God, that's so long ago. There are plenty of rules I've learned since then that have been nightmare (seriously, for any advice you can find about writing/publishing, I guarantee you can also find the opposite advice out there somewhere, too), but in school?
I was pretty lucky that my teachers always gave me freedom to write what and how I wanted. I read a lot as a kid, and my writing reflected that. It was quite common for my teachers to have me read my stories out loud in class. There were a few times they had to call home to tell my parents about the blood and violence in my stories (I read a lot of Stephen King as a kid) but that's neither here nor there.
I guess if there was something that messed me up, it was how supportive everyone was. Parents, teachers, classmates, everyone were always full of encouragement: You're a great writer! You should get your stories published! You could be an author!
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
It ain't easy being a published writer. I mean, with Amazon KDP it is, technically, easy to publish, but it's very hard to be a good or successful published writer. I've got a shoebox full of rejection letters, tons of unfinished/unpublished manuscripts, and handful of self-published novels that aren't exactly lighting the Amazon bestseller lists on fire. I haven't made a dime. Again, technically, I have sold a few books, but ten years into doing this, my lifetime revenue is only just starting to match what I've put into it.
Last week I went to a store in my hometown that had been carrying some of my books. It's been two years since I was there, and they'd only sold one book in that time. The owner wanted me to take the rest of them back. That was a kick in the teeth, let me tell you, and a long way from my school teachers and classmates telling me I should be a writer when I grow up.
So how did school mess up your writing?
Hugs & kisses,
-CDGK
The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Writers post their thoughts on their blogs, talking about their doubts and the fears they have conquered. It's a chance for writers to commiserate and offer a word of encouragement to each other. Check out the group at http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/
11 comments:
That's a good point that too much encouragement can be as bad (or worse) than too little. I had a couple of teachers in junior high encourage me to try to get published when I was nowhere near ready for that yet. I'm sure they meant well but the rejection sticks with you for a long time.
It is a tough thing to be a writer and all the encouragement in the world can't change that fact.
I still think you're a great writer!
Kudos to you for persevering and developing your own writing style, in spite of the challenges once you left those encouraging voices behind. And thank you for listing your books on Kindle Unlimited. I often wonder why more writers don't do this as it opens the door to gaining readers. I just downloaded your TEN THOUSAND DAYS and am looking forward to reading it!
To Beth above me, I don't do Kindle Unlimited because from my side of the equation, it's very limiting: I can't sell my books anywhere else. No monopolies for Amazon!
Anyway, to C.D.'s point, I think that I, too suffered from too much encouragement up through HS. In my college creative writing classes (I took a couple), I suffered from not being "serious" enough. I liked humor and genre fiction even then.
Yes, encouraging kids to be writers should be balanced with advice on the realities of the ups and downs of this career. I'm sorry you had a disheartening experience at the bookstore.
Ouch. That's a rough go of it. I don't think I had any illusions of success with my writing. Then again, I'm also the person who wanted to pursue acting while in High School, looked at the statistics for it, found that less than 2% of the people who go into the field actually make it, analyzed my personality and realized I wouldn't put in the effort to compete, and opted to pursue computer programming after taking a year off after high school to figure out what I want to do and not waste money while doing it. I tend to think I'm weird and unusual, though.
Writing for myself is the best advice I've read. Family encouragement always helps (I am always surprised to hear other authors say their family doesn't want to hear anything about their writing) and approval from others is a nice boost. But writing for myself still works best for me.
I didn't show much interest in writing in school since I was an art nerd, so nothing screwed me up in terms of writing.
I know the feeling! I've heard a lot of variations of "romance is so easy! why don't you just publish a few and make some extra money?"
See me laughing all the way past the bookshop and the bank!
So these supportive people are only a tad worry about all the violence and blood in your writing? If I would you, I would just add on the blood and violence just to see what they would really do.
Have a lovely day
I learned more about writing once I was in grad school and thankfully never had thoughts of primarily being an author. It is a hard world to make a living in these days. Even good journalists that I've known found themselves unemployed in their 50s as newspapers cut back.
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