by Camela Thompson I have been thinking a lot about why I write lately. It takes a lot of energy to keep writing while marketing and working a demanding day job. The magic number of five books has been bumped up to ten before a writer collects the readership necessary to have a career. At first I rolled my eyes at these numbers, but it makes sense. Getting published is easier than ever with all of the self-publishing options out there, and the market is diluted. There are authors who have a break-out book, but I don't think anyone is certain why some take off and others don't. Your initial reflex when reading this is probably, "It's simple. Better writing." Not every time. Look at the top-selling books...I've read some great books (better books) that haven't performed well. My point is that deciding to be a writer often means working to sustain two careers instead of one. If writing in itself isn't fulfilling, it can be hard to keep going. When I first started writing, I didn't have a drive to be published. I have always been a voracious reader, but I had hit a streak of books that weren't the best. I kept imagining different ways for those books to end, and eventually I decided to try my hand at writing a better story. I can say with absolute confidence that I did not write a better story that first time. But I kept at it. According to reviewers, I'm doing better than okay. A strange thing happened as my stories evolved into a more distinctive style. The writing got darker. Honest to goodness I tried to write the light romance my mother hoped for (she takes my affinity for paranormal darkness as a personal affront to her parenting), but someone would die and off I would go with my darker mystery. Or worse. *Gasp* I like to write horror. As I wrote about demons (literally) and antagonists with dark urges, painful instances in my past unwound in a safe and distant way. I could change the outcome to be fair. It was a second chance at an ending that felt much closer to what a craved for closure. Writing helped me heal.
While I hope that my stories entertain people and transport them (and maybe get that justice they crave), I write for me, too. Why do you read? What motivates you when you write?
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1/20/2016 06:32:13 am
I have been writing fiction for the majority of my life. In fact, if you count the stories I created with pictures scribbled in "Crayola" marker before I could compose legible sentences, I calculate that I've been writing stories for 6/7ths of my life.
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Found this post on #MondayBlogs. I was just having this conversation with an artist friend of mine last night. We've both been struggling with balancing creativity for fun and creativity for profit. Feeling like having to justify time spent on "fun" art/writing...when we originally started the art just because it was fun. It's a good reminder to remember why you want to create in the first place. Thanks for the article!
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Camela ThompsonFreelance writer and Dark urban fantasy author featuring vampires with bite. My BooksCategories
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