Comments on Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: You Tell Me: When Is Writing Unhealthy?

I've read most of the comments here and my beliefs...

2009-10-30T22:09:27.160-07:00

I've read most of the comments here and my beliefs are similar. To sum up the answer to the question, I think writing is unhealthy when you neglect your responsibilities (family, friends, bills, etc), spend too much time on your tooshie, and eat poorly. My favorite response here was from Bane of Anubis who simply wrote, "when you start hating it".

On a personal note, my fiction writing teacher (who is a published author) asked our class at the beginning of the semester if we, “…had ever read something that made us want to stop writing?” This question didn’t even register to me, writing is my passion and I do make time for it but not at the price of family, work, bills etc. I would do it for free, meaning if money didn’t exist at all, my peace, my joy, would still be found in the writing process; the rough drafts, the rewrites and the criticisms. I don’t run to the corner and buy an idea from the idea dealer, sometimes stories just flood in and yeah I have lost hours to typing just to get a story out of my head so I can focus on the day. It’s like reading a book you can’t put down, only you are the one dictating. Crazy? Maybe. Unhealthy? I don’t think so. TuPac Shakur carried a journal with him all the time, constantly writing. Songwriters, musicians composers, they have to get it out, it’s not forced, it just happens, it’s a gift.

This is getting long, but I think the most important thing is to write for you first; journalizing, en escape, to vent to get out whatever is banging around in your head and set time for it so you don’t neglect your responsibilities. If along the way others happen to enjoy your work AND are willing to pay for it that is a blessed and happy plus.

When I was in college, I studied journalism. I lov...

2009-10-29T22:28:22.764-07:00

When I was in college, I studied journalism. I loved writing feature stories, but as I focused on the technicalities of writing, I found out something. I didn't have much to write about. After taking many technical classes, and writing pretty interesting articles, mostly about people, I switched to psychology. I found out through my writing classes that I love focusing on people in my writing, and I felt that by studying psych I gained a framework through which to view others.

I think one should write when one has something to say; it's so much more motivating than knowing you have a talent and like the trade better than others. Personal writing, or writing for self, as in journaling obviously is an outlet, but writing to be recognized is futile if what is written about does not reach to others. This doesn't mean all writing should be persuasive and have a platform, but even with a fiction that flows spontaneously, it should be spawned from a deep desire to share a story that flows from something deep within. If a writer has something deep within, but it does not surface in writing, then one should pursue interests that helps the inner message surface.

Writing is unhealthy when you have six figures in ...

2009-10-24T22:52:26.720-07:00

Writing is unhealthy when you have six figures in student loans and law school finals looming yet you blog at 2:00 am.

Because some random friend of yours on facebook complemented something you wrote.

Because you hope your ex-boyfriend is reading it or better yet your crush.

REF: BILLRUPERT8 Your comments ring a familiar tu...

2009-10-22T17:13:56.754-07:00

REF: BILLRUPERT8

Your comments ring a familiar tune in my head. I liked what you had to say.

At first, writing for me was a life-preserver floating on the surface of the water after the ship sunk. It kept my head above insanity, but then the pursuit of publishing clouded the purpose of it.

Finally, I have balance (I think) and still feel I have a good day if I write, but there is no urgency for publishing.

Several things resulted in the pursuit of publishing.

1) Learning and growing in the craft to perfect it.

2) Realizing there are many just like me chasing the same rainbows.

3) Learning what hoops we need to jump through.

4) Finding Nathan's blog spot. (smile)

Comments to this blog topic are very interesting.

wordver: polingso (could that be a survey of sorts?)

I think about this a lot myself. While there is th...

2009-10-22T16:14:41.939-07:00

I think about this a lot myself. While there is that addiction part of it, I have realized over the years between when I wrote my novel (about 4 years ago), and the point (this summer) when I started revising, that I am a much happier person when I'm writing. It was an emotional escape valve for me, especially when I was in high school, and now I'm at a point (going to graduate school,leaving the continent on which I grew up), where I need that again. I write because I have a story that will overwhelm my consciousness if I don't get it down on paper-- I think the obsession would occur whether or not I sat pecking at the keyboard. (Also, I never had "be a best-selling writer" as my goal/reason for writing. However, the compulsion to write is so strong for me that I do it anyway).

