I used to only write for an audience and I wrote SIX BOOKS by the time I was 22. Because I was just writing the queer stories I couldn't find. And then I hit a personal landmark time when I wasn't yet a Published Author and got depressed and stopped writing. When I worked through that and started again, I also started taking classes and trying to find community.
I was given TERRIBLE advice by a lot of academic background writers and instructors that killed my ability to write, that stopped projects in their tracks, that left me floundering and suddenly unable to get more than a few chapters into anything. I started to realise that *maybe* the problem wasn't me, but the advice I was getting. The cishet white college grads reading my stuff were...not my characters and therefore not my audience. But the damage it's done. My goodness.
Anyway, getting myself a copy of this book. It sounds like it will be a validating text on writing.
I didn't know *six* books! Holy moly!!! You're a rock star! 🌟
I have the same problem, the ability to start, but then not finish. Over the past months I've been thinking maybe short form is just my jam, because I can fake it through 1500 words and that's been going well. But in January I tried expanding a 1500 word story to 3000 words and....oh look....haven't written any fiction since! 😬 The problem is not you!!!
It's like I'm writing and the path I started on just vanishes and I have no idea where to go next. Or where I'm even at.
Here's to drawing our own maps through the story woods! 😁 We can do this.
And, speaking to the content of your excellent and moving post (and KSH Hatch's comment, too), I hope that Substack is providing a way to more easily find that audience and maintain being true to your voice. I'm glad to be here to share in the journey.
I'm still new at this Substack game, but so far it has been an amazing experience compared to submitting to magazines. I think one of nicest things has been the ability to experiment and explore and get some kind of feedback on the process in a way that traditional publishing just can't give you, because they have to worry about what will sell. I don't know if I would have made the connections in this essay if I'd just kept trying to sell instead of write. Substack forces me out of my head, which is great.
I'm glad you are here too!! How are you finding your Substack experience??
100% agree, though I have no former experience of trying to get anything published myself. I'm new to this as a writer, having just written things for myself over the last few years, sharing only with a few close friends. But finally I have a space where I can experiment and, like you say, can let things out of my head so easily and on a weekly schedule and it's brilliant because it's forcing me to commit and there's a community and a slow build of subscribers who are likeminded and interested and engaging. It's 6:45am here in Melbourne and I've been writing for an hour, working on my next post, all before I head off to my day-job where I'll no doubt spend the day with that galaxy of words wanting to find the page ;)
Congrats on putting yourself and your writing out into the world!!! 🌟 I don't think that ever stops being scary, but I feel like it is getting less hard every time.
The community and the slow build of subscribers is indeed like a little writerly miracle, helping us grow into the writers we are meant to be. Hooray for getting your writing in, and to creating world galaxies of wonder! 😊
The "rules" of writing have tripped me up too. And even though I am white, I am also NOT cis. I've been lucky enough to find a community of LGBTQIA writers and readers, and we all agree that we didn't see ourselves in the classics, or even in much of what the "market" offers to us.
So I've been very relieved to find that I am not alone in my confusion when I struggle over a piece for more hours, submit it, and hold my breath only to be told it's not what that market is looking for.
Which always sounds like "it's not good enough"
But then when I take a closer look at what they've already published...it smells of crap.
So my point is, I applaud you for being persistent enough to look at it all long enough to see the flaws in the instruction manuals we've all been given. I applaud you for calling it all out. And I hope you'll keep writing for YOU. Because what I've read of your words so far speaks to me.
Thank you so much for all of this. Thank you for bringing up the other side of the coin that I haven't even started to deal with yet--that all this single POV instruction in how to write very clearly stakes out a definition of what is "good enough" to be published and read. It's all cleverly baked in, a perpetuating cycle of keeping out other voices, other experiences, other ways of being in the world. Thank you for sharing how you and your LGBTQIA community also feel left out and invisible to the "market". And thank you for your encouragement...and right back at you. Our stories are important, and we need them to be out in the world, however we can get them there!!
A THOUSAND TIMES ALL OF THIS!
I used to only write for an audience and I wrote SIX BOOKS by the time I was 22. Because I was just writing the queer stories I couldn't find. And then I hit a personal landmark time when I wasn't yet a Published Author and got depressed and stopped writing. When I worked through that and started again, I also started taking classes and trying to find community.
