![[Logo]](/images/101ReasonsLogo.png "101 Reasons to Stop Writing")
Most advice about writing fiction (and there is way too much of it) focuses on how to get started, how to improve your writing, how to get published, etc. Some of it is even written by successful, published writers that you have heard of. Virtually none of this advice focuses on when to give up, when to abandon your ridiculous dreams and get back to paying your taxes.
Face it. Most published fiction is bad. Some is so plain awful that you wonder how anyone wrote it, let alone approved it for publication. Don’t tell me it’s never crossed your mind how craptacular the unpublished stuff must be.
This blog is dedicated to the thousands of writers out there, labouring in deserved obscurity, murdering forests and supporting the postal system, wondering what the hell they’re doing wrong.
I’ll tell you. And God help me, I’ll make you stop.
101 Reasons to Stop Writing is presented ‘as is’, and is not intended as a substitute for actual writing advice, no matter how clever you think you are at discerning the message in the meanness.
Information is provided solely for writers to better understand the lameosity of their writing and motives, and the utter, nihilistic futility of the pursuit.
Assumptions as to the godawfuless of any particular writer’s fiction are purely based on the statistical likelihood that said writer couldn’t write a publishable novel if Stephen King handed them a 100 page outline and Salman Rushdie offered to do the second draft.
Sean Lindsay makes no warranties or assertions as to suitability or fitness for any particular purpose, other than the smug feeling you get from thinking that I’m talking to every other writer but you.
Always seek professional evaluation, and if rejections persist, discontinue writing.
Sean Lindsay is just a guy who hates bad writing. He tries not to hate the bad writers themselves, because he knows they are merely prisoners of their own fallow imagination.
He has stopped writing on a number of occasions, for many different reasons. Specifically, #43, #87 and #91. He has stopped writing on page 2, page 12, page 70, and page 113, of different books. He has even stopped writing after the third draft.
He has never submitted a novel or short story for publication. Why? #101. It’s a showstopper.
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Beautiful
I was thinking “my god! This man’s ego is of such size he is actually asking himself his own FAQ!” Then I bothered to read the heading. Ah, “anticipated” questions, I’m such an ass.
NUmber 2 is off though, crappy writers are not “the source”, though I admit that could be true if book publishing was some kind of general/cultural artistic enterprise. Your “crappy books” are a for-profit business, therefore “the source” is, in part, the capital backing the publishers and, in part, the currency spent by the reader.
Or, put differently: “crappy” READERS are “the source” of “crappy books”, “crappy” WRITERS (including apparently yourself, likely myself, and, after a quick pereusal of this site, everyone who is not, Stephen King, Dan Brown, or the PLAYWRIGHT William Shakespeare[i.e. never wrote a "book" for "publication" to be "read"]) are, of course, merely “the source” of “crappy” MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS.
Typed out like that it seems blindingly obvious…to me.
So,if I say I realize I’m a nit-pick, what would you say you realize you are?
with expressions of sincerest love and admiration,
matti
P.S. I agree you shouldn’t write FICTION – you don’t appear creative enough, but please consider non-fiction. If you complete the list that is. The ironies that would generated by “101 reasons to STOP writing” – The Book, are just to delicious to contemplate. Plus, it would sell, Irony is like mana for people who think they are intelligent, the feeling of superiority it gives them sustains them as they wander through the desert of a culture-that-honestly-couldn’t-give-two-shits-about-them-and-would-rather-just-beat-them-up. The publishers would love it, and more importantly, so would the marketers.
I’m glad this site is here! This site will scare away those who don’t have what it takes to be writers. The literary world will be better for it.
By the way, you should change all your quotes to straight quotes. curly quotes show up as question marks online.
I love your blog. I’m still writing a book. Sorry. Console yourself with the fact that it has taken me 13 years so far and you will probably be dead before it’s finished.
But my question for you…
You realise that you are Sisyphus, don’t you?
Are you talkin’ to me? You say somethin’ like that to me, you better have a knife in your hand …
Bartleby’s Complaint is a novel about all the excuses we devise for not finishing our writing, for giving up the ghost, for turning to other pursuits while waiting for death. I salute your blog. It reminds me of the anti-poetry of Nicanor Parra….a fresh tonic in our world of bland drinks. Visit my blog–when you have time to rest– for the gin.
Cool. You wrote lameosity. That’s so retarded it’s cool. Not as cool as using moron, but whatever.
I have no idea what Gr’a is or how I managed to write it on my previous comment. That’s just stupid. Fine, other reason to stop writing – I can’t even do it with a one-letter-at-a-time-*******-keyboard. Great.
