“To write something you have to risk making a fool of yourself.” – Anne Rice
“So, you can write. What are you going to do with that?” said my mother. As a practical woman, she wanted me to develop employable skills. I put my poems and short stories away. I learned to type business papers, file documents, and operate office machinery. Boring!
“You can’t write a story about slavery,” said friends of mine who saw the trend of slavery stories saturating the market. So, I put my story away.
“No one wants to read fiction based on your genealogy research. Most people just aren’t interested in that subject,” said a well-renowned critic. Again, I filed that story away with a stack of my unfinished manuscripts.
“It’s difficult to get into the publishing business,” the pundits often say. Yet debut novels and memoirs are published every year.
I’ve read that short stories, my skill set, are no longer marketable. Yet contests for short stories are run every month. I entered several of them and received an honorable mention in one. But, I was thrilled to receive one hundred dollars for a first-place finish in a now defunct contest.
Writing can be frustrating, lonely, and not financially satisfying for most people. I’ve tried other hobbies to satisfy my need to create. Crocheting, sewing, and cooking specialty dishes are fun hobbies, but nothing gives me the same satisfaction as completing a story.
New authors are discouraged, but I can’t heed the message. I have a need, a desire, an urge to put words on paper. I know the best cure for my itch to be creative – Writing!