I was given TERRIBLE advice by a lot of academic background writers and instructors that killed my ability to write, that stopped projects in their tracks, that left me floundering and suddenly unable to get more than a few chapters into anything. I started to realise that *maybe* the problem wasn't me, but the advice I was getting. The cishet white college grads reading my stuff were...not my characters and therefore not my audience. But the damage it's done. My goodness.
Anyway, getting myself a copy of this book. It sounds like it will be a validating text on writing.
I didn't know *six* books! Holy moly!!! You're a rock star! 🌟
I have the same problem, the ability to start, but then not finish. Over the past months I've been thinking maybe short form is just my jam, because I can fake it through 1500 words and that's been going well. But in January I tried expanding a 1500 word story to 3000 words and....oh look....haven't written any fiction since! 😬 The problem is not you!!!
It's like I'm writing and the path I started on just vanishes and I have no idea where to go next. Or where I'm even at.
Here's to drawing our own maps through the story woods! 😁 We can do this.
It's amazing how creativity flourishes before the proscription of Capitalist white supremacy comes down on our psyches. :P
We can do this!
We ARE doing this!!!!!!!!
All the likes. Take all the likes.
I love your writing and style and flow. I'm there. Continue, please.
Can't stop won't stop! 😁
But seriously, thank you so much, you've utterly made my day. My week. 💖🙏
That warms my heart.
And, speaking to the content of your excellent and moving post (and KSH Hatch's comment, too), I hope that Substack is providing a way to more easily find that audience and maintain being true to your voice. I'm glad to be here to share in the journey.
I'm still new at this Substack game, but so far it has been an amazing experience compared to submitting to magazines. I think one of nicest things has been the ability to experiment and explore and get some kind of feedback on the process in a way that traditional publishing just can't give you, because they have to worry about what will sell. I don't know if I would have made the connections in this essay if I'd just kept trying to sell instead of write. Substack forces me out of my head, which is great.
I'm glad you are here too!! How are you finding your Substack experience??
100% agree, though I have no former experience of trying to get anything published myself. I'm new to this as a writer, having just written things for myself over the last few years, sharing only with a few close friends. But finally I have a space where I can experiment and, like you say, can let things out of my head so easily and on a weekly schedule and it's brilliant because it's forcing me to commit and there's a community and a slow build of subscribers who are likeminded and interested and engaging. It's 6:45am here in Melbourne and I've been writing for an hour, working on my next post, all before I head off to my day-job where I'll no doubt spend the day with that galaxy of words wanting to find the page ;)
Congrats on putting yourself and your writing out into the world!!! 🌟 I don't think that ever stops being scary, but I feel like it is getting less hard every time.
The community and the slow build of subscribers is indeed like a little writerly miracle, helping us grow into the writers we are meant to be. Hooray for getting your writing in, and to creating world galaxies of wonder! 😊
The "rules" of writing have tripped me up too. And even though I am white, I am also NOT cis. I've been lucky enough to find a community of LGBTQIA writers and readers, and we all agree that we didn't see ourselves in the classics, or even in much of what the "market" offers to us.
So I've been very relieved to find that I am not alone in my confusion when I struggle over a piece for more hours, submit it, and hold my breath only to be told it's not what that market is looking for.
Which always sounds like "it's not good enough"
But then when I take a closer look at what they've already published...it smells of crap.
So my point is, I applaud you for being persistent enough to look at it all long enough to see the flaws in the instruction manuals we've all been given. I applaud you for calling it all out. And I hope you'll keep writing for YOU. Because what I've read of your words so far speaks to me.
So keep being true to YOU.
I will if YOU will!!! 💖
Thank you so much for all of this. Thank you for bringing up the other side of the coin that I haven't even started to deal with yet--that all this single POV instruction in how to write very clearly stakes out a definition of what is "good enough" to be published and read. It's all cleverly baked in, a perpetuating cycle of keeping out other voices, other experiences, other ways of being in the world. Thank you for sharing how you and your LGBTQIA community also feel left out and invisible to the "market". And thank you for your encouragement...and right back at you. Our stories are important, and we need them to be out in the world, however we can get them there!!