Posts From the Past

I was going through some of the old forum topics and found this post Maggie wrote about a year ago:

Maggie wrote:What is your dream as a writer? I'm sure most of you want to be published. Do you want to be really famous? Do you want to reach out to a specific group of people? If you were to become the next JK Rowling, what would you do with the money?

I want to be published and at the very least hit the NYT bestseller list.

Well, it's been a year now. Has anyone's writer dreams changed? Or for those that joined WriteOn later and missed this post, what are your dreams as a writer?

Hmmm... every writer wants to be published, so that's my goal too. I also want to finish this story that I'm working on currently, so that's a goal of mine. But I'm also a lot more realistic about publishing than I used to be. Now I realize how much work and time it will take to be published, and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. For now, I'll just enjoy writing and blogging and other stuff.

My goal...I want to be published, but I'll be okay not being super famous. I just want to live off my writing and share my stories and have other people love them too. But right now, my main goal is to have fun. Writing is enjoyable, and I want it to stay that way, no matter where I am in the publishing journey.

@Gracie that's my goal too I agree that publishing is a lot more work than I thought it would be going in to this all but I'm not sure if that's going to keep me from trying to get published now. I'll have to think about it more once I have a novel I think is publishable and see but I think it's great that you decided to wait and hold on to doing writing for fun rather than work. That's the one thing I'm worried will change if I get published because I never want to just think of writing as work and always being on a timeline could push it to feeling like that. What are your feelings on this?

@Constance That is a great way to put it! I'm the same, I just want to share my stories and see people love them whether it's 10 people or 10,000. I want writing to stay fun too, like I said to Gracie I would hate for it to start feeling only like work.

I think a lot of the time we need to get in the habit of thinking of writing as more like work - although work in the sense that we're serious about it and we spend time on it and we... uh... work on it.

The thing is "work" doesn't have to be synonymous with "not fun". Working hard is hard work (obviously) but it's still rewarding and fun and... stuff. Argh, I don't think this is coming out right. OK, so, I mean that we need to work on writing but just because we have to work on it doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable and rewarding.

However, I still know what you're talking about, Sarah. Once we HAVE to write, will it be enjoyable anymore? Since I don't have to write yet, I don't know. But I would like to hope that I still do some fun writing projects that have nothing to do with publication once writing is my job.

(ack I was so distracted by the emoticons on the side while I was writing this... I now want to try and use all of them in a way that makes sense in a post )

That made sense, Gracie!

Ha. I shall now do this. Because I am cool. SO COOL. ...Except when I'm not. WHICH WOULD MEAN THE WORLD WAS COMING TO AN END. Which...would be tragic. SO TRAGIC. But psh. I'm always cool! So we're good. Sometimes, though, I'm a bit evil. But hey, I'm a writer. What can I say?
Anyway Are you coming to the WOchat tonight I AM SO EXCITED. YOU WILL COME. Riiiiiight? If you don't I'll be so sad. It's ... 8pmEST! I meant to do it at 6 or 7EST, but I have stuff to do. But still! It's gonna be so awesome!

Okay, I got almost half. I think I did pretty good, in all.

Haha, congrats! You used almost all of the smileys... haha. You should get an award.

I would love to come to the chat tonight, but there's this fair thing that comes to my city every summer and I'm going to that with a bunch of people. I'll try to make Monday's, though!

*waits for award* *waaaaaiiiiits*

Aw. Well, have fun at that! I expect to see you Monday.

Uh... I hereby present the lovely Constance with the award for Using the Most Relevant Smileys in A Forum Post So Far. (Somehow there is no smiley for *presenting an award*... I am disappointed).

OK! I will try and actually remember the Monday chat this week....

*beams* That is an EXCELLENT award. Thankye!

8pmEST! I will remind you if I remember.

