by Crymsyn Hart
This past weekend I took the day and drove up to
ConCarolinas here in Charlotte to say hello to my fellow bloggers, Tina,
Jeremy, and Gail. It was great to see them. I was also there to hang out with fellow author and film maker, Stephen Zimmer. I’ll also be hanging with him in July at FandomFest in Louisville, KY.
Hanging out with the other authors is also great and makes
me feel right at home, but it was something that Stephen said that got me to
thinking. As an author, I write because it’s my passion, just like all authors
write because they love to do it. You want to reach the fans and hope they like
your books. But when I came home and looked over what I have available, it got
me to realize that I write. A lot. I’m currently hanging around fifty books published. Some are large and some are small. But over the past decade that is a lot of word count. The first book I published was based on my senior project I had written for college. Then I took it and rearranged it, added a few more characters based on friends, and over time it became the work that got me started.
Even after writing seriously for the past decade, I wasn’t picked up for publication until five years ago with a small, now defunct, e-publisher that accepted four of the books I had at the time. From there, I also worked with three other presses that have now disbanded. For each, I would write something new and I’ve met a wonderful group of people that from five years ago has grown into authors now owning their own small presses. I’ve found a home among them and feel more comfortable there then with the big e-publishers.
Taking into account everything, that still doesn’t make me get to a
point where I just want to throw in the towel and quit writing all together.
There have been many times over the years, frustration has set in and damn my
characters or not, I’m going to stop listening to them and take up another
hobby.
The longest I’ve stopped writing for is three months, by far the worst
period I had. But then something clicks and I get back on the horse. So
far, I’ve had one episode this year that I wanted nothing to do with any of it.
It’s a different feeling than writer’s block, being frustrated with characters,
or the world in general. For that short period of time, something inside of me
dies and I’m ready to bury it. However, something reminds me that I’m not
writing for money, or to keep pumping out stuff because there is a demand for
it. Heck, there are thousands of books coming out every year. That something is the Writer’s Soul in me that wants to be revived and spin new stories. It’s friends and others who give me encouragement. Loved ones who read stuff that they can’t stand, but do it anyway because they support me.
So no matter how much you might want to bury the writer in
you, just remember it will come back from the dead. I’ve learned that from experience. I guess
