Wrestling with Myself

As seems to happen every once in a while, I get into a wrestling match with myself.  Usually it's about this crazy business called writing.  You know, whether I'm actually accomplishing anything or whether I'll ever write something someone wants to publish.  And whether this is just an exercise in mental masturbation.  (Fun?  Yeah, but not exactly productive.)

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not thinking about quitting - at least not the writing part.  I love writing too much to stop.  Over the past few weeks, though, I've been playing around with the idea of quitting the whole 'trying to get published' part.  I mean, after almost seven years of writing and a little over six of submitting, what good am I doing?

Each book I write, I am absolutely sure is marketable.  They're all premises I'd want to slap down good money to read about.  They've all been well received by various readers over the years (and those readers are not just family members, tyvm).  I've had published authors read my stuff and like it.  So, wtf?

And still, the rejection letters keep coming in.

Maybe it isn't them, it's me.  I mean, I am what I am.  (Go Popeye.)  I'm a little intolerant and a little hermit-like, and a lot opinionated.  But I am, like I said about my daughter on her college application - 'stubborn but open to change in the face of rational argument'.  (Yeah, she gets that from me.  Big surprise.)

I also write how I read.  As a reader, I like to skip over long descriptiony parts, so as a writer, I tend to not write those.  For instance: I don't care what color a character's eyes are when I'm reading.  It's superficial and unnecessary to who they are, so I might not remember to give that information about the characters I'm writing.

 *Images deleted due to possible copyright infringement*

Having brown hair and green eyes (or red hair/blue eyes, or white hair/brown eyes)...  doesn't make a damn bit of difference to the story.  (Unless a character's hair is dye-job blue and her eyes are red due to color contacts.  That says something about who she is because it's a choice she made.)

:shrug:  I dunno.  I'm just rambling.  For those of you who haven't been around, it's how I work through problems.  I ramble on the blog.  In real life, I also talk to myself out loud - occasionally in public.

Anyway, I'm still forging ahead.  And I'm still working toward publication - because, as I may have mentioned, I'm stubborn.  I will get a book published - and get paid for it - sooner or later... if it kills me.

Let's just hope it doesn't come to that.  ;o)