"Writers' Despair"

[robinbailey]

(Writers' Block - a mythical magazine that purports to give useful information, secret handshakes, and mysterious hidden knowledge regarding publishers and publishing, featuring page after pages of lies and pep-talk for hapless pre-published writers who haven't a chance in hell of ever seeing their work in print, along with listing after listing

Comments

[jwjohnson]

Put me down for 1 I care.

Things are tough all over I'm sure you know. People really need to support thier favorite writers. Where do they think the "movies" come from? :-)

[hawkfist]

I care

[deborahjross]

Yep, the old order cracketh apart, but yes, people will always love storytelling.

That said, I wonder if "writer's despair" has more to do with internal nourishment and less with market vagaries. You're doing a lot, in many directions. Sometimes, variety is spicy and invigorating. Sometimes, so much creative goes out that there's no time or room for anything to come in.

Advice: be gentle with yourself. This is winter, after all. The earth needs to rest, and so do we. Trust the slow, invisible workings of your imagination. Feed your heart. Passion, like the sun, will return.

All will be well.

[elmocho]

I care.

I'm one of the Great Unpublished-- save for some journalism work in the early 2000's-- and all these "shifts in the industry" seem to steal any chance I'll have of seeing my name attached to an actual book.

(That's not even attached to the fact whatever part of my brain used to spin the stories has rusted. The prose still functions, but it doesn't seem to be about anything. But that's my Despair, not yours.)

[jjschwabach]

I care.

I've also been experiencing much the same thing, lately. Been forcing myself to pay attention to my poor characters, who are languishing in durance vile.