From the Desk of…E.J. Perez
I’m always perplexed by a writer who announces they are through with writing. They quit.
And the reason they give?
“No one is buying my book.”
“I’m not making any money.”
“No one is interested in what I write.”
“I’m writing for the market. Why can’t I get any sales?”
I shake my head at these comments. At these quitters.
I’m thinking. No scratch that. I know, and these quitters have confirmed. They weren’t writing and creating stories for the love of writing and creating stories. Ha! I like that flip flop I just did.
They were writing for other people. The were writing because they wanted to write.
They had no desire. They had no NEED. I’ve talked about this need in my last post.
I could never understand nor could I comprehend, why? If (this is for those quitters) you love writing. You love creating. Why? Why, do you let strangers dictate your passion? Why do you allow them to control your creativity. I do mean control creativity, because so many, are writing for trend. For what is popular out there that is being read. They’re foregoing their passion stories and adapting to the market.
These quitters, are told through countless data, algorithms, and articles on “How to Write to Market.” Or “How to be profitable writing this particular (you fill in the blank) genre. Now some of this is valid. There are countless writers who have the ability to adapt on writing to the market trend. And they are successful and making a profit.
But…even if those writers follow this advice, many, (whatever the numbers are. I’m not a numbers guy) they might still be at zero or at minimum in sales. They can’t seem to crack that ceiling of profits and success.
And because of this. They quit.
These quitters never had that need. Never had that need that overpowers reader influence, critic influence, money influence. They just wanted to write. They wanted to make money of course. Who doesn’t.
What writer out there doesn’t want to make money off of the imagination that comes out of their noggin. It’s pure magic. Creating stories from your noggin and writing them down in a cohesive style that hypnotizes a reader into a dream state of imagination. That’s magic. That’s genius writing.
But let me tell you something. This is for the quitters. If you quit. You never had the need to write. You never had the passion. You were a wantabe. I want to be a star. I want to be rich. I want to be famous. I want to be this, that. That’s all it was. There is a difference between wanting something and needing something. That’s just my opinion. When you want something it’s easier to quit on that want. When you need something, you’d go out of your way to get it.
Writing is painful. Writing is frustrating. Writing is lonely. But if you have the need. Then writing and creating overpowers everything thrown at you to quit. To give up.
If you have that need, those hurdles like ‘No Sales,’ or ‘No one is reading my books,’ aren’t obstacles anymore. Your need to write has overpowered and crashed through that block wall.
Write! Because you love words.
Write! Because you love to create worlds.
Write! Because that need inside you won’t go away even if no one is buying your books.
Write! For you.
Let’s hope the sales and the success comes with your writing. But if it doesn’t. You’re fulfilling that NEED to write and get that damn story out of your head.
Non-Deficere!
E.J. Perez