Is the pursuit of publication unhealthy and frustrating? I'm not sure. When I got my first rejection letter, I had a fit of doubt over whether my work was good enough, or ever would be. And I can see obsessing over publication as being a problem.
On the other hand, I feel like sharing one's story is a logical step. And I definitely want to do that-- to me, it feels like the story won't be complete until enough strangers read it.

Listening to the sounds of the "door closing," is ...

2009-10-22T15:48:56.693-07:00

Listening to the sounds of the "door closing," is something that leaves many of us tone-deaf. While we can envision our dream as the "hot-new-author," with our book sky-rocketing to #1 on the NY Times Bestseller List, in reality, we have only built what is conceivable in our comfort zone. To watch what often has been a life-long dream, wittle away is extremely hard, especially if it's something that you think you are "suppose" to be doing--for whatever reason.

I guess I"m someone who takes a more "spiritual" (not religious--big difference) approach to this topic, because some of my worst mistakes have been when I was focused on something that wasn't really my passion-- but just a hobby. It stifled my "growth" by keeping me from doing what I "should" have been doing. It also set a cycle of very toxic behavior that often left me wondering why the hell I was here to begin with.

For example, I love making holiday wreaths. I've always made them and it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I decided to sell (at the advice of friends who thought they were GOOD--sound familiar)a few. I did alright during the holidays, but for some reason, this gave me a hunger to sell more! SELL MORE! SELL THE HELL MORE! It was like an addiction and before I knew it, what used to be a fun hobby had turned into a business nightmare! I was never meant to be a florist!

I'm one of those (don't gag) that believes--especially, as I get older--that we all have some "purpose" here on this ever-increasing warm earth and not searching for what that "thing" is is just "settling" for what we "think" we know.

I guess this can lead to eating beans and rice around the table with the kids.

And then on the flip-side people would almost rath...

2009-10-22T15:12:32.118-07:00

And then on the flip-side people would almost rather you write, you know? Like "Well I'd rather he channel his energy into writing vs. drinking or something worse." Almost like a coping mechanism but you're right if it does more harm than good, and if there's the dream amongst the addicted for "the great American novel" when only 0.1% of writers ever get published (I'm making that up...it's probably a lot less I'm guessing? :-) )...kind of scary.

Once John Steinbeck was approached by a surgeon wh...

2009-10-22T14:09:25.773-07:00

Once John Steinbeck was approached by a surgeon who told the author:

"You know, someday I'm going to take some time off and write a book."

"Really?" Steinbeck said. "What a coincidence. I'm planning to take some time off do an appendectomy."

Anon 10:51 - I thought I had a chance at getting p...

2009-10-22T13:46:34.616-07:00

Anon 10:51 - I thought I had a chance at getting published until I started reading this and other blogs. Now I figure I have less than a snowball's chance, no matter how good I am.

Sorry I'm so depressed today! The problem with my family is none of them are writers, or even avid readers. So they don't see much value in what I am doing. To them it's just a selfish pastime. Which, if it's not bringing in any income, is pretty much true.

Anon 11:28 - My mom came to visit two weeks ago. ...

2009-10-22T13:36:12.938-07:00

Anon 11:28 - My mom came to visit two weeks ago. I spent the whole previous week in an absolute panic, cleaning the house. Not because she would criticize, but because she was driving 8 hours just to spend one day and two nights here to celebrate my birthday (she couldn't take any more time off work), and I didn't want her to recoil from touching surfaces in my house, or have to sleep on the floor because the guest room was full of crap.

My husband says that if my mom never came to visit, I'd never clean.

He's probably right.

OMG, Terry, you are funny!!!

2009-10-22T12:23:39.322-07:00

OMG, Terry, you are funny!!!

TL:DR As mentioned by previous posters, it's not ...

2009-10-22T12:20:01.561-07:00

TL:DR As mentioned by previous posters, it's not so much the writing as it is the pursuit of publication that manifests itself in unhealthy behavior.

I've been writing a story. For a couple months recently, I forgot why.
Breaking the story may have consumed much of my free time but it never overwhelmed my life or responsibilities. It was largely therapeutic.

Two thirds (~55,000 words) of the way through it, a friend asked to read some of what had come to consume most of my recreational time (time I might normally have spent watching a baseball game with him). I obliged, sending him the first 30 pages or so. His glowing assessment and insistence that I look into publishing it, as encouraging and well-intentioned as it may have been, ended up obscuring my objectives. It was a cancer.

