Lately I find myself steering away from giving that kind of advice. When my writing friends post their frustrations (which seems to happen only occasionally, everyone seems to try and present a positive outlook), I like to offer encouragement but I'm more likely to say things like, "Try to focus on enjoying the work," if their complaint is about sales and reaching readers. I've reached a point where I feel like telling people to not give up and keep writing is a way of telling them that the book sales and the reaching readers they desire are just around the corner. And I worry that I might be presenting false hope. The reality is the readers most of us are hoping for probably aren't around the corner.
What
I would really like to tell writers struggling with whether or not they want to
keep going is to take a quick break and consider if the joy and satisfaction
you get from sitting and writing, from doing the work, is enough to keep you
going by itself. If all those hopes and dreams of gaining readers and all that
might come with that were to go away, would you still write? The answer doesn't
have to be yes. Writers give a lot to the blank page and it's okay to want more
back, whether it's more communication with an actual person or financial
compensation for our investment of time.
I've
done this on numerous occasions and I always quickly come back to yes as my
answer, but that has to do with a lot more than just me as a writer, that has
to do with me as a person. I don't have a challenging day job, I'm not a
religious person, and these are two important holes in my life writing fills. I
also have the free time available to spend on writing. If I didn't write, I
might play video games. That's the analogy I often fall back on when I wonder
why I'm bothering when I'm feeling down about sales and gaining readers: I
could purchase video games and play them till I conquer them or I could write
books. Writing books, if nothing else, is cheaper.
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