Support, advice, and distractions for struggling writers
Category: Support
These posts provide stories–famous authors, community members, my personal experiences–and quotes which are supposed to encourage writers to keep going, even when they feel that they can’t write another word.
Good day, readers and writers. I want to start off this week with a note of encouragement to everyone who feels down on their luck. Namely, I want to discuss using rock bottom as a foundation for future success.
Now, you may be down on your luck without exactly hitting “rock bottom.” I know I have felt that way many times. You may also feel as though you’ve stooped that low only to realize later that you had farther to fall. After all, the definition and experience of rock bottom differs from person to person. I, fortunately, have yet to hit rock bottom myself.
Nevertheless, what I’m talking about today will be useful to anyone feeling down on their luck, whether it’s a feeling of hitting rock bottom or just wanting to give up the current path because it seems to be leading nowhere.
Within the last month I have reviewed J.K. Rowling’s Very Good Lives and Rich Marcello’s The Beauty of the Fall. While they belong to two distinctly different genres, they share an important lesson: don’t give up when things look bad.
Dan in The Beauty of the Fall loses everything that matters to him. When things start to look up, he either self-destructs or has the rug pulled out from under him again. Regardless, he doesn’t give up. With the help of loved ones, Dan forces himself to soldier on even when things appear their most bleak.
Similarly, Rowling explains how she did not give into the desire to end the struggle when she hit her all-time low. She had contemplated the worst but, due to the love she had for her daughter, she pulled through. More than that, she created one of the most well-known characters in literary history and now lives as a multi-millionaire author and a household name. As Rowling claims, she used rock bottom as the foundation on which she built her success.
That’s what everyone must do. When life seems to be throwing you its worst, you have to hit back with your best. Only then will you thrive.
I’m not saying that it’s easy. Far from it, actually. You most certainly can’t do it alone. Dan relies on his friends, colleagues, and therapists to make it through his darkest times. Rowling needed her daughter. Laying a foundation and constructing a building is rarely–probably never–a one-person job. Why should we expect to build a strong future from a rock bottom foundation without some help?
Many issues complicate this matter. Motivation, for one. Mental illness is another. (Although that subject is best reserved for another post.) Time, energy, obstacles thrown at us by outside forces, even our own stupid mistakes and self-sabotaging behavior. Regardless, with the help of loved ones and colleagues you can make a solid foundation out of your hard times.
Have any experience pulling out of rock bottom? Wish to share advice or stories with other readers? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments.
The week I launched this blog, I talked about genres of literature and the genre-based elitism which still exists among writers today. I want to return to that idea, particularly the issue of writers crossing genres. I have always sung the praises of reading diversely; now I want to discuss writing diversely.
Most writers are best known for certain genres. However, many of these writers also dabbled in other genres. Edgar Allan Poe wrote mainly Gothic horror short stories, yet he is also famous for his poem “The Raven”. He composed one novel outside of the Gothic horror genre, but that book did not go over very well at the time. Ian Fleming’s claim to fame are his novels about secret agent 007, but he also wrote Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car, which inspired the classic film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. (Fun fact: Roald Dahl co-wrote the screenplay with Ken Hughes. Bonus fun fact: I love this movie!) More recently, J.K. Rowling dared to step out of the fantasy and children’s books genres twice, once to mixed reception (The Casual Vacancy) and another to raving reviews (CormoranStrike series, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith).
Based on these examples, writing diversely seems to yield mixed results. An audience maintains certain expectations for a writer and when he/she drifts away from these expectations, not one sort of reaction is guaranteed. Some may be thrilled that a writer they like is branching out; others may insist (rather angrily) that he/she stick with the tried and true.
For a writer, writing diversely may be a long-awaited release from the mundane or a horrifying plummet into the unknown, or both. Whether you embrace it, fear it, or approach it with caution, crossing genres can benefit your writing in many ways.
I will discuss four of these benefits in this post.
You can strengthen different aspects of your writing. I’ve discussed this benefit at length before. Different genres teach us about different aspects of writing. Fantasy and science fiction teach about world building but horror and thrillers teach about suspense; with nonfiction, writers learn how to develop characters as real people readers can relate to, but fiction lends more to plot construction; writing novels necessitates sustaining consistent narration across many pages, and flash fiction weighs the importance of each word. When writing diversely, you develop more tools for better writing, no matter which genre you frequent most.
