Writing Myth #4

For those of you who found my previous post about quality and quantity interesting, you might want to check out Nicole's post over at Pimp My Novel. Apparently at least one author decided her work was not good enough to be published AFTER IT HAD ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED and decided to take it off the shelves. Wow.

Read the post and let me know what you think. Does this speak to quality vs. quantity at all?

http://pimpmynovel.blogspot.com/2010/06/guest-post-training-wheels-novel.html#comments

Writing Myth #4: I'll enjoy being a writer as soon as I get published.

I have not been published yet. But from what information I have gathered from other writers who have, I am very lucky to be enjoying the stage I'm at: simply writing without having to worry about publication.

It seems that once a writer is published, they receive pressure from their own brains and from their publisher/agent/fans to write another book. They feel pressured to raise up a fan base, promote their own book so that the next one is easier to get published, and to carry their own career forward. In the middle of all that, they still have to find time to write.

I'm issuing a challenge to myself and other writers who are yet unpublished to the degree they'd like to be:

Enjoy not being published.

Enjoy being able to write at your own pace, at your own leisure. Enjoy this time and consider yourself lucky. Every single bit of time that you carve out of your schedule for being a writer can be devoted entirely to actually writing. Once you're published, or even once you're ready to start seeking publication, a portion of that time will be taken away from the actual writing and put into self-promotion. You might be able to carve out even more time from your busy schedule to accommodate this, but maybe not.

So here's to enjoying not being published! :D

And let's also look forward to the day when we will be published, because then will come a different kind of enjoyment. I just don't want to throw away this precious time and wish I had enjoyed it more later.

Happy Independence Day everyone!