![[Logo]](/images/101ReasonsLogo.png "101 Reasons to Stop Writing")
Eight years ago today, I met Ms. Reasons for the first time. We were already in love.
Maybe I’ll tell you that story sometime. But for now, I’d like to ask a favour.
Introduce yourself.
In the last four months, this labour of gloom has attracted several thousand readers, from over sixty countries, on every continent. It’s truly humbling, to discover just how widespread this writing disease is, and how many of you are subconsciously yearning for the right reason to pack it all in.
Just for today, let yourself be known. Leave a comment. Be anonymous if you wish.
Say something. Tell me what you see from your window. What’s on your desk, or on your mind. Tell me why on earth you’d want to read a blog about stopping writing.
Just a few conditions:
As a far better writer than you once wrote, “Come, your answer in broken music; for thy voice is music, and thy English broken.”
This may be the only time in your entire life that someone asks you to write something.
(If enough people comment, I might start posting Reasons again.)
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Paul Riddell. Dallas, Texas. Due to onslaughts from family and friends who say that “you need to return to writing”, I’m here so I can give them the finger in return and be able to back up my reasons for doing so. (After all, it’s not like I actually wrote anything worth remembering, even at the time.) And if that doesn’t work, well, Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemingway, H. Beam Piper, and Robert E. Howard also had a great way to stop writing, too.
Tim McIntire, Boston, MA, where Daisuke Matzusaka is going to win at least 15 games this year.
I’m not sure why I read the blog, but I do. I think it’s because you’ve elevated being a douche to strangers to an artform (that’s meant as a compliment, by the way).
From Madison, WI.
Honestly, this thing is on my RSS feed because the title intrigued me (it was listed under the “writing” category of the feed reader suggestions).
You stay on my list because you are a funny asshole, and the weekend updates are some of the most concise, entertaining reading I have.
Pat Kight, Albany, Oregon.
Since realizing a few years back that I’m simply not a novelist and will never be one, no matter how much I might wish I was, I’ve taken up the habit of living vicariously by reading the blogs of real writers. One of them (David Bain, I think), mentioned yours, and here I am.
Heather Dudley, Macon, GA.
I read this blog because you amuse the ever loving hell out of me, and I just know that the fact that your blog is encouraging me to write must drive you insane. Either that, or you don’t give a fig, but I’ll keep my delusions that someone cares what I do…
Besides, I like encouraging you because if you convince one person in my genre to stop writing, then that’s one less person to compete for that coveted publisher budget…
Viki, Chicago, IL
I’m a grad student in Creative Writing and Teaching of Writing, and I tutor grads and undergrads. I teach writing not because I believe everyone who desires to write can if they only try hard enough, but because I believe everyone needs to learn how to communicate effectively. This is not the same as believing they can all become accomplished writers, because they can’t.
Plus, you’re funny as hell. Which is kind of a stupid thing to say, because I suppose hell isn’t really all that funny, unless you’re not there, yet someone you dislike is, and you get to watch them being tortured via closed-circuit television.
Arnaud DUVAL, Paris, France (not really Paris, but close enough)
I don’t really remember how I found you out, but I find your blog amusing. It reminds me of the early Dilbert comics (Hell, maybe you’re Scott Adams’s cousin twice removed.)
And, of course… I don’t believe a word of what you say.
Rosie Waller. York, UK in termtime, London, UK when not.
I’m at university studying (ack-hem) Computer Science. Someday soon, I hope to graduate and get a job.
I like the sense of humour here. I like being told to stop writing as it reminds me that whatever else I try doing with my life I really don’t want to write. That way lies penury.
Sounds like you’re asking us to win a domestic dispute on your behalf. If so, then, Ms. Reasons, let him keep doing it. Just make him take out the trash first.
Thejus Chakravarthy. Baltimore, MD.
i read your blog because it feels like someone’s kicking me in the nads whenever i read bad writing, and anything that keeps my scrot from hurting is a good and just thing.
also, having written some truly horrific swill in high school and college, it reminds me to be content being a reader.
Kate Mahoney, Philadelphia, USA. Sophomore in college. Admitted wannabe writer. This might be the funniest blog I’ve ever read, and that’s why I check it daily.
Dr. Hack, Roswell, NM.
