![[Logo]](/images/101ReasonsLogo.png "101 Reasons to Stop Writing")
How many books have you bought in the last five years?
Make a rough guess. Now eliminate anything in the following categories:
If your total is already down to zero, give up any fantasy of being a published writer. Right now.
If not, keep going and eliminate:
If you have a few books left, congratulations. Check back for Reason #2.
If you haven’t taken a chance on a new, unproven author in the last five years, why the hell would you expect anyone else to take a chance on you?
Loading ...
Are you kidding? Most of us only survive because we sell books to people who know us
So that’s the motivation for having a MySpace account.
That need seems to have passed me by. Seriously, what’s the attraction? I really need to know…
Dude, if I understood MySpace …
what the hell is wrong with “established authors priror to 2001″.. perhaps that you haven’t read any of these authors and so consider them old fashioned, no longer relevant and so on… get off your fat ass and read a good book by an established author. they have become established for a reason… and all of your cutting edge authors (post 2001) must have read something before they reinvented the wheel… you ass
Oscar, try reading the last paragraph of the post, and keep your “ass” to yourself.
There’s nothing “wrong” with established authors. But if you’re an unpublished writer and your reading consists entirely of established authors, you don’t know what type and standard of new writing is being accepted for publication these days.
You can learn from the masters, but if you don’t understand the current market for new authors, you dramatically worsen the already terrible odds of being published.
You can read Theory #1 for a more detailed explanation. It wasn’t published before 2001, though.
This is one of the reasons why I stop writing whenever I’m silly enough to start. I always end up picking up a really good book, and then realizing how thoroughly incompetent I am compared to real authors.
I agree with Word Pirates: “The person who wrote this is one of those self-satisfied jerks I don’t like to give attention to” While the list is good, there is one thing you have not taken into account.
The ability of somebody to learn.
Do you really think that great writers were just born, pen in hand, ready to write the great literary classic? No? Most started out, I suspect, guilty of making many of the mistakes listed here. If they had taken your advice and not persevered and honed their skills, we’d have nothing to read at all! Is this your goal? Is it as simple as “gee I can’t write, I don’t want to put the practice in to improve, so I’ll discourage every other wanna-be author as well, then we can all be losers together”
But you know what? I’m going to be positive here and use you spiteful little blog as a learning tool. I will approach each item on the list and check if I’m doing it. That’s If I agree with it of course. (your list of cliché’s is bull)
First up, reason 1. Yep, just checked, I’ve got 4 books that meet the criteria. Check.
The unpublished-before-2001 clause is obviously the sticking point here. I’d like to start. Any recommendations?
jk