Hello Writer
It has been a minute since I wrote a blog post to y’all. In fact it was April to be exact. And I apologize for not writing. I spent most of this spring and summer traveling, even sending out my reader newsletter was a struggle, one that I won, but I was remiss in not writing a blog post because this is supposed to be a space of encouragement offering tips and suggestions to help you along the writing journey.
I think my most profound revelation when I realized I had not written a blog post was that I wasn’t writing myself much. I don’t write when I am traveling with my family, choosing to enjoy that time with them. My kids are growing up and I know once a kiddo leaves home, life just becomes a series of comings and goings as far as family goes.
That said, I was also struggling with my own frustrations with AI, and piracy and the state of the world in general. So that even when I was home I didn’t write. I question why I was spending time of what in the moment seemed frivolous. I spent a lot of time journaling and thinking, and reading.
I didn’t start writing to make oodles of money, I started writing because I couldn’t find the kind of stories I wanted to read. That said, after the first few years I made enough money to break even and pay for the necessary things (website, newsletter service, and Bookunnel subscriptions) and have a little bit left over for conferences. That amount has decreased steadily over the last three years, for many reasons, the largest one is that times are hard, and folks don’t have a lot of extra cash to splash out on books, and the market is flooded with AI creations that keep readers from finding real authors. This all led to a creative crisis on my end. Do I keep going? What is the point if folks are not reading? Or if AI allows folks to rip everything off? What is my ‘why’?
I figured it out staring out at mud flat on salt river in Maine. My original ‘why’ still stands. I wanted to write books for folks who wanted to read them, who wanted my kind of stories. If my stories reach ten people, or ten thousand it doesn’t make any difference in my ‘why’.
All of this to say. If you know your ‘why’ you can lean on it when you are struggling, and wondering if it is worth it. No matter how much AI tries it will never be original, never have the soul of a human written book. So I am not quitting. I am embracing that a rest was all I needed, time to remember my why.
The most important book I read when I was trying to figure out my way forward as a creative was Aime McNee’s book We Need Your Art
I found her book just when I needed it, and it reminded me why we need to keep going, even when it feels like we are shouting down a well.
This month’s podcasts speak to the struggles many writers and creatives are having right now. Give them a listen. Share the episodes with folks who might need to hear them please. Creatives need each other right now. Keep going. Keep writing. I am cheering for you.
Until Next time,
Brenda
Links for Podcasts
How to Keep Writing When You Want to Burn It All Down https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-ffp6c-18735eb
Unplug, Boundaries, Write: Five Ways to Carve out Creative Space https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-gacb5-1960f30