Because Fred Astair was told he couldn’t dance in the early years, and if he’d just listened, he wouldn’t have convinced all those suckers he had talent while polluting the big screen with his awful shenanigans.
Thursday B. Currently in Dublin, Ireland, theoretically in Baltimore, MD.
I’m desperately trying to convince myself to get a real job after graduation, rather than the journalism jobs that pay just enough for a nice cardboard box on the corner.
Sheila - Houston, TX, where I can write all the crap I want and it doesn’t matter because our illiteracy rate is so high, no one can read it anyway.
I read the blog because I like the way you spell fsck. I’ll never stop writing, though - how else would I explain all my drinking?
Liz Brooks. Williamsburg, VA, USA.
I keep coming back because the words keep coming out of me in a diarrhetic deluge, and I hope you’ll come up with some way to finally dam the flow.
Lee Battersby, Perth, Western Australia.
Because I’ve known you more than half your life, and I remember the days when we sat around my flat talking about how we were going to become superstar writers, and I’m looking forward to the day when we all turn up to the launch of your first Mills & Boon novel and I can tell your publishers, “You know, he used to have this blog….”
Oklahoma City.
I think this blog is hilarious. Anyone who can be driven off writing shouldn’t write, anyway.
Can’t wait to see the whole list.
Indianapolis, Indiana
Blame my presence on Paul Riddell. It’s all his fault. I will happily bribe you with food if you start posting reasons again.
And May 12th will be the first anniversary of meeting the future Mr. Blues. We were in love when we met, too.
Lily aka JM aka Fiction Scribe. Melbourne, Australia.
You said I have to comment, thus I will put in here what I like. I am currently looking away from the laptop at my bridal veil, hanging from the end of the bookshelf. It arrived in the mail today.
I quite enjoy your blog. Anything else I might say about it has already been said.
Just outside Philadelphia, PA. Ok, so it’s actually New Jersey.
I forget how I stumbled across this blog, but it entertains me. Hasn’t made me stop writing, but I’m stubborn and deluded that way.
Tsana, Melbourne, Australia.
Your blog is amusing.
I can’t see out my window because, even though it’s still sunny outside, my curtains are drawn.
Michele, Louisville, KY I’m here for the laughs I get when I send “writers” blurbs to your rants with links to the entries.
Leo Stableford, Nottingham, UK
I’m here to support the fight against casual hobbyist writers. I write due to a heriditary genetic disorder and my life would be made a lot easier if those whocould choose not to write would just quit already.
Sara Genge from Madrid, Spain
Dunno why I read this really, other than it’s funny and makes me feel ok about pressing delete after a particularly unsuccessful draft. You know how the old piece of advice for writers goes: you have permission to be bad? Well, thanks to this blog, I have permission to hate my bad writing and delete it without investing any more effort into it.
Julia MacAdam, Bath, PA.
Your blog amuses me. I frequently find that I’m laughing at myself.
I always enjoy that.
m.o. (”manufactured outrage,” not “modus operandi” [whatever that means]). Bloomington, IN.
I remember staying up late one night reading every post on this blog on a little Treo 680 the Kinsey Institute gave me for far more boring purposes than you’re thinking right now. I fell in love with the idea of a blog that one must learn how to read. You, sir, Sean Lindsay, crack me up, so I hope you continue posting reasons.
I am in the middle of my novelist’s apprenticeship. I’m currently studying under F.M. Dostoevsky and J. Joyce, neither of whom have agreed, at present, to write a letter of introduction for me when I finally get my masterpiece completed, talentless hacks that they are.
I’m a former mathematician/theoretician, which means I find Pynchon unnecessarily idiosyncratic at times, and people who call him a “favorite author” to be no better than Randian apologists.
Wow. I’ve written far too much. And paid (too) close attention to punctuation!
Mike Toot, author, Seattle WA USA. I came here during NaNo, found its commentary to be a delightful counterpoint to the Up-With-People chatter on the NaNo boards, and have stuck around to see what Sean will do next.
Will I stop writing? Probably not, since it’s how I make a living and the only occupation left to me that I don’t loathe 100% of the time. On the other hand, the stuff I write isn’t noted for its plot, character, theme, archetypes, 30-second pitch, or any of the other trappings that accompany “real” writing.
Thanks, Sean, for voicing the darker side of writing.
