What Makes You Stop?
16 pages yesterday…the light at the end of the tunnel looms!
Earlier this week I was IMing with one of my friends and she confessed she’d stopped writing after conference last year when one of her friends told her the book she was working on wouldn’t sell. Her friend didn’t mean to hurt her, but it completely froze my pal up and she hasn’t written since.
A well-placed comment like that has stopped me cold on stories before, and lately, I don’t send stories out till they are mostly done, or at least firmly in my head.
I’ve stopped because I was backlogged with work (what’s the hurry? These haven’t sold yet, why write anything new?) and because I’ve faced negativity (though I wrote when I taught at the School from Hell and when my grandmother was dying).
Have you encountered something that’s stopped your writing cold? What gets you going again?
(Just a few more Justin pics…sooooo close to the end!)
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6 comments:
I've stopped working on stuff because I hit brick halls or I have stresses from my daily life block me from writing. But if somebody told me I wouldn't sell a particular story I wouldn't let that stop me because in my not-so-humble opinion no one knows what will sell.
Woo Hoo on the 16 pages, Mary! :)
A couple of things have stopped me before -- a comment by a friend that made me doubt my ability to write anything believable and later just the fact that I'd been writing for so long and not sold. Both times it just took some time to get past the doubt.
I've stopped for lots of reasons. A harsh critique, stress, family, the idea that this is never going to happen for me WHY am I spending the time when I could be doing a million different things.
And I even stopped for a couple months this year. But the stories didn't stop and neither did the dream. And here I am, submitting and writing just like always.
Thew thing I keep telling myself is this. Writing is a tough business and selling isn't magic. Once you sell a book you still have to submit, you still get rejected. Lines fold, editors leave, the market shifts and the hot trend becomes cliche. And reviewers can be evil.
I look at the last ten years as preparation for those tough times after I sell. :-)
Like Michele what stops me tends to be brick walls in the story itself. Something isn't working. Or just lack of time with the kiddos. But I've never stopped because of ill intentioned comments. Nobody knows the future.
You know, Michele, that's a great attitude. I wonder, if I'd been writing then as long as I have now, if I would have let those contest comments bother me.
Thanks, Bonnie!
Trish, I think lately I've been having the same stumbling block....what am I not doing so I can sell? Which kind of plays into the whole expectations thing I blogged about earlier. I also hate depending so much on my critique group to tell me if I'm on the right track or not. I want to be able to find my own way.
Oh, Mary Beth, I know just what you mean about wondering if it's ever going to happen. We just have to keep at it --- and at each other, encouraging each other!
Toni, those brick walls are a pain, aren't they? I just scaled mine using my fingernails!
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