[...] Filed under: Writing, moron | Tags: blogging, Dr. Pepper, moron, speakers, twinkies, vomit, Writing This blog didn’t use the word ‘moron’ though it should have. It’s pretty funny, [...]
[...] it off. Posted on December 8, 2007 by Matt Ellsworth Oh, this is [...]
Here’s the question: what if, after reading all the demotivators and reasons to stop writing, you can’t? Ha, ha, funny. . .
I’m dead serious. I have been trying to stop writing for a long time. I seem to be physically incapable of it. If I stop writing novels, I go to short stories and poetry. If I quit those, I write essays. Quit essays, go to articles. Quit everything else? I go back in a circle again.
I was hoping 101 Reasons would be just the thing to stop my horrible (that’s HORRIBLE, all in caps) writing. I guess I’m doomed. Poor slushpile. Poor editors.
I salute you! As a writing instructor for America Online (1993-2000), I tried to teach more than 4,000 people how to write their first novel. Guess what? Five of them actually finished their book, four of them were published and one of them married me. (The writer, not the book.)
I have read more bad fiction than you can imagine and I completely support your attempt to curb it before it gets out of hand.
Lary Crews
(Former instructor of Writing The Novel, Writing the Mystery Novel and author of four published books.)
http://www.serendipity-doodah.com
On the one hand I agree with the concept of not everybody should write. Or, more specifically not everyone should submit their work. People submit work way too early, a lot submit rough drafts. That’s not good for anyone in this industry, readers, publishers, or other writers alike. That said though, no one really knows who will and won’t make it. The writer who sucks today may grow over time and eventually reach publication and might actually have something published that’s good, or even great.
I don’t care for the nihilistic view that says: “Life sucks, everything is awful, we’ll never be anything so let’s go wait for the world to end.” If that’s your attitude, why even go on period? Because that’s the attitude. I’d love to be published, but I’ll write with or without it. And I won’t submit anything that isn’t ready.
As to Mr. Crews, if 5 people out of 4,000 actually finished their books and four of them were published, to me those seem like pretty good odds for the people who actually finish what they start and work hard to improve it.
The other 3,995 gave up at some point. Maybe they should have, maybe they shouldn’t have. Who knows? But at least in your test case, those are amazingly fantastic odds for those who actually finished what they set out to do. Which flies in the face of the “give up, you suck” mentality.
Those kind of odds make me never want to quit writing.
Sean–You’re missed! Hope you add more to the blog soon.
(And I guess I’m a total hypocrite for loving this blog, because, well, I write. The fact that I have an actual book contract may or may not justify this to you. I think I like the contrast this blog makes to the encouragement I find elsewhere, encouragement that is usually entirely appropriate, but, sometimes, goes to the point of denying that there are gradations of talent and gradations of quality. That’s when they lose me. Anyway, I’ll keep checking in.)
Thanks!
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain
Thanks, Mark. When’s your next book coming out?
This website is not belittling your ambitions. It’s helping you realise your ambitions are futile. If you understood the difference, you wouldn’t be writing.
The problem is not that people want to write, express themselves, or even that they want to be published, though it tends to be suspicious and usually ends up as an exercise in futility. The question should be why do they want to publish: Is it to be famous? Is it to be “successful”? Is it to be acknowledged? The various motivations can be revealing, from the top of the stack to the bottom. As for elitist judgments regarding content and talent, well, leave that up to the editors, academians, or snobs who cling to the latest avant-garde trend.
90% of every material of every art form is pretty much garbage of the moment, and will be forgotten with the pass of time. It happens with music, films, books… That is something that has always happened, and will always happen, for a large and different number of reasons.
What today is considered good writing may have not a few centuries ago, so it’s just a matter of taste and perspective after all. Knowing this is an unavoidable condition of art… why do you prefer to live in the world of garbage?
“Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness.”
Pablo Picasso
Sean,
You rock.
It’s so true. I’ll admit I handle things a little more constructively, but I absolutely LOVE your counterpoint to the endless streams of ‘Keep writing, keep writing’… how about “stop writing if no one likes it!”
I actually heard that from a publisher and it was very refreshing!
But how does a writer find out if people like it so, if not, they can save themselves all that time and trouble?
What about a central resource to help distribute work by writing groups for comment by reading groups – all anonymously. Finally writers can get a feel for a greater audience and realize that perhaps it’s not for them, no matter what their Mum says.
Well that was my real-world idea to attach to the BookGrinder site, which is designed to help readers find their authors, have readers review their work and for publishers to distribute their news in an easily managed way.
Now if we can just get enough meaningful reviews to let publishers know which ones belong and which ones don’t it might steer them in the right direction
Keep your blog posts coming Sean!
You’re an ass. If your blog is any indication, I’m glad you’re writing.