Amber, Little Rock, AR
I laugh really hard every time I read this blog, so I just can’t stop coming back. I love the weekend update almost as much as the list of reasons.
Nathan Bransford, San Francisco, CA
I read this blog because it is funny, and funny is good.
Lynn, Melbourne, Australia
Your blog makes me laugh and anything that discourages bad writing gets my support
Dave Klecha, Grand Rapids, MI
I’m a humorless asshole.
Or, something.
Heyas to Pat Kight, who sadly was part of my inspiration to write, and to Mike Toot, whose stuff I have read and whom I will meet in about a week.
Family curse. My mom is a romance novelist. Most of my sales through the years have been non-fiction. A couple of years ago I started writing fiction again, and tragically sold several short stories almost as fast as I could write them, which only encouraged me with false hopes. If I quit my day job and wrote full time, at current short fiction word rates, I could make 5-7k a year, a path my wife has discouraged.
Racingboo from Ireland here. I’m supposed to be making breakfast for the kids, so I’m finding all kinds of excuses not to. Found your blog via a link on a friend’s blog. Interesting…
Perth, Western Australia
I don’t know how I got here, but hey, when I’m reading this, I don’t have to confront the endlessly rewritten novel gathering dust on my hard drive.
Of course, if you stop posting reasons, I may have to go and write something …
Alkelda the Gleeful, Seattle, Washington.
I came to your blog via Miss Snark. I’ve written stories and poems my whole life, but it was only a couple of years ago that I decided I didn’t need to become a published author. It was a liberating concept to realize that I could do something for enjoyment without aspiring to public acclaim. That was around the time that I took up guitar, too.
Lyn Battersby. Perth, Western Australia. Age (shut up).
I decided to write at the age of 5. I started taking that desire seriously at 32 and have sold 12 stories in that time, one of which has been optioned for a movie.
Now I’m over it and I’m taking a permanent(ish) break. I will finish my Clarion stories, but that’s it.
Adios amigos.
Hey Michael, let me know when / where you’ll be in Seattle. The Small Business Summit, perhaps?
Newtown, CT, via the mess with Meika (now famous as the ultimate reason to stop writing) on another blog.
I stay because 1) I’m a ’stopped’ writer, after 10 years of submitting with and without an agent; 2) Despite always wanting to be a writer, I detest the melodramatic “I could no more stop writing than stop breathing or eating” and “I write so the voices in my head will stop, LOL” (sic and sick); and 3) you make me snort.
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
I came here via a link from Lee Battersby’s blog. Hanging around successful authors on the internet is one of the habits I haven’t shaken from the days when I thought I was a writer.
The closest I ever came to publication was requesting the submission guidelines for a line of TV tie-in novels; they came with a cover note explaining that they were now for historical interest only, as the novel line was about to be awarded to a different publisher. A lucky escape for all concerned, in retrospect.
I came here via a link from Lee Battersby’s blog. Hanging around successful authors on the internet…
Bwaaahahahahahahahahaaaaaahahahhahahahackcoughchokegasp…. Paul, you are so sweet. And deluded
Successful authors don’t hang around on the internet. They’re too busy answering tax evasion charges. Yopu know Neil Gaiman’s blog is written by Korean children, right?
Joe Holmberg, Paris, France.
Funniest thing I’ve read online for years, and the weekend updates make my Sundays. When you’re done here, I’m hoping you’ll make a start on “101 Reasons to Quit Your Band”.
Bethanie. Nash-vegas, US of A.
I believe I originally came here via a link on Heather’s blog. I come back regularly for the mean-spirited, cynical sarcasm, which I find a refreshing change from the warm, fuzzy, don’t-give-up-on-your-dreams writing advice everyone else is dishing out ad nauseum.
And just so I can get this out of my system: your use of “fsck” irritates the piss out me. If you’re gonna cuss, just do it fercrissake.
On “fsck”:
It was originally a Linux command, an an abbreviation of “file system check”. Nerds being nerds, they understand that firewalls and filtering software block access to some Web sites with naughty words in them, and so they adopted “fsck” as a synonym for “fsck”.
Same thing with “pr0n”, though as far as I know “pr0n” is not yet a Linux system command.
Wish I had been named Lydia, Washington, D.C.
