I have just added a post to my blog about my thoughts on why, with life as difficult as it is, do we put ourselves through trying to get our work published.

Any comments (and indeed answers!) would be gratefully received!

Stu
http://tollesburytimeforever.blogspot.com/

do you mean, why do we write, or why do we try to get our work published?

The first is easier to answer, I think - the escapism of making up your own world and characters, and being the dictator of what happens to them! Or the absolutel thrill when you're writing a first draft and anything can happen, or the times when it all suddenly comes together. or the joy of a sentence or phrase that expresses precisely what you want it to, in an elegant way. Or the sheer satisfaction of pushing yourself to complete this huge piece of work, for no reason other than because you've decided to do it.


As for publishing, that's a whole different kettle of fish - I think partly it's the need for recognition, to share with other readers what you've discovered for yourelf. Sometimes it's for money, but that doesn't explain the drive to keep on writing and submitting, even in the face of persistent rejection.

Ultimately, it's believing that you have something to say that will interest/delight/absorb/shock/educate other people.

....or because we're so darned stubborn, we can't give up once we've started!

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P.S I'd be wary of using every post on WW to promote your blog. We like discussing things like this, but don't always want to put it out there for the whole world to read

Yep, I can see why people write and can understand why I do. But the publication thing, that's a real odd thing! As you say, I think it's a combination of many factors - most of which are entirely out of our control!

Stu

Perhaps the hardest thing for a lot of writers to learn, or accept, is that publishing is a business. Which is why the writers who succeed in it tend to be those who treat it like one. 'Commercial' writers, therefore, tend to be hard-working, productive, reliable; also knowledgeable about what's required by publishers. In some ways it's surprising just how many writers want to get published yet are resistant to learning how to. There have been threads on WW, for example, where people have expressed awe at someone who's vowed to write just 500 words a day; or think it an incredible feat to produce 50,000 words in a month for Nanowrimo.

So, while I agree that publication (in terms of someone buying your work) is out of our control, what isn't are the many ways of increasing our chances of selling work. Which probably brings us back to Heinlein's Rule No. One: You Must Write.

Terry

Very good point, Terry. I just wish I didn't have to work full-time as well! I guess I'm playing catch-up in a way. I am beginning to think I should have looked a t a certain genre, found agents/publishers who want work within that genre and then wrote a novel within that same genre! And there's me writing a novel that appears not to fit into any genre then trying to get it published - bugger!