You may discover a new genre you didn’t know you would love or for which you have a knack. You know the saying: you never know if you don’t try. You might love a genre you’ve never tried before because you’ve heard bad things about it. Maybe you thought nothing new could be brought to the genre but something in your writing could revolutionize it. Perhaps you’ve avoided writing a genre you love to read because you didn’t think you could do what your favorite writers do. If something inspires you to write in that genre, if you seem to get a sign from the universe that says now’s the time to try this, do it. There’s no harm in trying.
If you’re ever in doubt about crossing genres, follow J.K. Rowling’s lead and write under a pen name. It’s an age-old tradition and you may like living a secret double-life and creating a persona for your “other self.”
(left picture: cover of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, art by Mary GrandPré and published by Scholastic; right picture: cover of The Cuckoo’s Calling, unable to find artist but published by Sphere)
You may discover that you despise writing a particular genre. Sometimes you love to read a genre but can’t write it. I really enjoy poetry but, frankly, I can never tell when my own poems are any good. This process frustrated me to the point that I decided I will continue to read poetry but that I should keep my poetry for myself and, occasionally, to share on this blog. By trying various genres, even if you end up hating the experience, you still get the benefits from #1 while also learning what you don’t want to do with your writing. It’s like they say, you regret the things you didn’t do more than the things you did.
Writing diversely recharges your imagination. Are you feeling in a rut? Can’t get your creative gears going? You may need to switch genres for a while. Maybe you’ve run low on good ideas for your favored genre and need to shake things up. Maybe you’re bored with writing the same kind of thing all the time. And maybe you just have the sudden inspiration to write something you’ve never done before. Go ahead, knock the dust off and try the new, the unknown. It might be all you need to put your writing back on track.
Writing diversely can strengthen your craft and help you learn who you are and who you want to be as a writer. We may prefer specific genres but that doesn’t mean we should restrict ourselves to them. Better to branch out and grow as writers than to remain stagnant.
You have any thoughts on writing diversely? Ever discover you loved a genre you never thought about trying? Learn that you’re tired of writing in the same genre time after time? Drop a line the comments.
Happy Monday. Today I’m going to talk about dealing with writer envy, an issue I’ve struggled with time and time again.
The other day I received the August 2017 edition of The Writer. In it is an article by Ryan G. Van Cleave titled “Little Green Monsters: The 411 on Writer Envy”. Van Cleave gives a brief overview of his own experiences with envy, provides advice from four professional writers, and finishes with his own advice on “defeating the little green monster.” I suggest grabbing a copy and reading the entire article.
So, what is writer envy? It’s when we, as writers, see others succeed and feel bad because those other writers seem to be accomplishing more than we are.
If you were to tell me that, throughout your entire writing career, you’ve never felt writer envy, I’d likely huff at you. Even the most selfless, altruistic human is susceptible to greed and jealousy. And let’s face it, all markets–including the writing market–encourage competition which, in turn, cultivates a needless “dog-eat-dog world” mentality.
I know I’ve had this issue. It doesn’t make me mad at the other person and I don’t blame them for it. Rather, I start to wonder why I’m not successful like they are and if I’m not good enough to be a writer. I’ve gotten somewhat better about not having this reaction lately. However, I still have moments when I see that a writing friend has won a contest or been published and I feel a twinge and question my ability to succeed.
How do you stop this self-destructive attitude? Well, there’s no way to entirely eliminate it. Nevertheless, you can curb it, either by turning it into something productive or adjusting your thinking to have more positive reactions.
Van Cleave has his own advice for handling writer envy, which I think every writer should read. Here, though, I’m going to discuss my own ways of dealing with it:
Raise the bar for yourself. Instead of whining and moaning “why didn’t it happen to me”, make and meet your own goals. Do you have an edited manuscript in your drawer gathering dust? Start querying agents! Learned of a contest you want to enter? Get on it! Jealousy, to a certain point, can be a good motivator; you just have to make yourself use that motivation. You can’t expect an agent to randomly e-mail you saying “You didn’t query me but I’d love to represent your book.” (If you do, that’s a huge red flag for a scam.) The only way things are going to change is if you push yourself harder and do the work.
