I Quit!

As if I could--quit writing that is. Lately I’ve seen, on the net, writers struggling, saying  they’re not sure if they want to continue writing, or wonder if there is another word in them to write.

They're discouraged. 

I’ve been writing since the sixth grade (I wrote plays). I didn’t know until I became an adult that I had to write or experience a brain explosion. If I didn’t write, the voices in my head would surely clog the output of my brain—like a type of constipation. So that makes writing a laxative. Right?

As a young adult, I spent years sending my work out to magazines with only a  few acceptances. However, I  did receive lots of encouraging handwritten notes on rejection slips. Writing for fame and/or money will more than likely never be a reality for me, but really who wants the fame of J.K. Rowling or Stephen King? Okay, I'd try it for a week and then give it back.

I've accepted that I may never see my writing traditionally published or have a reader following, but I will never stop writing. I can't because...what if?

For the moment my mission, should I decide to accept it, (AND I DO) is that I will:

1. Self-pub a short story compilation. (Done) Another is in the works. Even though only a handful of people have bought it, I love my A-Z  story collection. 
2. Start a blog and post on it. (Done and ongoing)
3. Hook up with other writers and learn the biz  from them. (In progress through blogging)
4. Establish a name, (may never happen, but I will try), by
   1. Entering contests.
   2. Self-publishing my work.
5. Continue to submit to magazines. (Ongoing)
6. Establish a backlog of fiction so that when I do become desirable, I will have other things for readers to read. (Ongoing)

If you're thinking of giving up anything that is your passion--don't. Giving up is surrendering and you shouldn’t do that until you’re dead. Even then, you’ll probably be discovered, and the world will wish you were still alive to create more good reading (or art, or whatever). They'll want to make a new movie, something fresh, and will find one of your manuscripts. Seriously, THIS IS my luck.

Authors discovered later in life.

• Laura Ingalls Wilder - and we know how that ended. Right? It hasn’t she’s still popular today.
• Bram Stoker – a blood sucker he was and probably more famous today than then. Nearly everyone has heard of the book Dracula.
• William S. Burroughs
• Frank McCourt – I like this quote by him, "Keep scribbling! Something will happen." He won a Pulitzer.

The list of writers that were published after the age of 40 is longer than this, but you get my point. If writing (or painting, sculpting, etc.) is important to you, then keep doing your craft until something happens.

Be encouraged by these links: .

Jody Hedlund wrote Encouragement for Writers Who don’t Know If you should Keep Going  

Stories of Writers who were Late Bloomers

When you want to quit Writing

Terribleminds.com writes 25 Reasons You Should Quit Writing Warning: They may be some language within, even the f-word, so be prepared, but some of it is actually funny and most of it spoke to me.

The song that is playing in my mind as I write this is Don't Stop Believing by Journey.

"Keep scribbling! Something will happen."