his work. Why?
And Uncle Harlan replied, not having read a word of it, "Because it sucks, kid," and hung up.
That kid was Joe Strazynski.
Just because someone tells you your work sucks and will never see the light of day, does not make them right.  Or, more accurately, it may make the former right, but the latter?






(I've noticed I tend to drop into Ellison's voice when I write about him. THAT'S how much character this man has.)

[Wolfeyes]

Me, I'm still young (not even twenty) but I love writing. Whether it's a tiny project I'll drop within a short while, a few skits, a requested script for VAing auditions (Nothing long of course and just for people on forum projects), fanfiction, plotting future projects (*nervous laugh* a LOT of projects....) and of course my big project, my fantasy novel. It's not like I'm a devoted prodigy that can't live without her work but I'd never be able to drop it completely. I write for myself mostly because I love my characters and my imagination won't let their stories die completely even if I don't spend all my time working on it. Would I like to get published? Hell yes. But who knows? My work may be crap for all I know. I'm not claiming to be talented.

Now, as for what this person would have to say to convince me to quit, they would have to try very hard. I'm a stubborn person sadly. I've been working hard on things like my big project and quitting even though I know it'd never get published is a even bigger waste than continuing to work and not get anything in return (physically at least). If anything, if this were someone like an older, experianced, writer, I'd say, "Thank you for being honest with me. Could you please tell me how to improve my work instead of expecting me to quit completely?"

[etoiline]

I was going to post the link to Miss Snark, but it's been done already...

I would still write. There's just something about getting the words in your head down on paper (or onscreen, as the case may be) that makes me feel better. It makes me excited, calm, angry, exuberant, all sorts of things. It's an outlet for too much reality. And though one day I hope I can be a published author, just sharing my story with other people can be enough.

Writing is probably the thing I'm best at, right now, and I want to give it the chance.

~Cal