My co-worker’s infernal humming, nothing but sneaker marks on the stark walls, a desk dusty with banal gossip, and my glassy-eyed day dreaming: this won’t last forever; this office one day, a book deal the next. It will happen.
You remind me of how unlikely that actually is.
And that’s funny.
Mary Lou Klecha, Washington, DC.
Following my oldest brother into commenting as I did into this terrible writing habit. I’m reading the blog to distract myself from the embryonic SF novel banging around the inside of my skull. Thanks for your help in keeping it where it belongs.
I’m from Canada…
Arizona, USA. I’m an editor at a print-on-demand publishing company — a vanity press. Most of our authors are lovely people, and some of them can actually write very well. But some of them really can’t. And of those, some are convinced that they will be the next John Grisham. I read this blog because you say the things we so desperately want to say to those people and can’t.
vlorbik here. columbus ohio.
i’ve got paul riddell blogrolled
& he’s mentioned 101RtSW a few times.
i self-published a few short-shorts
about ten years ago but the bug
has mostly left me alone.
Alisa Rivera, Los Angeles, CA. I read because your blog makes me laugh and also because there’s actually good writing advice underneath the bile–which motivates me to write more. I realize this probably makes you want bang your head against a wall in despair, but there it is.
mike toot: thanks for the enlightenment regarding the origins of “fsck”! I feel much better now. In fact, the nerd in me shall henceforth snicker and find it amusing.
Fort Worth, TX
I saw the link from Nathan Bransford’s blog and decided to check it out. I like your sense of humor. What’s on my desk? Half a dozen computer games, including one I bought and haven’t yet installed (S.T.A.L.K.E.R., if you’re curious), a box of gum, tons of papers, a bottle of lotion, and one of my cats.
I live in Tripoli, Libya. Let’s see you get more exotic than that.
Hello Sir!
John B, hailing from Boston, MA, USA.
My biggest claim to fame thus far is that I was one of the first, I believe, to find your blog. In those heady days I didn’t have a blog yet and posted as jb.
Now I have my own damned blog and have not quit writing. On the other hand I have also not quit my day job. So I guess it’s a wash.
Brendan Edwards. Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
I actually have no intention to write anything as it is. I stopped long before I started. I thought I could maybe write something at one point, but after some heavy introspection, I realized my talents lie elsewhere. I still read your blog because I love how much squirming it must cause the literary unwashed masses.
Jonathan Bastow, Los Angeles, USA
I came here through Mr. Riddell’s web-page. I have written two short stories, both as assignments for a literature class. I know they’re crap. I save them for myself only.
I have to say that ‘@#$%’ is even funnier than ‘fsck’. I leave the profanity filters in my computer games on for just that reason.
Simon Haynes, Perth, Western Australia.
I came to your blog after Lee Battersby gave you a plug on his. Knowing Lee, I knew his taste in people would coincide with mine and so far that’s proven correct.
I read the blog, but you’re not going to convince me to quit writing. I’ve been in that hollow, colourless place once before, and am not going back there.
Caroline Willis, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, where the music is good but the goetta is better.
I read the blog in the tradition of an alcoholic endlessly sitting in on AA meetings. Of course, I’m not addicted to writing. Of course.
Sabrina– Mililani, HI, USA
Outisde my window is an annoyingly sunny day. Hardly a cloud in the sky, the bastards. “Paradise” is overrated. To escape the dreaded sun, I live in the fantasy genre, clinging to the futile hope of one day being published.
I originally stumbled upon the blog from seeing Sean Lindsay’s comments elsewhere, Miss Snark, I believe. It was a while back, but I like to drop by every once in a while. I particularly like the monthly demotivators.
(The last three letters in my word verification are “fuq.” Makes me think of fantasy writers who re-spell words to make them more exotic.)
Several blogs I liked linked here
From: Hamilton New Zealand, in: Lafayette USA
Spencer, Seattle. I googled myself and found you talking about me. In a weird coincidence, I was in a writing group with Mike Toot. Hi, Mike. Remember Mr. Fox? Still shipping it around.
I laugh at your blog. That is all the reason I need.
I’m currently in my office in Cupertino, CA, United States of Anencephalia.
My desk is covered with half-completed prototype hardware, about a thousand different CAT-5 cables, a Fijian cannibal fork (which I brought back from Fiji personally) and a bottle of Tom’s of Maine lemon-lime flavored mouthwash.
