Controversy surrounding my writing

[coogan607]

(Originally posted to my other blog.)

Over the weekend I had a substantial controversy with my wife over my writing "hobby." It's not that she thinks it's a hobby, it's that she thinks I spend too much time doing it. She also doesn't see why I refer to it as "work."

I won't argue I lack good balance between the facets of my life. I do have the

Comments

[pink_siamese]

I guess you have to ask yourself this: are you ever going to stop writing? Even if you never sell anything? Even if the only person reading it is you, or your wife, or your friends? Is it something you have to do? If the answer to any of these is yes, then you're already taking it seriously.

The doomcriers and naysayers will always be there, and they will always scare you. Even when you've published something they'll still scare you. I guess they exist to remind us that writing is hard fucking work, dammit, and if you aren't going to take it seriously then you aren't ready to be a writer.

I'm glad you're back. ;-)

[coogan607]

As an adult I have written because there was a story I wanted to tell. I have millions of them floating around in my mind; of course I can't tell them all. Then again, that's not a priori a good reason for not trying!

When I began writing my first novel in earnest, it was because it was a story I really needed to tell. I still have things unsaid and unexpressed that are motivating me to continue it. It's hard to explore those things, but it has to be told. Just because.

I am writing my current project because it's fun and because I think it's a good story. And it will look really cool once it's turned into a graphic novel. I am certain of it!

I will write my next project for all the reasons above, and then some. My goal right now is to be published, but that's just the next intermediate stop along the journey. Telling stories defines the journey; it's never been about the destination--being "done." None of us is ever really done.

[pink_siamese]

Do you ever write short stories? I'm just curious.

[coogan607]

Yes, but very few. I rarely have ideas that seem to want expression in relatively few words. But maybe I'm not looking at the problem correctly. :)

I recently re-read Steinbeck's The Pearl. It's almost short enough to be a short story, so maybe there's hope. The Bridges of Madison County was almost as short, and they made that into a feature-length movie!

That said, there's nothing as satisfying as a big, thick novel. Except writing one.

[eli_writes]

Writing is work.

Additionally, if you take it seriously, it is more than work--it is a mind-consuming work as necessary as breathing. When the characters are talking you *have* to write...and when they aren't talking, you still have to write, it just hurts like fire.

As for publishing, it is something to strive for, but most writers would write even without publishing. It sounds like you would write regardless of publishing, even though it is a goal.

Good luck with the publishing and good writing.

eli.