Giving Up – Writing Isn’t An Option
By Rebecca Besser
Over the last year or so, I’ve seen posts on social media where many writers I know have been down and have questioned whether they should give up writing. This has mostly come about because of low sales and feeling like they have a lack of fans.
At some point, I think even highly successful writers have wanted to give up – we’ve all heard stories about how Stephen King and other now popular authors had a lot of rejection early on in their careers. So, in actuality, it truly does happen to the best of us. We all have doubt when we try hard and it doesn’t look like we’re gaining anything. That’s simply human nature. We want to be recognized for our hard work, for pouring our souls out to the masses. We want all that time we took from our families and all the effort we put into making our work presentable to mean something. We want acknowledgement that most likely will never come.
After all, writing is easy, isn’t it? Everyone’s going to just write a book someday, right? (Yeah, I hate people who say stuff like that to me. They obviously know nothing about what it takes to actually write a book.)
What most people (who aren’t writers) don’t realize is that if you’re truly a writer giving up is never a real option. And people don’t just become writers one day because they decide to. Writers who are meant to be writers can’t help but write and they can’t give up. Writing is part of who they are. They’re happier when they’re writing than when their doing almost anything else. It goes the same for musicians, painters, and any other type of artist. The need to create, to express themselves through some medium isn’t just about how much their fans love them, it’s about being who they are inside.
Yes, all artists want their work to be appreciated. They all want fans and dream of success. But life doesn’t always work that way.
To be happy as a writer (or any other form of artist) you have to come to some kind of understanding with your inner self. Because you have to know where your creativity comes from and know that not everyone will see and understand what you create takes out of you.
You have to find acceptance and peace within yourself.
Once you do that, you won’t let your value be controlled by other people or sales, or anything else beyond your control. At that point, you can set personal goals for yourself and find success in the things you can control. Feed your goals and your inner self because writing starts with you. After that, it’s all a game of chance.
©Rebecca Besser, 2016. All rights reserved.
