OBSTACLES WRITERS FACE

Being a writer today is much harder than it was 40 years ago. There are a thousand and one distractions and society telling you what you should do, could do, would be better doing and so forth. Most of us learn to steal a few hours to write, usually at the cost of skipping meals or losing sleep. I was one of those writers who made a deal with myself. After work get the household chores done, tend to pets, tend to family/kids/siblings, then after all of that I could stay up till 2 a.m. or later when everyone was asleep and the house had finally grown quiet. Then it was up by 5 a.m. Or 6 a.m. when I was too tired to wake up. I lived that way for far too many years. I'm not alone.

Today I am very fortunate to have a loving, caring, supportive partner in my life. He also writes and we try to be flexible with each other. Despite our being flexible and supportive that does not prevent life from throwing up on us!

Most writers are trying to juggle a job (outside of writing), kids, spouses, family, recreation, church or social obligations. Somewhere along the line you realize something must be cut and you go on from there. Many people feel forced to attend church, despite having no deep abiding spiritual or religious feelings. They fear being a social pariah. You know what? You are already seen as such, because you write. So save yourself some grief, decide what you can and cannot live without. If your PS3 or 360 or Wii is a top priority in your life, then scrap writing. If living hooked up to your iPad or iPhone, Facebook, My Space or Twitter is more important than your real life, then skip writing.

Writing is a solitary, demanding craft. It is one mean mistress at times, yet at others it is the reason for being truly alive!

If you are in it for the money, there's the door. The amount of truly outrageously successful writers is probably 1%-2%. The majority write really good stories and entertain us, but they can't quit their day jobs. It doesn't matter how good you are, how successful or how hard working. Success is as much or more luck as it is hard work, dedication, sweat, blood or tears.

If you think you will jump on the bandwagon of fan fic writers who steal someone else's idea, change names and get published by the big XYZ publisher, don't get your hopes up. That is a rarity and also, most likely, someone who already has an in and is not truly a legitimate author.

Sadly, sucking up, kissing ass and brown nosing are still tools used for hacks to get their foot in the door. Some will even have sex for a chance to be seen. I call that what it is: prostitution. These sleazy tactics cheat the rest of us more scrupulous writers out of getting our works seen or heard. I refuse to stoop so low because it diminishes the quality of work that I create and also diminishes me as a person.

My grandmother was a wise old woman who insisted that integrity, morals, ethics and standards were a part of you and if you lost those you lost everything. If you do not stand for something you will fall for anything.

I spent many years finding my voice, finding my niche, my genre. I've always loved fantasy, but there are so many branches of fantasy and so many variations on a theme. I first started writing fiction that was of course fantasy based.

Then as I grew, I wanted to add adventure and suspense. As I matured I loved a good romance, a good love story with people I could root for. But as I read, and wrote and watched movies I grew to be disappointed in all of the re-hashes.

There was nothing fresh or new or special. It was a regurgitation of the last bestseller that somebody wanted to make a killing on. Many publishers sent out cheat sheets and guidelines that were basically fill in the blanks, like name and location,age and write exactly what we have on our guidelines. Man meets younger woman, they dance around instant attraction, are in bed by chapter 3, sooner if you can push it, have ups and downs that common sense and the telling of the truth would avoid, then get back together after much scarring and tears to live happily if distrustfully ever after or until they divorce. It was, in a word, bullshit.

By the by, most publishers, not all, want you to censor yourself to the point a chaste fouth grader could read your books. Umm, I am a grown up and I write for grown ups. My work is mature, graphic, scary, erotic, sad and beautiful in turns. I will not apologize for writing heat into my stories. I still believe in romance, in love, in really great hot sexy sex! But I do not believe it works in the midst of an intergalactic battle for domination and control of worlds. You are not thinking sex in the middle of a firefight. You might think about it during a lull when that really hot lieutenant that saved your life steps into the shower alongside you. But come on! Have some sense and decency.

As a writer one of your many obstacles will be in choosing what genre to write in, one or maybe many, and how to convey your tale and in what words. Will you be mainstream? Will you be darker, sexier, funnier? Will you brave a different path and write fetish tales? That is an obstacle you will have to face. You will have to decide what fits you as a writer, what kind of story do you want to tell.

