Random ramblings about writing

So I should take a moment to talk about writing, something I think that people believe I enjoy. Well, I guess I enjoy it during the times it's pouring out of me, but those moments are rare. I do get satisfaction out of having written and published stuff, and I also am always coming up with ideas for stories. But the actual writing is work, a lot of times. It's particularly work when I look back at the last thing I wrote and see it wasn't as good as I thought, and know that I will have to revise it again and again to make it readable. Of course, it's hard to tell whether something is good or bad anyway.

So yes, it's a hobby, but most of the time, it's not something that's necessarily fun. It's productive and sometimes satisfying.

It was also something that filled time back when I was alone a lot, in my twenties. I still want to get my ideas down when I have good ones, and I think that if I can use writing to entertain or offer hope or just interest someone, it's worthwhile. But it's not always a joy to do. When I was writing Carrie Pilby, I used to sometimes bribe myself with pizza or dessert to spend hours re-reading it and making revisions. Who wants to keep reading their own novel? Yuck. It gets old after a while.

Anyway, this summer I had a few ideas for very short satirical pieces and funny essays, so I wrote and submitted a few. They all got rejected. The rejections weren't 'cause of the recession, because one of the places I submitted didn't even pay anything. (I could have still had a line at the end of the piece saying my novel just came out again, so it would have benefited me in terms of publicity for the book.)

Of course, when I submit anything, it's going up against 100 or 1,000 others, so I can't take it as an indictment. Still, when things are rejected, it makes me doubt that I will be able to publish other stuff. I could write more novels and not have any of them be any good, even if I would be glad I got them out. Publishing one or two books is no guarantee that anything else I write will beat the odds and get published.

Still, I have a lot of ideas. I like the idea that they're there if I want to work on them someday.

I'm not going to completely stop writing, but I have other focuses that give me much more joy and satisfaction.

Anyway...sometimes people ask me how the re-released Carrie Pilby is selling. I have no idea! In today's world, there's no way of knowing whether people are downloading it or what. Amazon rankings used to give a clue, but today, you can go to the Amazon page and find other bookstores selling it there besides Amazon, so when people buy from those others, I don't know if that factors into the ranking. It's always been kinda hard to tell anyhow. Hey, if even a few teens discover this new edition and like it, I'm grateful.

The publishers don't know how something is selling right away, because they send copies to bookstores and it takes a while to find out if they sold. I probably won't find out until the spring, when I get a statement from the publishers.

I DO know that the French version is all over the internet, so I think it's reached some teens there, and that's very nice. I see it popping up on their blogs.

Anyway, just some ramblings off the top of my head. I'll try not to come back and revise this, heh heh.