Channel the envy energy into something productive. Whether it’s writing-related or an expenditure of energy in another area of your life, I’m sure you can find some good use for the pent-up aggression and agitation. Write a new story. Edit your manuscript. Query a magazine or blog. Heck, you could even clean your house and it would still be a better use of this energy than stewing on someone “doing better” than you.
Remind yourself of your accomplishments. Van Cleave hints at this coping mechanism by suggesting that, if you feel the need to compare yourself to someone, you should compare your work now to your old work. I’m not going to lie, depending on the mood you’re in that may not be the best idea. I’ve depressed and embarrassed myself enough to know that you have to choose the right time to revisit old writing. You should, however, remind yourself of how much you have achieved. Won a contest a few years back? Had an article or short story published in a magazine? Finished a book-length manuscript during the last NaNoWriMo? All of those are great feats to achieve. You need to remind yourself of that and remember that you’re not in competition with anyone but yourself.
Think of another writer’s success as a sign that you can succeed. If you’re suffering from writer envy, you’re probably already thinking “I’m just as good and/or as experienced as they are, why haven’t I caught a break”. Flip that mindset. Instead of complaining that you haven’t gotten a break when you’re like this other writer, think about the fact that another writer like you has succeeded. Since they’ve succeeded, that means someone like you has the potential to make it in the writing market. In other words, this other writer’s success means that you can succeed, too, if you put in the effort.
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Remember that everyone grows at their own pace. Just because you seem to be “falling behind” doesn’t mean that you actually are. You remember in high school when you complained because you weren’t tall enough, weren’t strong enough, weren’t maturing quickly enough, whatever, and then your parents (or other trusted adult) told you not to worry about it because everyone grows at a different rate? The same is true for everything else in life, including writing. Progress is not the same from person to person. Everyone has to work and live at their own pace. As I said in #2, stop comparing yourself to everyone else. All that matters is that you’ve grown in comparison to your old self. Any other comparison will only depress you and/or drive you crazy.
I know this is all easier said than done. We’re taught from an early age that we have to be competitive or we won’t survive. It’ll take a lot of unlearning and conscious reconstruction of your thoughts to help you overcome the hurdle of writer envy. Don’t give up. You’ll feel a lot better about yourself when you get past it and you’ll be able to enjoy your fellow writers’ success, perhaps even helping them along the way.
Any thoughts on writer envy or how to get over it? Suggestions for future topics? Drop a line in the comments or e-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com.
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I’m sure you’ve noticed that I finish all my posts with the same logo, a wolf encircled by my name and the words “moonlit imagination.” I’m also guessing that you might have wondered why I do that and where it came from.
The history behind it isn’t really complicated or extraordinary. My high school offered Yearbook as an elective and I took it my junior and senior years. This elective, along with compiling and selling the school’s yearbook, taught us about graphic design and layout. One of the assignments we got was to design business cards for ourselves. I came up with a handful of designs and this logo was my favorite.
My logo, slightly enlarged
The howling wolf represents my dual nature as a lone wolf but also a pack animal. Wolves are also strong, majestic, and misunderstood, much like writers often are. The words encircle the wolf in order to follow the same visual path created by the full moon at which the wolf howls. “Moonlit Imagination” is a slogan I gave a potential freelancing business long ago because I am a nocturnal being and my best work is done at night. The “S” and “H” are just my initials. You can probably figure out why my name is there.
After all these years I still have a file of each of the business cards and logos, and after all these years this logo is still my favorite.
When I first started writing posts for this blog, I felt like they were incomplete even with images and a sort of “conclusion” at the end. I didn’t like the white space underneath the last of the text. I had been looking for a way to use this logo for a while and I figured that, in addition to making business cards, I could use it as my signature at the bottom of my posts. So far it seems to be working fairly well.
As I’ve been looking into using VistaPrint to make some business cards, I realized that this logo would look good on other products as well: shirts, tote bags, hats, etc. This realization gave me an idea but I want to run it by my readers before I make a decision.
You probably know that running a quality blog isn’t always free. Between the money for the domain and the time spent writing, it does burn a small hole in your pocket before it truly lifts off. My most prominent sources of income are Swagbucks and my book reviews from Fiverr, but I’m still looking for more ways to raise money. I’ve placed a couple ads on this blog but I don’t want to overwhelm my readers and I’m still working to build up my writing, editing, and book review freelance jobs. I have also entered some writing contests and plan to focus more on getting published but we all know that will take some time and a lot of submissions.
