[Pre(r)amble: This post is pretty much all over the place. I've tried to distil the main points/questions as I go along, but it's not exactly a complete, ordered thought process. Consider yourself warned. ;)]
I have been
writing now for very nearly seven years. The real figure is obviously a lot longer than that–my Mum’s carefully maintained boxes would testify to support this fact–but I’ve been using writing as my main form of creative expression for seven years. In that time I’ve had some hits with publications and more than enough misses to counterbalance them. I’ve met people whose writing I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving, and people whom I consider to be great friends even though I have never met them.
Bloody hell, so far this is reading like a eulogy. Let me start again.
Lately I’ve been thinking about my writing. More specifically I’ve been thinking about my writing in the context of my main pursuit, that of science. As has been pointed out by me elsewhere, I’ve just finished my PhD in chemistry, and so the time has come (the Walrus said) to talk of many things. Or at least think about them obsessively until I feel obliged to externalise them in a blog post.
The things I’ve been thinking about are things like where my writing will fit in my future career, how I’m going to balance work and life and writing, whether I want to continue to take writing ‘seriously’ or relax my expectations of myself; y’know, all that fun stuff. So I guess that’s what this blog post is going to be about: thinking about and planning how I might continue my hobby without killing myself doing it.
The fun factor
Hobbies are meant to be fun. Challenging, but fun. I think it is safe to say that following the path to becoming a respected, known writer in Australia doesn’t always tick those boxes. And the main offender is the submission cycle. I joked to a friend the other day that we had to start a support group for people who were submitting just to stop us all from getting too depressed (The Subcommittee, a Facebook group that I reckon is the best thing to come out of my writing this year). There’s the fretting over drafts, the imagining of intended audiences, the guessing at when a rejection email will come back. Of course there are good aspects as well, the most noteable of which is the coveted acceptance.
But for a person whose career isn’t determined from his publication record (well, at least not his literary one–scientific publication is another matter entirely), why should I go through that stress? Why should I be placing that pressure on myself? I’ve found that over the last couple of years, writing has stopped being about fun and play and more like work. I want to change that. Which I think is a nice place to wrap this part up and pop out my first conclusion:
1) I want writing to be fun again. Or if not fun, exactly, then at least for it not to feel like work.
Audience
Okay, so I want writing to be fun. But I also want my writing to be read. Because as much as I love playing with myself (ahem–purely in a metaphorical sense), I get a lot out of interacting with readers and other writers. But then I have to ask myself: who is my audience, and how does that audience change the way I write? Well, I want to get my stories out there and read by people whose opinions I respect. In other words, those people whom I have read and whose work I admire, or whom I have met and think are ace, or both! And I’m not sure that submitting to literary journals really does that. Sure, I might nab a few new readers; not a bad outcome. But do I really care if Jane or John Critic think my story is cool? Not really. It’s flattering, for sure, but on the other hand if someone I knew and was into came up to me and told me they liked my work, I’d be over the fucking moon! So. Second conclusion:
2) Having my contemporaries (and more specifically, people who I know and respect) reading and enjoying my work is more important to me than praise from an unknown.
Distribution
Speaking of journals has reminded me of another line of thinking, concerning their readership and their reach. The main question being how many of my contemporaries read literary journals? For at least the last year or two, I am the only person I know who subscribes to Meanjin. I have also heard through the grapevine of the absolutely dismal figures for subscribers to both the Westerly and, to a certain extent given its age, the Southerly. I dare say those figures don’t even compare on the same scale to the numbers of people that read the online components of literary journals (in the sense that the online compenents probably get hundreds of visitors per day). In the absence of hard statistical data, I’m unable to make any concrete assertions, but if we are evaluating distribution purely on the number of people that read your work, then online means must be considered suprior. Similarly they are more advantageous in the terms of my second conclusion, in that I can guarantee that more of my contemporaries are reading thins online than they are in journals that they subscribe to. Of course, there is always the factor of quality assurance in Australian literary journals. Australian journals produce absolutely top notch stuff in both design and content. Every single journal I subscribe to (of which there are many) is a joy to read. But couched in the context of a non-professional writer who just wants to share his stories, there isn’t much to persuade me against posting stories on Facebook rather than submitting them to a journal.
