Am I a REAL writer?

Do you write? If the answer to that question is yes, then congratulations, you're a real writer.

But I don't write for hours every day. I still have a day job. I only get an hour or two to write every day. Am I still a writer?

See previous answer.

I know a lot of writers, un-published authors for the most part but I've even heard this come from a few published ones too, who continue to believe they aren't real writers because they still have day jobs to pay their bills, don't write for hours on end, and have been working on the same story for the past year, writing and revising.

I'm no expert on this, but I do know I've felt like this many times. I still feel like it from time to time. I have to remind myself of the answer to that first question. Do I write? Then yes, I'm a writer.

Kristen Lamb has a brilliant post today dealing with just this topic. She also brings up the fact that writing is like a small business. I found that an interesting comparison, and one that I think requires some thought.

Being published is how many of us gauge if we're writers or not. In this new world of publishing opportunities there are many ways to get that result. But the question comes up again. Are we REAL authors if we self publish? If we go through a small press without agent representation? Are we really REAL authors if we have an agent and a big publisher buys our work?

For the longest time, the answer to that last question was yes. Now, is it as vital to get a big publisher? I don't know on that one, though I do know you're less likely to see indie, small press, and self pubbed books on the NYTBS list. I won't say it's impossible, because really anything can happen. But the NYT tends to favor traditionally published books.

The question really shouldn't be are we real writers/authors. The question should be “do we enjoy what we're doing and are we telling the story we want to tell?” If the answer to that is yes, then I believe that's what matters. As writers, we write to tell stories. Sometimes we sell them. Sometimes we don't. But those stories that we don't sell still have value. They're still stories we kept hidden in our brains until they finally emerged onto paper (or word processor).

So, are you writing stories? Do you enjoy the act of writing stories? Are you willing to put the work into those stories that you need to?

Then yes, you are a writer.

RIP Jay Lake

I took myself off of Facebook yesterday for a simple reason: it was too sad for me to stay. Why was it too sad you may ask? Because of the passing of one of my favorite authors, Jay Lake.

Jay was diagnosed with colon cancer in April 2008. He documented his fight with it on his blog. His friends and fans watched each post on cancer with mixed feelings of hope and dread, knowing that the cancer could spread from just a single tumor. It did. It metastasized and progressed into other organs. Over the last few months, it got worse. He underwent some alternative treatments through the NIH to see if there was a way to stop it. The NIH treatments didn't work. Jay returned home and was put on hospice. He died less than a week later.

The days prior to his death, after the announcement about the hospice care, my Facebook feed was flooded with the sight of people commenting on Jay's Facebook feed. Since I am friends with him on there, many of those posting good wishes and prayers were visible to me. I posted my own comment on his page and then thought nothing of it. I expected he'd have a little more time and we could all deal with it. I never expected him to die so quickly, even though I know what being put on hospice care means.

Jay passed in the morning of June 1^st. I didn't get the message until the afternoon, when I finally got on Facebook after being off of it most of the day because of various things. I saw the outpouring of grief and prayers/thoughts for the family. I hunted down more information and saw that he'd passed. I posted my thoughts to his page and my own. And then I got off because it was too sad for me to stay.

If you're curious about him, go here. The first of his books I read was Green. I heard it on audiobook. I hunted it up in print format and then read the rest of the series. I was slowly making my way through the rest of the books I could find. I could find them sporadically. My library held a few, and managed to order in a couple more. I loved his way of telling a story.

The SFWA blog has posted a great memorial post here. They put the address there of a place that the family has asked donations be sent in Jay's name.

R.I.P. Jay Lake - you are going to be missed.

Depression and the artist

I've been asked a few times how I write while I'm depressed. The truth is I don't. I try to. Don't get me wrong. And I may get a few words down on the page. But I have a hard time making them connect. I also have problems getting into books when I'm depressed. In short, it's very hard for me to do anything when I'm depressed.

This doesn't mean my world stops when I'm feeling this way. I find myself drawn to reading blog posts, other people's short stories – since that's all I usually have the attention span for, and social media. I don't participate as much but I will reblog interesting things on Twitter and like things on Facebook. I won't comment but I'll at least read them. I avoid the things I know will make me cry and carry on.

I've heard it all before. How I should write through it. It's not that bad. If I can't get through it maybe I shouldn't be a writer. Blah. Blah. Blah. As I've told someone before, you're not inside my head space. You don't know what I'm feeling, thinking, and how much I'm hurting. That's enough to derail most people who suffer from severe depression (like a lot of people do) from doing anything. Not just writing. But living. We stop wanting to do anything.

I've been lucky in having a husband who notices when I'm that way and tries to talk me out of it. He encourages me to listen to music, to do anything I can to break the cycle. Sometimes it works. More often it doesn't. But knowing he's there to force me to take care of myself (believe me, this is important when I'm depressed), to convince me to do what I know I need to do, to find something that makes me relax. I've also been very lucky to get a therapist who understands these moods and gives me several good ideas to try as well. She helps me work through them after the fact so I can get better at stopping the downward spiral before it consumes me. There are just days where nothing works.

One of the things I've noticed is how people talk about artists and their depression, how it inspired them and helped them do glorious things. That they worked while they were in the throes of emotional agony and painted/wrote/built these amazing things. I call bullshit on that. Speaking from personal experience, it is almost impossible to work through those things. I won't say it's completely that way because perhaps there are a few out there. But from personal experience, and the experiences of several other authors and artists I've talked to, it doesn't work to try to work through the depression.

So when you talk to an author or an artist, and they say they're depressed and having a hard time getting to work, don't tell them to suck it up and do it anyway. Don't tell them that it'll be brilliant and they only need to sit down at their computer, pick up their pencil or brush, or open a notebook with a pen in their hand and do what they love doing. Because it's highly likely that nothing will happen.

Saturday Story Building - Creating your world

What is the hardest part of being a fantasy/sci fi author? To me, and this is my opinion only, I think the hardest part is building the world you want your characters to inhabit. There is so much detail to work out, and you never put all of that detail into your books. At least, I would hope you didn't put all of that into your books.

The most comprehensive version of world building put into a print form comes from David and Leigh Eddings in the publication of their The Rivan Codex. Into this book they put all the details they came up with for the world that the characters of the Belgariad and the Mallorean series inhabited. Not all the details were used in the books, but enough of them were there to establish that this was a populated world and each race was unique.

The grandest scope of world building, from what I've read, is a toss up between J.R.R. Tolkien and his Middle Earth and George R.R. Martin and his Westeros. The details needed to create the rich tapestries that make up those worlds is astounding.

I'm discovering this as I work to build Aleran. There are so many details to work out, details that will probably never end up in the story but are still essential for me to know. Races, lands, laws, coinage, mannerisms, costumes. All of these things need to be worked out. Thankfully I'm able to do so with a little help from Himself, who has built many worlds for his D&D campaigns.

What world building tips do you have? Mine is keep a spreadsheet of ideas that you're using. The more you expand on them, the better you'll do.