I once saw an interview with Rod Serling in which he said that if someone never gets published then they are not a true writer. Now, I’ve always considered Mr. Serling to be a very skilled writer with lots of insights into the process, but I found this claim to be rather bizarre. Is this because even though I’ve made the effort in the past to get published I’ve failed and I see it as some kind of an attack on me? Possibly, though I like to think that it has nothing to do with my personal experiences. I simply don’t see the connection between the quality of someone’s writing and whether or not a publisher sees fit to put that work into print.
Such a claim suggests that if say Charles Dickens had written his books for his own personal satisfaction and never even attempted to get them published that he wouldn’t have been a true writer. How can that be? The quality of the work is based on the quality of the work, not on how many people get the opportunity to read it. For all we know the best novel ever written is sitting unread in someone’s desk drawer, the author simply uninterested in going through the arduous process of getting it published.
You see, that’s me. Not that I have the best novel ever written sitting unread in my desk drawer. I’ve simply come to the conclusion that focusing on getting published does absolutely nothing to make me a better writer and in fact my detract from it. I absolutely love to write stories, but I absolutely detest the process of trying to get someone to buy my stories. Far too often I have been in the middle of writing something truly enjoyable, only to have the flow abruptly interrupted when I start to wonder if I’ll ever be able to find a publisher interested in it. I start to question if it’s even worth finishing. If it will never get published, why bother?
Fortunately, I’ve come to realize that getting published clearly isn’t the reason that I write. If that were the case I would have given it up decades ago. I write because I have an insatiable need to put the stories running around inside of my head down on paper. Would it be nice to get published have millions of readers and get on the NYT Best Seller List? Of course! But it’s no longer my ultimate goal. As wonderful as that might be, it’s not why I spend hours every week writing. I write because I get enormous joy and satisfaction from the process of creating. Finishing a novel feels great! It’s a wonderful sense of accomplishment. However, the satisfaction is short-lived. Within a few days the joy of having written fades and I am again filled with the need to create something new. I suspect that getting published would be similar. The satisfaction might last weeks or even months instead of just days, but eventually I’m certain that my entire world will again be focused exclusively on what am I writing now.
What are your thoughts of the subject? I’d love to hear in the comments below.
Such a claim suggests that if say Charles Dickens had written his books for his own personal satisfaction and never even attempted to get them published that he wouldn’t have been a true writer. How can that be? The quality of the work is based on the quality of the work, not on how many people get the opportunity to read it. For all we know the best novel ever written is sitting unread in someone’s desk drawer, the author simply uninterested in going through the arduous process of getting it published.
You see, that’s me. Not that I have the best novel ever written sitting unread in my desk drawer. I’ve simply come to the conclusion that focusing on getting published does absolutely nothing to make me a better writer and in fact my detract from it. I absolutely love to write stories, but I absolutely detest the process of trying to get someone to buy my stories. Far too often I have been in the middle of writing something truly enjoyable, only to have the flow abruptly interrupted when I start to wonder if I’ll ever be able to find a publisher interested in it. I start to question if it’s even worth finishing. If it will never get published, why bother?
Fortunately, I’ve come to realize that getting published clearly isn’t the reason that I write. If that were the case I would have given it up decades ago. I write because I have an insatiable need to put the stories running around inside of my head down on paper. Would it be nice to get published have millions of readers and get on the NYT Best Seller List? Of course! But it’s no longer my ultimate goal. As wonderful as that might be, it’s not why I spend hours every week writing. I write because I get enormous joy and satisfaction from the process of creating. Finishing a novel feels great! It’s a wonderful sense of accomplishment. However, the satisfaction is short-lived. Within a few days the joy of having written fades and I am again filled with the need to create something new. I suspect that getting published would be similar. The satisfaction might last weeks or even months instead of just days, but eventually I’m certain that my entire world will again be focused exclusively on what am I writing now.
What are your thoughts of the subject? I’d love to hear in the comments below.
