June 2022

 Recently I watched a Kurt Vonnegut documentary called Unstuck in Time. This happened after a time of pause in my writing and editing. I recently had reached a point where I needed a break from sitting down and looking at the same damn story again and again. I like what I have written, but I have been editing and editing. At the same time, I have been tabling the ideas for stories that came to me and that I want to write.

Kurt was one of the great writers. I have read many of his books, but not all of them. I have recently been rereading Breakfast of Champions and have a few others in my book stack waiting to be read. The part of the documentary that sent me in a 'Why Bother' spiral was where they described his life before the novel. A time when he wrote stories for multiple magazines and publications. The idea of writing a novel did not make any sense because he would not be able to support his family with the money he could make because of the amount of time spent writing the novels vs. the short stories. 

The short story market dried up.

Fast forward 50 or 60 years, and let's talk about some advice for new writers.

Write short stories and focus on getting them published. Then you will get the attention and some notoriety and hopefully enough to capture the attention of an agent who will work with you and jumpstart this whole published writer life. Or something like that. 

While there is a market and places that buy and publish short stories, the market is much smaller than when people read for entertainment. They were not passing the time with easier-to-digest videos, video clips, games, and countless images and insights fed to us on an endless scroll.

Folks are reading much less than they have at any other time. That's just the way it is, and it's ok. I'm not a Luddite wanting to burn down social media and the choice forms of entertainment for most of the population. I get it. I still read books, but I also like the new forms of entertainment. 

So in the 60s, Kurt Vonnegut had to stop writing full time to be a Saab salesman and eventually a teacher of creative writing to support himself and his family while he worked on writing novels. My 'Why Bother' mindset kicked in as I began working on my fourth edit of a novel I liked after the second edit. Why was I going to spend all the hours doing this again? If Kurt Vonnegut could not even support his family writing, what the hell do I think I'm doing?

I went down the rabbit hole, finding all the articles written and reasons to tell myself to quit wasting my time. Everything I read backed up my 'Why Bother' mindset. Writing stories and novels that no one would read because the world was saturated with tons of other forms of entertainment. 

• No one reads anymore, and then why would the ones that do want to read what you wrote?
• Magazines that publish short stories don't really exist anymore, and the ones that do, don't want you.
• Even after all the edits, is it ever really good enough?

As you can see, it's not a good mindset for a writer or anyone. 

Then came this reminder that creeps up every once in a while to help me put things in perspective. 

No one cares, and I am insignificant. 

As a result, I don't care if I get published in a magazine, and there is a good chance I will stop trying. I don't care if I attract the attention of an agent or if I can publish a novel in the traditional route. 

I will write the stories and edit them to the point that I feel they are at least ok, and then I will publish them. I will share the short ones until I have enough to compile them. Then I'll do that and self-publish them. The novels and novellas will be edited the same way. These stories will not be perfect, and it doesn't really matter. 

There is a saying, and I'm not going to give or take any credit for it. because I don't want to waste my time looking it up "Done is better than perfect." 

This new mindset pulled me out of the 'Why Bother' spiral. I will do more of the things I enjoy about writing and less of the stuff I don't like to do. Lofi DIY writing. 

Maybe I'll even have a short story shared before the end of the month.

That's my June post, I guess. 

Here is a view from under the Japanese maple, next to the herb garden in front of the backyard proper garden. I've set up a table and place to sit in the shade as an alternate desk, a place to read, or to enjoy a cup of something warm to drink.