I’ve been dabbling in online distribution in various forms for quite a while now. And by ‘online distribution’, I mean posting my writing on an art website (deviantART) and maintaining this here blog. Not the most professional of options, but then that kind of fits with the theme of this post. Nevertheless, there’s some surprising statistics to be had from looking at it. On the deviantART side of things, I’ve accumulated a bunch of friends and followers who read and comment on my work, and have influenced me in a profoundly positive way. The pieces that have been featured as a ‘daily deviation’ (a daily showcase of artwork and writing that community volunteers think is worth featuring) have accrued almost 26,000 views between them. While this doesn’t mean that 26,000 people have read things that I have written–only around 800 of those actually responded with a comment–it is still a heck of a lot of people to be looking, however briefly, at my writing.
(I should hastily note at this stage that I am not looking to burn bridges. It’s highly likely that I will continue to submit stories and articles to journals for publication, but I won’t be putting pressure on myself to do so. Editors please don’t hate me.)
What does all that mean? In a sentence:
3) I’m equally keen on seeing my work in print or digital, but seeming as though digital has already resulted in my stories being read by a bunch of people, I’m leaning that way as a first destination.
Conclusions
Alright, so after all that, maybe I can come to some kind of conclusion as to what might be the shape of future writerly self. Now what the heck were my points again? Oh right:
1) I want writing to be fun again. Or if not fun, exactly, then at least for it not to feel like work.
2) Having my contemporaries (and more specifically, people who I know and respect) reading and enjoying my work is more important to me than praise from an unknown.
3) I’m equally keen on seeing my work in print or digital, but seeming as though digital has already resulted in my stories being read by a bunch of people, I’m leaning that way as a first destination.
So what does the combination of these point towards in terms of what I’ll be doing with my writing in the future? Here I think I’ll switch to bullets, since they’re easier to think in:
- Maintain a formal distribution space for stories that I think are publication quality. This could be a well-designed website, or choosing a platform such as Smashwords or Amazon Singles to put together some 99c wonderpackages.
- Share these stories with friends and followers via deviantART and places like Twitter. Given my glacial writing pace, I don’t think there’s any risk of spamming people.
- Continue to send some stories off to more traditional markets such as journals and competitions when I feel that they fit, but don’t put any pressure on myself to accumulate publication credits.
Keep in mind that this should all be considered with the fact that I hope to start a career in science research in the new year. This will effectively (discounting the four mind-numbing months at my temp job) be the first time I work a full-time 9-5 job. So time will become even more of a premium, and I want to be ready for that. I don’t want to burn myself out and end up hating writing. I also don’t want to neglect the other important things in my life (i.e. Louise, friends, exercise, etc.). But as you can see, devoting this amount of time to roundabout thinking to how I’m going to make sure I don’t kill my writing hobby shows how much it means to me. I think that for folks such as myself who are looking to keep up a creative output while working, it’s important to have some kind of idea about how to go about it.
Anyway, if you’ve made it this far thanks for sticking it through. If you had any comments with regards to anything I’ve said here I’d love to hear it. I’m still a little up in the air, so any advice would be really appreciated.
As someone who’s had a day job since finishing college almost 7 years ago, the best advice I can give you is to pick a time every day and write. It could be for a couple of hours, or only half an hour. Maybe even fifteen minutes. The important part is sticking to it. With practice, you’ll eventually train yourself to get into that vital, creative mindset during that time frame.
A good supply of coffee also helps.
Couldn’t agree more with Todd on the time management. While I tend to work in bursts, having a 9-5 has made working solidly on anything pretty damn hard (as the lack of posts on the mighty ginge proves).