@Gracie That is such a good way to put it! And it came out fine I know what you mean, once I'm published I still want to do fun projects that have nothing to do with publication. This one author I like does that by writing up some sort mini stories for her fans that are completely free just because she loves to write. It's awesome!

@Constance It took me like three tries to read your post because I was so distracted by the moving smilies lol!

Yeah...yeah, I have trouble reading it too. XD

Oooh! How neat that you found this and pulled it out, Sarah.

For me, my writing goals have definitely changed, because just reading what I said last year... I don't agree with it anymore. It'd be nice to be on a bestsellar list and all, but what I really want more than anything is basically what Constance said-- to have people read and love my stories. And like Sarah said, whether it's 10 or 10,000. I'd also love to HOLD one of my own published, pretty, polished novels. That'd be extremely rewarding. But that's really all I want! Well. Making a living from it wouldn't be too bad, either.

And @Alyssa, you said it perfectly. I completely understand what you're saying! Work doesn't necessarily have to be synonyms with 'not fun'. It's the deadline part that I think isn't fun, and that a lot of us dread. (I do, too! It's what makes me hesitate from sending a query.) I don't want to lose the magic of just writing because I love it, either. *shrug* I feel like there's less room for passion once business is involved. But that just may be my distorted view of the whole thing.

1. ACK! Deadlines. Those scare me, too. But I think it would be good to have the motivation... because a lot of the times I am guilty of not writing when I have all the ideas and inspiration, I just need to do the butt-in-chair thing.

2. I wonder if that's really true... IS there less room for passion once business is involved? We need a published author to ask all these questions to...

@Alyssa Yes! That's VERY true. I feel like that'd be good for getting things done, but it would also increase stress, big-time. I don't work so well under pressure. Maybe it's a skill I need to develop. *ponders this*

You know, that gives me an idea. I should find an author. *thinks*

@Maggie I agree! I guess a good way to put it is that it's a dream to be on the bestsellers list but it's a goal to have people (as little or as many) just love the stories and to write because I love it. I'm also with you on the making a living part, that would be really nice!

@Alyssa I feel the same way and good question! Maybe we'll see another author interview around here... *pokes Maggie*

I think it would be nice to make a living off of what I write.I write for enjoyment, and deadline are very scary.

So I was trying to look up how authors feel about deadlines... and I found this about Douglas Adams (author of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy) on Wikipedia: "While working on the radio series (and with simultaneous projects such as The Pirate Planet) Adams developed problems keeping to writing deadlines that only got worse as he published novels. Adams was never a prolific writer and usually had to be forced by others to do any writing. This included being locked in a hotel suite with his editor for three weeks to ensure that So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish was completed.[17] He was quoted as saying, "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.""

I thought it was interesting and kinda funny, anyway.

@Taylor I agree, deadlines are super scary! But slightly necessary for people like me who procrastinate

@Alyssa Thanks for looking that up! I thought it was funny too and definitely very interesting

Haha, you're welcome. I think I could use being locked up in a hotel room for 3 weeks sometimes... maybe I'd get some actualy writing done then.

Same I stole Andre's idea (and I believe Matthew did this also but I can't remember) though and that works just as well. He had this "100 days 100 words" thing going and in order to cross the day off he had to write at least 100 words. I do the same but instead of 100 days I just make it until the novels finished. It gets me writing and is useful motivation since I can't stand to see the day go by without a X in the calendar.

So it's sort of like one of those don't break the chain things, then? Sounds like a good idea, anyway. I might try it.

Oooh, I heard about the 100 words 100 days thing! Though I usually write more than 1k in each sitting (if I'm feelin' the inspiration) so I might up that number for myself. *shrug*

Oh. *hangs head at Sarah's poke* I've been SO BAD about events lately! I'm sorry everyone. I'm just... lazy?? I need more Team members!

Or you could just keep the 100 words/day and then feel extra accomplished when you write 1k.

Haha, you know, you're right! I should actually really make myself do this. I've come to a writing standstill the past couple weeks. :\