Yup. Yup, yup, yup. I’m a silly dog. But you’ve got a great web site, nonetheless! Nevertheless, sometimes I might come across a rare scrap of info that everybody needs to know, right now! Those are the best times to put my head in the sand, won’t you agree??? Stop writing sounds like stop reading. Instead of burning books, why not burn pencils? Why not unplug our computers? I recommend we all stop writing at least to clear our heads a few minutes each day. Stop the chaos!
I was inclined to be annoyed by this site, but you can’t control what people say on the internet, however pointless and whiny it may be. I could see making a pointless and whiny site myself, one dedicated to getting people to stop driving. I’m not worried about the ozone layer. I just want less crappy drivers on the road pissing me off.
But I wander away too much… I finally found a spot in this mess where you sum up your purpose briefly and without whining too much. And I find I agree. I know my ambitions are futile. Don’t care. I’m having fun. I don’t even want to think about getting published. If my kids find some finished manuscripts and think they’re worth it, they can try. If all goes well, they’ll end up with an inheritance after all. And if my work sucks, at least I will have something to leave my kids to show them where the bad DNA came from.
Keep up the good whining.
I’ve posted a new demotivator, a musical list of defunct magazines, at http://www.youtube.com/cinemasolo . It was created for the 60th Anniversary of the American Society of Journalists and Authors this weekend.
Feel free to pass the word, thanks.
Bill Dyszel
Sean -
This blog is absolutely hilarious! Anybody who is offended is definitely your intended audience.
There are many people reading this and thinking to themselves, “He’s talking about everybody else. Not me.” They believe this even when you make fun of them for thinking that! I have no illusions that you’re not referring to me. You are talking to each and every one of us!
I am going to give you props in a way others haven’t. Others can say how funny you are, but I’m going to “show not tell” how great this blog is. You have inspired me to develop an exit-strategy for my own writing. I’ve committed to a measurable, time-sensitive criteria and, if it is not fully met, I will cease writing and invest my time and resources into more lucrative avenues. It’s now or never.
My doomed blog: http://www.expat-chronicles.com
(Don’t click on my ads if you want me to realize the exit strategy)
Thanks for the help,
Tall Can
I’m sorry, I’m not going to give up writing. You have annoyed me into doing the exact opposite. I fully intend to be published someday.To me, writing is the air I breath, and I’m not going to give it up because some arrogant pessimist said so.
Perhaps there are some that don’t have it in them to write, or write something worth reading. Maybe they shouldn’t write. Heck, maybe I’m one of them! But who are you to tell us this? Even the most worthless piece of published crap is worth a thousand times more than the great masterpiece that is never written!
Never give up on something you love, people. Trust me, you’ll regret it before the end. I know from personal experiance.
Freya S.
You don’t like reading bad fiction so your telling would be writers to stop writing? Theres a better and far more effective solution: don’t read bad fiction.
Do you go to movies the first day they are out? Or do you read the critics reviews, then wait and let others watch the movie on the first weekend, then read the reviews of the non-critics critics and then see how many people watch the movie the next week end before deciding whether to see a movie?
If you don’t like bad fiction, don’t read bad fiction. Let others read it, rate it, review it them look at the ratings read the reviews and buy the books that get good ratings and reviews.
Your not stopping me or anyone else from writing. I may never get published and what I write may never be good but if I don’t try it never will. Its better to try and fail than to never try at all.
After reading some truly horrible poetry on mickleplum (by someone they decided to make into their “featured poet,” no less, despite ample evidence that she ought to have been featured on a milk carton long ago) I googled “stopwriting” and your beautiful site was the first result. You have warmed my cold, cold heart.
In parting, I quote Flannery O’Connor: “Everywhere I go, I’m asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.”
I agree with you totally, for the most part. However, have you ever considered that just because YOU don’t like a book it doesn’t mean it is a bad book?
It might not seem great to you, but someone else might really love it.
Just a thought.
I’m glad this is here. I am a writer, I don’t generally like what I’ve written for one reason or another, and I know when I’ve written a piece of crap. It doesn’t usually make it off my C drive unless I decide to upload it to Fictionpress for the sake uploading. I think, though, that in spite of your attempts to discourage me as a writer, I have been inspired. I agree with you about the wealth of bad fiction cluttering the shelves of every bookstore, and I think it’s important to know when I’m deluding myself and need to change what’s going on. Unfortunately for you, I’m not going to stop writing just because I realize I’m delusional. I’m just going to change my tactics. You speak the truth, the cold and ugly truth. And I am a writer. I write because I enjoy it. I know a few trusted souls who will honestly tell me what’s wrong with my writing. When they and many others approve of my work, I’ll start building my collection of rejections.