Should I Keep Writing?

By Author: David B. Silva
Total Articles: 5
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Writers are an insecure lot. It&#39s easy to understand why. You screw up at work and your boss jumps on your case, quick to tell you exactly what you need to do if you want to keep your job stuffing dough into that pizza press. You screw up your writing...well, ten weeks later you receive a polite, generic rejection letter in the mail that basically says: Thanks, but no thanks. There is no boss to tell you how you screwed up or how to make it better. You&#39re on your own, Mr. Wannabe A. Writer. Go lock yourself in your bathroom/office until you figure it out. Unfortunately, this lack of feedback goes against our very nature as homo sapiens. If there&#39s no stop sign at the intersection, we have to give serious consideration to whether we&#39re willing to stop or not. That can be a real chore for those of us who are busy trying to dig a dime out between the seat cushions for that double-mocha cappuccino on the way to work. Put in a stop sign and it&#39s a no-brainer. You stop. Then you start digging for the dime. But for a writer, feedback comes in only one form...if you sell the story, you did something ...
... right. If you didn&#39t sell it, you did something wrong. There are those who will try to tell you this isn&#39t true. That you can get good feedback from your spouse or your girlfriend or your buddies. But these are the same people who said you were feeding dough into the pizza press just fine. You can&#39t trust the opinions, good intentions or not, of people who are only casual observers. So...did your story sell or didn&#39t it? Well...no. But why can&#39t the editor take an extra minute and just tell me what was wrong? you wonder. Yours is not the only manuscript the editor has to read. There are stacks of manuscripts all over the office, some higher than the desktop, with more arriving in the mail everyday. Editors don&#39t have an extra minute. Not if they plan to scarf down a sandwich between noon and twelve-fifteen and still have time for a bathroom break. Your story has a page, two at the most, to capture the editor&#39s interest. After that, well, there&#39s always another story on the stack. Another reason why the editor doesn&#39t tell you what&#39s wrong: your story&#39s a nightmare. It would take more time to explain the problems than it took you to write the thing. And the biggest reason of all: hell hath no fury like a writer scorned. Offer some helpful advice and the editor has undoubtedly learned that too often what he gets in return is an indignant letter full of obscenities. Finally, writers need to understand that editors don&#39t have all the answers. Yes, it&#39s true, editors are people, too. They have their likes and their dislikes, their stern beliefs, their misconceptions. While one editor may abhor your story, another may find it brilliant. I mention all this in case you weren&#39t already insecure enough. And I mention it because there&#39s another dead end request editors get thrown at them quite frequently. It goes like this: Dear Mr. Editor: Enclosed please find my short story, titled "A Story By Any Other Name." I hope you like it. I think it&#39s the best thing I&#39ve written. If you decide not to buy it, could you please tell me why. And could you also tell me if I should keep writing. I&#39d like to know if I have a future doing this. If you have to ask, the answer is no, you don&#39t have a future and you shouldn&#39t keep writing. Writing is not a pursuit for those who are weak of heart. Nor those who are thin-skinned. It is a pursuit for those who love doing it. William F. Nolan used to say that if you want to be a writer then you sit your behind in the chair and write. Charles Grant said that he writes because he has to; he can&#39t imagine not writing. You want to be a writer? Don&#39t ask editors or anyone else if you have what it takes. They don&#39t know. They can&#39t tell you if you&#39ll make it or not. They might be able to tell you if you need to develop your skills more, but you already knew that. Writing is a profession you never stop perfecting. There&#39s always more to learn. You want to be a writer? Persevere. Go write...and persevere. Copyright © 2005 David B. Silva About David: David B. Silva has written eight novels. His most recent, All The Lonely People, is published by Delirium Press. He&#39s awaiting the release of The Hawke Legacy, a novel of epic horror, from Subterranean Press, and currently working on a more intimate novel titled The Boarding House. His first short story was published in 1981. His short fiction has since appeared in The Year&#39s Best Horror, The Year&#39s Best Fantasy & Horror, and The Best American Mystery Stories. In 1991, he won a Bram Stoker Award for his short story, The Calling. Visit his site, TheSuccessfulWriter.com.