My idea is to offer you, my readers, the chance to buy some merchandise with my logo on it. This will be accomplished either through an online store or, preferably, with pledges through an account on Patreon. I will also be offering these products from time to time as free monthly giveaways for my newsletter subscribers.
First, however, I would like you to answer this poll.
Mind you, this idea may or may not come to fruition. I want to see how well my readers receive it before giving it a try. Thank you for providing your opinion on this matter.
If you have any comments or suggestions about this idea, please leave them in the comments section below.
If you haven’t figured out that I’m a fan of J.K. Rowling, you either haven’t been paying attention or you’ve missed a lot of posts. Don’t worry; I’ll catch you up. I’ve looked up to Rowling for as long as I can remember. It goes without saying that I love Harry Potter. That series is one of the rocks of my life that will never go away, along with Disney, my parents, my pets (past, present, and future), reading, and writing. More importantly, I have drawn a lot of strength from Rowling’s life story. It keeps me going in the hopes that I will be able to write my own life story as well as she has written hers. That’s why I was absolutely ecstatic when Very Good Lives was published.
Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination is the official publication of Rowling’s 2008 commencement speech at Harvard University. I would describe this very short tome as an inspirational narrative which draws on aspects of memoirs and self-help books.
With Rowling’s signature humor and captivating accounts from her life after graduation, Very Good Lives is the perfect book to keep on your nightstand. A quick read, witty, I read all 80 pages one morning before getting out of bed.
The main lesson from this speech is to use your failures to build yourself up. We all know that Rowling had hit rock bottom before finishing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. She explains that whether we’ve hit rock bottom as she did or just had a string of minor failures, we can use these failures to learn what not to do, point ourselves in the right direction, and learn what we really want out of life.
The secondary lesson, as the title implies, is the importance of imagination in our lives and the world. Most notably, Rowling discusses how we can use imagination to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. No better person to get such advice from than a woman who once worked with immigrants then went on to write books that positively impact people’s views of ostracized groups.
I’m not afraid to say that I have dealt with a lot of depression and anxiety since I graduated from university. I’m a struggling–and otherwise only employed through freelance work–writer living with her parents to save money. (No one should be ashamed if they live with their parents. Humans are social animals by nature and it’s a great way to save while paying back student loans so long as your parents are OK with it.) I don’t always feel good about myself, especially when I can’t find a job.
Rowling’s Very Good Lives has helped me to pull myself back from the abyss of self-loathing. Perhaps I’ve failed by my own standards but I have also succeeded. I can learn from my failures and use them as the foundation on which I continue to build my successes. Rowling’s book/speech helped me to realize this and is one of the reasons I was able to convince myself to apply for my Master’s program, launch this blog, join Fiverr, and, most importantly, keep writing even when nothing I write seems publishable.
The illustrations are beautifully simplistic. Like the letters on the cover, they are solid red images dancing across and at the edges of the white pages. Each illustration matches the text occupying the same page and distracts from the white space without detracting from the message.
Some Amazon reviews have complained about the fact that they could just look the speech up online and not pay for the physical copy. I don’t know about now but when I bought the book two years ago, the proceeds went to charity. Again, I can’t say if that’s the situation now.
So why bother to buy this book if you can look up the speech online and the proceeds may or may not still go to charity? Well, that’s a matter of personal preference. I prefer paper copies over anything electronic, whether it be an e-book, a Word doc, a PDF file, or a web page. A paper copy also allows you to read without the distractions of social media and the Internet.
I only know where you can buy a paper copy or the e-book. If you know where people can find the speech online without violating copyright, please post a link in the comments for other readers.
Overall, Very Good Lives is uplifting and inspiring. I would recommend it for everyone, even if you’re not currently going through hard times or you don’t like Rowling’s work. In each life some rain falls and this book is like a towel; it won’t prevent you from getting wet during the storm but it’ll help you wipe off the drops left behind.
To buy a copy of Very Good Lives, follow the link below:
For more information on J.K. Rowling, be sure to visit her official website.
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Do you know of any books I should read and discuss? Would you like me to review your published book on this blog? Contact me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com with your recommendations or hire me on Fiverr. I accept book review requests through my “review your book on my blog” gig and as custom orders.
