Skip to main content

Creativity

 Maybe you’ve noticed this too.  When you step away from fiction writing for a while, your creativity becomes flaccid.  I’ve had to step away from this blog for a while because I was writing my sixth nonfiction book.  God, I’ve missed fiction!


Now that I’ve entered that phase of waiting for publishers to respond, I’ve turned my limited writing time back to fiction.  I submitted a couple of stories this week and am waiting to hear about those as well.  When you’re a writer, waiting is a way of life.


Opening my software where I store my fiction stories, I was amazed by how many I found.  Some of them are bad—so bad that they’ll never (rightfully) be published.  Some are surprisingly good and have been sitting around while I finished up my nonfic.


The vast majority, however, are unfinished.  Some years back I realized that when I’m writing in the heat of inspiration but don’t have time to finish a story that I need to write down where I’m going with it to remind myself later.  If I don’t, I come back to some half-forgotten tale with no idea where I was heading with it.





In any case, the thing I’ve noticed—and I’ve noticed it before—is that my day-to-day life becomes much more creative when I write fiction.  I’m happier.  I think more clearly.  I can manage (slightly) to get through my nine-to-five job.  Fiction is real life.


I know I don’t have many readers out there, but I’m posting this as a word of encouragement.  Don’t give up!  I put aside fiction writing for a couple of years because I really needed to finish my latest nonfiction project.  It doesn’t have the sparkle that some of my earlier books do.


Writing is life itself.  Our world of trying to make money is not what it seems to be.  Fiction just makes sense.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Patterns

  There’s a pattern I’m noticing.   For fiction publishers.   Even if you aim low you’ll find it a struggle.   Part of the reason is the pattern. Lots of websites list publishers.   The smaller, hungrier presses either eventually close or get to a place where they require an agent to get in.   That’s the kiss of death. Although my stories have won prizes, and been nominated for prizes, I can’t get an agent interested.   I’ve queried well over a hundred, so the agent route is one of diminishing returns.   This too is a pattern. Back to the smaller presses.   I check many lists.   What I write, you see, is highly idiosyncratic.   It’s literary but it’s weird.   Publishers don’t know what to do with it.   If a smaller press published stuff like this, I’d find it. The pattern includes writers who never get discovered.   Ironically, a number of editors of fiction literary magazines (mostly online) tell me they enjoy my wor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Creative Righting

  Rejection of my writing is a rejection of my imaginative world.   That’s why I was cheered by the acceptance of one of my stories this week.   That makes number 31. I’ve been working on a lot of fiction lately, even as nonfiction book number 6 is going to press.   The ideas are still there, and bizarre as ever, but publishing venues just aren’t welcoming. The other day I had lunch with a professor whose wife is also a professor.   She just had her first novel published, and so he pointed me to her indie publisher.   I went to their website to learn that they’re closed to submissions.   I have to admit that my latest accepted story, “Creative Writing Club,” was probably given the green light because I know the editor.   That seems like a pretty dicey way to get any notice, doesn’t it?   You have to know the right people even in the low circulation world. My fiction is difficult to classify.   It’s got speculative elements to it.   ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Maybe Okay

  A couple pieces of encouraging news, perhaps, dear struggling writers.   I had a couple short stories accepted for publication in recent weeks.   As a fellow writer recently said, “You've got to keep trying.  Somebody will like what you wrote.” That’s a bit of sunshine.   And it’s likely true.   But the stories:   “The Crossing,” about two men in a boat trying to cross the Atlantic, was accepted by JayHenge Publishing.   JayHenge is a small, but paying publisher.   I was flattered when they wanted it for their Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe anthology.   Being associated with Poe in any way feels good. The second story, “St. Spiders’ Day,” had been brewing in my mind for years—yes, this is a long game!   A friend pointed me to The Creepy podcast.   Since the story hadn’t been written, I followed their guidelines of what they wanted.   It worked. I recently heard a successful wri...
Post a Comment
Read more