The view out my window is of a blank wall in the tiny passageway outside my door.
The reason I’m still writing is that my wife won’t let me quit. She can be very persuasive when she’s angry.
San Diego, California.
I’m the weirdo who made a LiveJournal feed for 101 Reasons.
I don’t recall how I found 101 Reasons, unfortunately. As a number of my friends are would-be writers, I find it very entertaining. Rest assured that while I do blog, I have no intention of doing the kind of writing that involves agents and publishers.
Marva from Eugene, USA (oh, well, the state is Oregon)
Since I read to the fourth bullet, I’m obligated to post. Of course, I could probably sneak away without doing so, but I am pretending to be a writer. Ergo, I must write. I have not yet found the reason within the 101 to quit. Perhaps I’m being dense.
Erin Tettensor, New York USA. Originally of Canada, lately of Switzerland, often in various parts of Africa, but let’s not get into that.
I read the blog when I’m feeling bitter. Which is often. Plus, what I do for a living is full of people who take themselves Way Too Fucking Seriously, so it’s nice to check in with people who understand that the truly secure actually skewer themselves on a regular basis.
I write humourous fantasy when I’m in a good mood, which is not very goddam often, especially lately. But heck, at least one major publisher saw fit to give me an inch or two, so I reckon I’m funny every three leap years.
Jaye from Dallas, Texas. I read this blog because I like the feeling of superiority it gives me that I’m not one of those people who need to give up. Then I look over and see my own stack of rejection letters. And that’s really amusing.
Maputo, Mozambique - city of a million barracas (shebeens) and two million buracos (potholes).
Must be more exotic than Cap’n Tightpants’ location, seeing he or she couldn’t find anything in particular to say about it. “Exotic” in this sense refers to rich odours of festering garbage and stagnant puddles, or milk shortages, or traffic lights that show red and green at the same time.
I read this blog as an antidote to all that airbrushed follow-your-dreams drivel that I find in too many other places. Being a contrasuggestible wacko, I find this so much more encouraging.
City/country, huh? Ok. I’m in Lexington, USA. This is not very useful information, because there are, I think, 19 states in the US with a city or town called ‘Lexington’.
Why am I here? Purely on web-surfing whim. I saw a link and clicked it, and I’m feeling chatty. I can see the top of a pear tree from my window, I have way too much crap on my desk, and if I could stop writing I’d have done it years ago. It’s an addiction, or maybe a curse.
Luke, Toronto, Canada. PhD student in laser physics.
You’ve got hilarious material here, and I’m commenting because it’s worth even the 0.0001% chance all these responses will cause more reasons to be written.
I’ve never even thought about writing a novel. Does that cheer you up?
Tania, Sydney, Australia.
I got sidetracked on the way to YouTube by a burning desire to complain about Big Brother which lead me to the smh.com.au which then lead me here.
College math student. USA.
I like to pretend to myself that I will actually write something good enough to submit to an agent “eventually.” The truth is, half of it is verbal diarrhea that I read when I’m feeling masochistic, and the other half is small snippets that would probably look good in a story, except that I don’t have a story to fit them in.
It could be worse; I could be actually submitting query letters.
Victoria, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I came across this yesterday (via Nathan Bransford’s blog), and have since been reading through all the archives. It is now a long while since this post went up, but there are still more Reasons to come, and I have yet to find The Reason for me to stop.
Bill from Lewiston Idaho. A really old guy who is a creative writing major at the local college. Do I really need another reason to stop writing? I figure I’ll stop before I really get started. That whole killing two birds with one stone thing. I’ve thought of forwarding your url to my professor as explanation for my crappy submissions. Don’t know if she would see the humor.
Well, since you said we had to comment.
Lincolnton, NC.
I don’t submit, but I do write. So I guess I get a half point, eh? Funny stuff, and yeah, the whole stop writing blanket statement is pretty accurate 99% of the time. And no, I don’t think I’m one of the fabled 1%.
Eugene, Or. I found you via the NaNoWriMo forums. I have no desire to be published, so I won’t be cluttering up anyone’s desk but my own. I’ve continued reading your blog because I find it interesting, in a sado-masochistic manner.
I am trying to figure out how the hell I arrived here and why I had read the blog… Friggin cold - MN
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