Currently, as we speak of obstacles, my very spoiled cat is sitting in the room with me bellowing ooohmwoooo like he is retarded. A bit earlier I went to get a drink, as writing can be thirsty work, and stumbled across puppy poop. Shit. Damn. Have to stop, clean up the mess and correct the puppy. I don't think she is ever going to get the hang of paper trained or outside doggy business. But we keep trying, cleaning up, and trying. It is all about repetition and consistency. Love our pets dearly, but as living beings and part of our family, they are obligation as well as obstacle. Writing must come in second to living, needy beings.Don't ever ignore your children or pets. They rely on you for their survival. Life must come before writing.

As you venture forth in your writing you will face birthdays, parties, anniversaries, weddings, holidays, doctor appointments, funeral, sick elderly, sick children and vet visits. You will continue to write through devesatating bouts of depression, climactic bouts of joy as your sister has a baby or your brother gets that promotion or your husband or wife wins the lottery. Whatever it is, it is still an obstacle. It is something you must deal with as you write, or don't write. Sometimes you will take a hiatus and come back as a write-just-for-fun person. That's okay, if it is what makes you happy. But if you want to be a professional, then you will have to learn how to juggle like a circus clown.

For example: Cain was delving into his Bunnypocalypse book number three, when his boss called. On his day off, in the middle of the day. Why? Because the other guy working on Cain's day off is incapable of answering a question or leaving a legible note. So, the boss calls to ask if Cain knows what is going on because the other guy is clueless. They talk a bit get the problem worked out then Cain sits back down at his computer with a cup of coffee. The phone rings again. It is one of the managers with a few questiuons. Grr. The manager did not bother to pay attention to the boss. when he told them what was going on.

This is normal, it is a fairly common obstacle that intrudes on your writing. Often we write at the same time, as our desks are in the same room. What disrupts one of us disrupts both.

I also get a lot of hang up calls and calls from people trying to find me, only to find out they want the other woman in town who shares my exact name. Except we are about 20 years apart in age!

Often when the phone rings, Cain and I look at it like it is a cobra ready to strike. We let the machine pick up. Still, the jarring sound of a ringing phone, or a noisy rude neighbor can ruin your creative flow.

These are obstacles of the good kind, the annoying kind, the persistent kind, all of which you face as a writer.

As a writer who is pursuing their craft professionally while trying to juggle everything else, you will fight writer's block and bouts of feeling lost or even confused in the middle of a story you are working on. Try to reread the last few pages of what you were writing. Try asking youself What if? What if this happened? What if that happened? Are you trying to rein in too much? Or not enough? As a writer you must learn to be flexible, yet not too flexible. You must learn to listen to your own voice and tell your story not someone else's.

Being flexible will help you overcome or learn to live with your obstacles. Trust me, being flexible in the midst of a chaotic shit storm will spare you the bleeding ulcers, the stress induced migraines and the long periods of insomnia that over stress can bring.

Being flexible won't make your boss stop calling, it won't make the rude neighbor turn down the music that rattles your windows from half a block away, or stop your dog from barking for no apparent reason. All it will do is make your life a little easier, a little less stressful as you learn to roll with the punches instead of fighting them. In the end, a less stressed writer is a better writer who will live longer and produce better because they have learned to see and accept obstacles as a part of their life and are finding ways to cope with them.


A final note after being without internet and phone for nearly 2 weeks. There are obstacles that you will face as a writer that are beyond your control. We have been without service ever since some idiot severed the line completely. AT&T has shown no interest in restoring our services, despite numerous calls and trouble tickets being filed, Their techs have closed tickets stating the problem was resolved when they did nothing to remedy the problem. This has ben an ongoing problem since SBC was swallowed by AT&T. Customer service in non-existent and the local techs are abusive, threatening and lazy, not to mention incompetent. The threat of a lawsuit has gotten some higher ups motivated. However, I share this with you so that you will understand that as an indie author there will be some hellishly annoying problems that will not be resolved swiftly and you will have to exercise patience and persevere.