June 21st: the first day of summer, the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, my birthday. While the first three are debatable (follow this link to see why), the last certainly isn’t. I can also testify that it’s hot enough to be the first day of summer. Of course, I only know what’s it like in Northern California. I’ve been stewing in 107 degrees with only a “portable” AC unit a living room with an open-floor plan (our central AC unit broke and it’s going to take a lot of money to replace it). Other than that, it’s been a pretty good birthday. In honor of my birthday, the solstice, and the heat, I’ve decided to post another of my old poems, “Just to Set the Record Straight”.
Sunset on the summer solstice at Stonehenge
Image retrieved from ExpressThis poem is a little different from the others. First of all, it’s longer. Second, it’s arguably funnier. Most importantly, it’s technically been published before. Over five years ago it, along with several other of my poems, were published on a blog for Northern Californian poets called Medusa’s Kitchen, which is run by Rattlesnake Press. Here’s the link to the original post if you want to read it. I recommend doing so since I can’t get the formatting right in this post.
Despite its publication, I’m not particularly proud of this poem. Why? I worry that it comes off as whiny in regards to the heat and people not understanding how hot it can get in NorCal. It’s also rather…I don’t want to say “crude” or “poorly-written” but, in hindsight, I feel as though I could’ve done better. Then again, I always feel that way so you should judge it for yourself:
Just to Set the Record Straight
Just to set the record straight,
“North” doesn’t always mean “cold,”
and “near mountains” doesn’t always mean “snowy,”
especially when you live in the Valley.
SoCal-ers seem to think NorCal is cold
and that we NorCal-ers have not clue about heat.
They’re the only experts.
Think again.
Summer in the Valley?
IT’S HELL.
No less than 90 degrees,
Often over 100
We NorCal-ers go to SoCal
just to escape our heat;
at least there
there’s something to do.
Even when it’s hot
the lake gets boring.
Trust me.
Still don’t believe me?
Still fooled by the mountains and the word “north?”
Then spend a week in NorCal
in the middle of July with no air conditioning
and watch it get to over 100
just inside the house
and eat cold tomato soup for dinner
and take icy showers every night
and take a drive every day
just to keep cool.
And sleep on the living room floor,
the fan set on high,
’cause your bed’s too hot to sleep in
(You won’t sleep anyway).
Do that and then answer me these:
Still think NorCal is cold?
Still think NorCal-ers don’t know heat?
Didn’t think so.
I just wanted to set the record straight.
Maybe you like it, maybe you don’t. My main point in posting this (aside from highlighting the heat I’m boiling in) is to show you that even after something is published you may not feel too good about it.
Another more famous example is Edgar Allen Poe. I’m not talking about “The Raven”, which he wrote to demonstrate what a “perfect poem” was to him. I’m talking about his ever-popular Gothic horror stories. He thought that they were low-brow and trash. However, he knew that they sold well and he had to pay the bills, so he wrote them and sold them. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.
And sometimes, as in my case, you think your work is great at the time. Then, as you grow as a writer and expand your reading horizons, you look back and are somewhat embarrassed by your old work. You may think that its publication should vindicate the work but, in your eyes, you’re just never sure if it’s actually any good or if someone had a lapse in judgment or took pity on you.
Rather than hiding from your old work, as I once did, you should embrace it. We are the product of everything we’ve ever done and encountered. To hide that would be to hide a part of ourselves, and we shouldn’t ever do that. We don’t have to go back to who we once were, as a person or as a writer, but we should still accept it and be as truthful about it as we are with any other part of our lives.
Any old work you’d like to share? Any stories about publications you wish had never happened? Share your experiences in the comments below.
Also, a moment of shameless plugging:
I’ve started a GoFundMe page to help raise the $9000 we need to replace our central AC unit plus the duct system. If you’d like to chip in–even just $5 would help–or would be kind enough to spread the word, here’s a link to the campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/air-conditioner-for-110degree-heat.
If you’d like to send some work my way instead of/in addition to, please look me up on Fiverr.
My program has tentatively received the grades for our portfolios (nothing is official until the board confirms it at the end of July). I got a good grade but not as good as I would’ve liked. That’s life, right? Even when we’re doing well we always wish we had done a bit better. Things could be worse, though, and just because things aren’t exactly how you want them to be now doesn’t mean you won’t succeed–or have more success–later. That’s why I’ve decided to talk about famous literary fails that flopped when they were first released but are now considered classics.
