Roonblah's Real Life questions

[musicaldiscord]

Real life

How much do you allow real life to interfere with your writing?
Far too much, I admit. However, there are only so many hours in the day, and right now I feel like I'm trying to do everything lol. So inevitably something had to give, and unfortunately it seems that was my motivation.If your writing is for fun, or if you are a writer

Comments

subjectivity

[ozma914]

Boy, you're right in that part about reading being subjective. I've had the same work be loved by some and hated by others. One of the first things I learned is that a form rejection letter not only doesn't mean I'm being rejected, it doesn't necessarily mean my writing's being rejected. Sometimes it means the manuscript arrived on a Monday, or the editor's reader just got into a fight with her boyfriend, or the coffee pot broke, or they just received too many submissions that week. The last thing any writer should do is give up based on what one person or one group of people says.

Re: subjectivity

[musicaldiscord]

Mmm, they always say that in books about writing. That there are many reasons behind rejection. It's just one of those things, isn't it? Because we're all only human, in the end.

Re: subjectivity

[gmajor]

Sometimes it's because "that's not what we're looking for RIGHT NOW" too. Same with the music biz. At the momen, if you've got a novel aimed at tweens about magic or dragons or both, you're gold, or some religious conspiracy detective story, or a romance novel with vampires for teens or adults, solid. Did I mention I work in a bookstore?

reasons for rejection

[ozma914]

The book writers always say that because they know the number one enemy of writers isn't editors: It's their own subconscious, whispering in the background: "Give it up, you're terrible, this'll never sell ..." Editors don't reject writers, I've read many times -- they reject pieces of paper with writing on them. And that's absolutely true, but it's *so* easy to get discouraged by that tenth rejection slip in a row. The plain truth is, most writers never get published because they lack not talent, but perseverence.

Sadly, there are some very bad writers who have loads of perseverence, which is why you sometimes see some really awful work hit the bookstore shelves.

[roonblah]

I used to be rather good at shoveling my angst into writing. I think the problem is, if you get angst overload and trip into apathy, then it becomes harder to write much at all. Or I could be severely lazy. It can be a form of therapy, especially if there are theoretic solutions. By numbing the angst into fiction, it seems easier to fix and deal with.

I've had tutors had my writing as well. I used to forever get "write what you know". I knew unicorns, vampires and space-ships. It's all extremely subjective. The best tutors accept that.