Forum / Recommended Reading: The Influence of Anxiety: The Modern Writer’s Neverending Race by Amber Sparks at Big Other

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    Julie Innis
    Jan 29, 02:28pm

    http://bigother.com/2011/01/25/the-influence-of-anxiety-the-modern-writers-neverending-race/

    This may be a repeat for many of you, but it's certainly a thought-provoking post and one I wanted to be sure to share.

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    Kathy Fish
    Jan 29, 03:26pm

    It's a terrific and deeply honest post. It's gotten a huge response. I think many of us can relate to the anxieties that Amber expresses. Kudos to her for writing it.

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    Matt Dennison
    Jan 29, 04:52pm

    "...gotta keep the brand out there!"
    --Ray Nagin

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Jan 29, 05:08pm

    Thank you, Julie. This hits very close to home for me, because I am in more or less the same situation. Writing in the 60's and 70's was a different world entirely, a slower process in the days preceding word processors and then laptops. I used an old manual Underwood, a magnificent machine in both size,heft, and feel, but hardly the kind of tool that promotes output. Networking meant face-to-face time with people, noticing their smiles, their thoughful gaze, or their sudden disdain when you read to them, or showed them something you were writing, or simply shared ideas... no time for pretense. You published because you had something to say, a different way of saying it, and there were many more platforms in which to say it.

    Now that I've begun writing again, I do feel the pressure ... from other writers, from spouse, from friends. I recently took a hiatus from a local writer's group, simply because of increasing comments like, "That story you showed us ... the one about the fisherman. Is it published? Why not? Aren't you getting it out? Jeez, that was a good one. It oughtta be published." The inference being 'what's wrong with you?' This is the only online group I deal with, but I can feel it here. "You need to publish. You need to submit more. You need to make this shorter. Cut this. Cut that."

    I have a huge backlog of finished short stories, perhaps forty that I've put aside for the time being because of the time and effort to submit them. It's a full time job to do it right. They are 3,500 to 13,000 words in length. Yes, I'm writing two novels and have a couple of others completed, so my output is not minor ... not to mention the countless short pieces I've played with and put out for experimental purposes ... but now there is the pressure of time and the shrinking demand for work of significant length.

    "So what's wrong with you? You need to submit more. You need to self-promote. You need to get this stuff out there. You need to blog. You need to network. Damn, bubba, what are you waiting for?"

    I have confidence. I do submit. I do publish little pieces, but hey ... I have no doubt that when I publish one novel, there will be a growing ability for me to find homes for my other work, but everyone knows how difficult it is to get past the stigma of being a writer who is both publication challenged and an outsider, unconnected to either academic networks or genre-specific entertainment circles.

    Getting past the gatekeepers with a first novel becomes a task not dissimilar to Grail hunting without a decent horse, no matter how good your work, no matter how persistent you are, or how shamelessly you self-promote. I have confidence, but there is a choice to be made. Do I spend a lot of time being a salesman ... or do I spend the time it takes to be the best that I can be? By writing.

    "What are you waiting for? After all, you're not twenty anymore." No, I'm not. In fact, I'm twenty ... three times over ... and a little change above that.

    What to do?

    The author of this article makes an excellent point. Or like the Beatles tell you, told you, suggested lyrically back when I was writing the first time 'round ... "Get back. Get back. Get back to where you once belonged."

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    Matt Dennison
    Jan 29, 05:29pm

    James--

    Submit more. Just do it.

    xoxo
    Mom

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    Sam Rasnake
    Jan 29, 08:18pm

    Thanks for the link. Enjoyed the read.

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    Linda Simoni-Wastila
    Jan 29, 08:21pm

    Thanks for the link, Julie. This hits home for me as well. When the stress to submit/promote/network gets too huge, I just keep remind myself that the good things take time. Slow food. Slow writing.

    @James, every word you wrote fits how I feel. Thank you. Peace...

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