I knew of one without any research–Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick–but I had to perform a quick search to learn any others. What I found was a list on Crackedwhich discussed the following:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
I can only remark on a few of these famous literary fails, so I strongly recommend following the link I’ve provided to learn more about them and how poorly they were originally received. The ones I can discuss from personal experience are Lord of the Flies, The Catcher in the Rye, Moby-Dick, and some of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Lord of the Flies
Good book but disturbing as all get out. I read it in high school (freshman year, I think, but maybe sophomore year, I don’t know) but have not dared pick it up since. It was engaging, fascinating, and an exciting read. The problem? It messed me up pretty badly, more than 1984 but not as badly as The Giver (I’m not kidding, The Giver gave me weird dreams). I don’t know about outside the United States, but I’m sure that all of my U.S. born-and-raised readers can remember being made to read Lord of the Flies.
But how well was the Nobel Prize Laureate’s novel received in its first running? Less than 3,000 copies were sold.
I suppose I can see why. I don’t imagine that there was that big of an audience for dystopian, faithless novels centered on children back in the day. Frankly, if this book hadn’t been inside in school, I don’t know how many people would have a taste for such books today. Still, there’s definitely a readership for dystopian novels today (and it’s no mystery why).
The Catcher in the Rye
I read this book for a young adult literature class as an undergrad and, to be honest, I don’t remember much of it. It isn’t a bad book; I just wasn’t into it enough to remember anything without re-reading it. It amused me, that much I remember, and Holden annoyed the crud out of me. Maybe it’s because I never felt the need to drink, maybe it’s because I thought Holden was an idiot who didn’t think things through, but no matter the reason I just did not like him. I felt sorry for him in many ways and I didn’t really want anything bad to happen to him but that certainly does not mean I have to like Holden as a person.
This book was not knocked down by the numbers as Lord of the Flies was. However, critics had a field day with it. Among other things, they took offense to how vulgar it was. Funny thing is that the language was what felt most real about this book, at least to me. I guess The Catcher in the Rye shows us that when we question society there will be push back; in the long run, though, you will be seen as one of the greats.
Moby-Dick
I’ve been waiting a while to talk about this one. My essay that was accepted into the UC Davis Prized Writing Anthology was written on a chapter of Moby-Dick. That doesn’t mean I’m a fan of the book. In fact, I don’t see myself revisiting in anytime soon. Melville mostly lost me in all the in-depth explanations of the technical sides of whaling. I understand the necessity of the reader knowing about whaling in relation to the story but I had to try really hard not to fall asleep reading those passages. I will give Melville this, Queequeg and Captain Ahab were fascinating. I also loved the end to Ahab’s story, which I won’t discuss here due to spoilers. Still, much of the narrative is too slow and dry for me to return to it before I complete my long, long “to read” list.
How was it received? Very, very, very harshly. It went over people’s heads, many critics flat out didn’t like it and thought it was a “catastrophe,” and some even lobbed personal attacks at Melville. I have yet to come across a classic that was received worse by contemporary critics than Moby-Dick and if you know of any, please let me know in the comments. It seems like a miracle that this book went from zero to hero so drastically. Still, all writers can take heart in that such miracles can and do happen.
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
I saved this one for last because it doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve only read The Hobbit all the way through–and that was when I was a child–but I loved the movies and plan to return to the books as soon as I can. Still, it’s hard to imagine that a series with such a cult following, one which may consist of every fantasy geek in the first world, could have flopped as badly as Lord of the Rings first did.
Mainstream critics panned it and many of Tolkien’s friends grew tired of it when he would read samples to them. One atrocious objection to it was the fact that he was a “career linguist,” not a professional writer. Such elitism is ridiculous and, unfortunately, can happen today, too. However, the vast majority of writers I’ve encountered have been very warm and welcoming no matter what your “other careers” might be, so here’s hoping this divisive trait dies out soon. Another objection was the theme of “industry versus the environment.” I can’t say that similar books won’t receive the same sort of welcome today, at least in the current United States.
Lord of the Rings movie poster. Thank you, hippies, although I could do without Gollum.
Still, the hippie movement demanded the return of Lord of the Rings and, thanks to these “tree-huggers,” we can enjoy this franchise today.
Maybe your book won’t sell many copies in its first run. Maybe critics will crush your ego beneath their shoes like a cockroach. Maybe you’ll feel like your work isn’t good enough to see the light of day and want to quit. Before you give up, please remember these books, now considered classics, and how poorly they were received during the authors’ times. These famous literary fails became successful, why not your work?