And as I’m always the one chiming in with the random bullshit ideas, I say forget about the conventional submission process – if it’s getting in the way of good writing, then it’s a burden rather than an aid. I’m not saying throw it all out the window, just don’t feel pressured by it. As you said, it’s supposed to be fun – my comedy turns nasty really quickly when I’m forcing myself to do it to a deadline (eg. I’ve booked a gig and want new material for it).
CHILL MAN! Just don’t let the 9-5 get in the way unless you want it too; I’m leaving my job at Xmas, and if they offer me a new contract I’ll only do it if I only have to work 3 or 4 days a week! :D
I absolutely agree with points 2 and 3. In reality what many of us want (at some point) is recognition. And I think that the default course for recognition is sometimes misplaced (ie publication being the only course). If you can break out of that rigid state of mind, then you’ll likely find many more lasting forms (and by-products) of recognition (such as a social circle).
On point 1, I don’t want to put a dampener on things, but it’s possible that writing will never be fun anymore for you in the way it might have been fun in the past. And I think you should be open to that.
That’s not to say there shouldn’t be a measure of enjoyment to writing, I think that’s a given. But the river you played in seven years ago is not the same river you’re likely wading through today.
That’s my metaphorical way of saying that there are many rewarding aspects to writing, but that those aspects are likely to shift in significance over time.
For instance, some of the reasons I write is today are 1) that it gives a sense of purpose and direction to life and 2) it helps me to explain/ understand what happens in my world and 3) it helps me to discover new interests and avenues of thought. Writing for me is hard work, and the harder it is, the less enjoyable it can be on a day to day basis. But when it works, it’s incredibly fulfilling, more so than anything else I know.
But as I get better at writing and am more aware of ‘the craft’, I find it less and less as recklessly fun as it used to be. In fact, the thought that it should be fun is a weighty and troublesome expectation, one that has made me question the use of writing when things just feel damn hard.
For point 1, consider that writing now and in the future may deliver many rewarding things, but that if fun doesn’t turn out to be one of them, observe closely what those other things are – and if they are compelling and important enough, they will be the reason to continue to return to the page.
@Todd: Should’ve known you’d be the one with the practical advice. I think having a writing habit is something I’ll need to get into. Thanks man, appreciate it. (:
@Red: As far as submissions go, yeah. I think that I’d much rather write what I want to write rather than constantly worry about where it’s going to go and who is going to read it. Selfish, but there it is. Cheers dude!
@Mark: This is why I like you. Such good perspective. Just what I needed mate, thanks.
Fitting in writing with a 9-5 job can be hard. I was lucky in that for a while, I could actually write at work and get away with it, but before that happened, I didn’t do a whole lot of writing for a period. I guess it’s about making it a priority which seems obvious but it’s hard to do.
I find I’m more motivated when hanging around other writers and talking writing. It keeps my head in the right space.
Oh and I totally hear you on the online thing. It was one of the reasons I dabbled with that eBook thing. I still post the occasional poem on my blog, perhaps a video and blogging as well as open mic poetry have those benefits of instantaneous feedback.
But I always wrestle with the quality assurance thing. If you have confidence in your work, or can get some kind of third party tick, that could work. I’m working on a web serial at the moment based on last year’s NaNoWriMo novel, which might work.
@Ben: Yeah that was one of the advantages of a PhD, I could be doing research and then switch to writing for an hour or so. With research and study, as long as you get the work done at the end of the day, no-one really cares how you do it.
Quality assurance is a must when releasing things online, for sure. I think there’s room for our group to move into editing each others’ work–I think maybe people already are but I haven’t had anything to really send around. Could be a way of guaranteeing that what you want to put up is worth it, as long as we all agree to be brutally honest with each other.
Heh, I tired to do a web serial once. Worked for about 12 weeks and then I think I had exams and never picked it up again. I’m now trying to go back to it, as I think the idea is sound, I just need to find the main plot points. (: Good luck with yours, I think there’s definitely room on the Internet for serials, they make sense with blogs as well.