I realize that this blog seems to be geared more towards fiction writers than poets and non-fiction writers, so I decided to talk about a writing contest specifically for poets. This contest is the Poetry Awards by Writer’s Digest. If you’ve a poetic mind and an active pen, please read on!
This contest is not much different from the other Writer’s Digest competitions I’ve discussed; this time it’s just for poetry.
Here are the basics:
Poems can be of any form but must be 32 lines or less
Early bird deadline is October 2, 2017
Normal deadline is November 6, 2017
Early bird entry fee is $15 for the first entry and $10 for subsequent entries; normal deadline entry fee is $20 for the first entry and $15 for subsequent entries
Prizes are given for first through twenty-fifth place winners
First place gets $1,000 in cash, a 20-minute consultation with Poet’s Market editor Robert Brewer, a copy of the 2018 Poet’s Market, and their poem published in the July/August 2018 edition of Writer’s Digest
If you’ve any unpublished poetry you’d like to share, I highly recommend trying this contest. Good luck to all who enter!
Know of any contests in fiction, poetry, or non-fiction with upcoming deadlines? Share the love and post them in the comments below, or email me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com so I can share it in a post on this blog.
Lately I’ve been struggling with writing an essay which should be easy for me. My guess is that it’s writer’s block due to pressure, stress, and high expectations. That’s a different conversation entirely. Earlier today I got one of the biggest mental breaks for the essay, one which could help put me back on track. You know where I was? In the shower. Nothing to write on nearby. I had to keep muttering my thoughts to myself so that I wouldn’t forget them by the time I reached my laptop. Needless to say, I was able to write down what I had already thought of but, for the most part, the muse was gone. Now, as I’m waiting for her to return, I’ve decided that I should talk a bit about inconvenient writing inspiration in the hopes that it’ll shake off some of the cobwebs.
My story is unfortunately common. A writer will be going along at something they can’t walk away from, such as showering or trying to sleep, and BAM! Here comes some inconvenient writing inspiration.
Today was not the first time I encountered inconvenient writing inspiration and I know it won’t be the last. It’s just how my mind operates. If I’m trying to focus on something that isn’t particularly interesting and/or I’m block from most external stimuli, my thoughts wander. By the end of my undergraduate years, most of my class notes were actually notes in the margins for new stories and essays for my various classes. (Somehow I still graduated summa cum laude.) Showering and sleeping are especially inconvenient for me since that’s when I usually have epiphanies about particularly difficult stories and essays.
Image retrieved from FlickrA lot of writers’ minds work that way. Odds are that every writer with access to social media has, at one point or another, complained about needing a whiteboard by the shower or having notes scattered throughout the house on scraps of paper and on various note apps. Sometimes I think it’s the universe’s way of keeping us on our toes…or torturing us.
So, how can we deal with such inconvenient writing inspiration?
The key to the answer is in the question itself: we deal with it. We can’t eradicate the problem entirely. That would involve changing how our brains work entirely and that could ruin our creativity. Frankly, we probably wouldn’t want to “solve” this problem. It’s inconvenient and annoying but, at the end of the day, writers need inconvenient writing inspiration. It helps us with writer’s block, especially when we’re getting more stuck the longer we stare at the blank page.
Dealing with inconvenient writing inspiration takes a little creativity, not to mention a better memory and overcoming laziness. The best way to deal with this sort of inspiration is to just keep things to write on wherever you go, no matter what you’re doing. Notebook or phone by your bed, whiteboard or notebook by the shower (be careful not to get it wet), a small notebook or tablet in your purse or backpack, and scraps of paper anywhere you can reach them will give you a chance at writing things down before you forget. The only problem is that you have to remember to write things down and not feel too tired or lazy to reach for your notebook. (Many writers are guilty of that, myself included.)
Short of notebooks everywhere, I can think of no real “solution” to this phenomenon. You just have to write the thoughts down as soon as you can and hope that background noise doesn’t drive the inspiration from your mind.
With those little not-so-shiny gems of wisdom dropped, I must return to waiting for my muse so that this essay may be written by the June 14th deadline. Perhaps if I start to do something else, I’ll get some inspiration again–so long as I have my phone or laptop nearby!
Have any advice for when inspiration creeps up at the most inconvenient times? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Update 6/19: I’ve had some experience with the withdrawal system now. It’s pretty easy and, despite the fee for going through PayPal, is painless enough. It’s certainly accessible enough for even the novice to use. However, remember that after you first link your account to your PayPal account you need to wait 24 hours before making a withdrawal. It’s for security reasons and I see why they do it but I thought I’d let everyone know. It happens if you change the PayPal email you’re linked to, too. Still, I got the money very quickly and fairly easily so Fiverr is still by far the best freelance experience I’ve had.
Nevertheless, my book review gig was denied again. I’m asking customer service for help understanding how I “violated a third party’s intellectual property rights or rules”, but it’s still frustrating that this keeps happening to me when I know that other people on the site offer similar services through their blogs. I’ll let you know what happens when they reply.
Update: Fiverr replied and essentially said the same thing that they told me when they removed the Gig. I’m going to take it to mean that I shouldn’t reference any third-party sites, such as Amazon and Goodreads, anywhere in the Gig description just to be safe. Don’t want to accidentally violate any site’s terms. I suggest everyone else err on the side of caution as well.
I’m here with another side-job update, this time on Fiverr. In the last side-job update I gave you, I talked about how I was content with only having Fiverr to get freelancing jobs. That’s still the truth but I’ve encountered an issue since then that I feel I should let you know about.
For the second time since I joined Fiverr less than two months ago, one of my Gigs has been denied. This time the denial came after I edited the Gig to include some more information, information I would’ve happily removed if they had told me it was a problem in the first place. More importantly, this Gig was my most popular Gig.
I had edited my “I will review your published book and post the review on my blog” Gig to include the URL for this blog and to mention that I’ll put reviews on Amazon and Goodreads as well. They informed me earlier today that my Gig was pending approval because they don’t generally allow outside URLs in Gigs and that I needed to modify the Gig. I went in and removed the URL. No big deal, right? Should’ve been OK after that, right? Wrong.
Apparently some “third party” had reported me as violating their terms of service with this Gig. Mind you, neither Amazon nor Goodreads ever told me that they had a problem with my reviews. I don’t know the exact reason why they didn’t tell me of an issue but I’m guessing it’s because I actually did read the books I reviewed and I provided my honest opinions, both positive and negative. I never write “fluff” reviews; I only write what I truly think about the work. Still, someone complained to Fiverr and my most popular Gig was denied.
I have since posted a new version of that Gig in which I don’t mention Amazon, Goodreads, or anything of the like. Instead, I say that I provide honest, thorough reviews on my blog. I have also contacted Fiverr customer support and asked them to tell me what exactly I did wrong so that I can avoid it in the future. I’ll update this post after they answer me.
Hopefully there will be no issues with the new Gig. I love writing about my opinions on books and this Gig has given me an opportunity to read and review books I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. I don’t want to lose that opportunity.
Fortunately the removal of that Gig did not also remove the 5-star reviews I had. I’ve worked hard to earn those reviews and I’d rather not lose them. I also still have the order I had in the queue for that Gig, so I’m glad I didn’t lose money because of that. I’m just upset that I had over a thousand impressions on that Gig and now I’m virtually starting over. I also would’ve liked it if they had told me that the Amazon and Goodreads stuff was a problem while I was modifying the Gig for the URL issue. I would’ve removed those options without hesitation had they told me then.
My advice is to be very careful about your wording and very patient if you want to get work through Fiverr. The first Gig I had denied was due to minor errors in wording that were mistaken for term violations (which I never meant it to be), and I had to create two new Gigs to ensure that the misunderstanding did not happen again. Once your Gig is denied, you can’t access it again, so you’ll have to rewrite it and hope that you didn’t accidentally violate terms again. It’s a learning experience and you just have to tread lightly.
Fiverr is still by far the best freelancing site I’ve ever been a member of. Despite all these minor Gig denial issues, Fiverr has not deleted or suspended my account, for which I’m incredibly grateful. Upwork is not as generous. Fiverr also has an incredibly large reach and it’s easy to promote your Gigs via social media. I’d recommend Fiverr to anyone looking for freelance work in any field. However, I also recommend caution in your Gigs and patience when Fiverr denies a Gig.
What are your thoughts on Fiverr? Have any advice, cautionary tales, or success stories? Leave them in the comments below.