Suddenly, in addition to writing, I was researching the process of publication - reading blogs, hashing out synopses and queries, posting on forums, etc. On top of that, I was going back to revise and censor my own work - changing large tracts of the story and voice - making alterations that might better appeal to a mass audience. It took a couple of months to realize that not only was I forsaking family events and real life responsibilities, I no longer looked forward to writing the story. I'd lost sight of who I was writing for. Originally, its only intended audience had been myself and two friends who have long since closed their eyes to the light of this world.

Realizing this, I hit the reset button. I trashed all the additions I made during that time and reverted the manuscript to its original form. I stopped sweating queries, reading industry sites (Nathan's blog being the exception), and concerning myself with anything that had to do with publishing. I even completely stopped writing to focus on friends, family, and responsibilities - to make up for lost time. Last week, after much debate (and 30 minutes before the deadline), I finally re-opened that original file to enter a paragraph into Nathan's contest. I didn't expect it to qualify. It didn't. And I was fine with that.
Since then, I've been able to look at the story with no sense of urgency. Gone is the self-imposed need to craft a literary masterpiece at the expense of everything else. But what's most relieving: once again, I wake up every morning and find myself looking forward to finishing the story...and doing it on my own time.

Your writing could be unhealthy if: 1. You have ...

2009-10-22T11:42:48.990-07:00

Your writing could be unhealthy if:

1. You have killed, at least five houseplants, three fish, and/or one fur-bearing pet through neglect.

2. Your personal hygiene (or lack thereof) has set off either the smoke alarm or the carbon monoxide detector.

3. You have lost at least two shoes, on separate occasions, to the dried, yet still sticky, puddle on your kitchen floor.

4. You have scurvy.

Seriously, writing obsession has to have limits. My second year of law school, all of my classes either had papers or take-home exams. By a date certain, I owed the school a total of 300 pages of clean typed text, formatted to each teacher's specs, footnoted, blue-booked, cross-referenced, and edited.

The mother of all deadlines - my entire set of grades for that semester rode the back of those papers and tests.

I remember shuffling down to school a couple of days before the due date wearing bedroom slippers, sweat pants that had been clean a week earlier, and my hair in the first stages of dreadlocks. I handed the papers, all pristine, each in its sealed envelope to the law school proctor and then I remember literally skipping down the hall when it was done (an odd sight I'm sure my classmates have tried to forget over the last decade).

I knew when to be obsessed and when to let it go . . . until the next time.

This morning I noticed the absolute filth on my ki...

2009-10-22T11:28:51.119-07:00

This morning I noticed the absolute filth on my kitchen floor, imagined what my mother would say if she saw it, considered how long it would take me to vacuum then mop it up, and then hurried up to my attic writing den to try to make my headway on my November book deadline. Yes, I do write to the detriment of my family sometimes. I admit it!

Writing becomes a habit when it performs no functi...

2009-10-22T11:24:51.954-07:00

Writing becomes a habit when it performs no function other than escape. Just like people who work long hours primarily because they can't stand being at home with their family; who drink primarily to forget how sad and lonely they are; or who eat for comfort instead of nourishment.

But, with the exception of certain charlatans who prey on writers, I don't see much encouragement anywhere that publishing success is a realistic goal. If anyone's to blame for doing that, it's certainly not the industry -- it may be the widespread practice of assignments in creative writing while we're growing up in school. To a young mind, teacher encouragement to write fiction sort of equates to teacher encouragement about other fields: science, technology, etc., where finding success is not only realistic, but likely.

Christine, I think that everyone that takes the t...

2009-10-22T10:51:21.932-07:00

Christine,

I think that everyone that takes the time to read this and other writing blogs have a greater chance at getting published than the average writer. This includes you. BTW I think it's reasonable to expect some encouragement from your family.

Writing is something that I find I need to do. Wh...

2009-10-22T10:33:56.005-07:00

Writing is something that I find I need to do. When life gets in the way, and it does more so than I like, then I don't have the time I WANT/NEED to write. I get moody, short, and withdrawn - you know the Perfect Melancholy personality.

I realized not writing means emotional and mental constipation for me. Once I do end up writing then I'm back into the flow of things and the scenes of my book are not constantly visually playing out in my head and the characters aren’t constantly talking to each other or fighting.

Published or not published my main goal is to make myself happy since I'm the only one who really knows how to. Do I write with the intention of being published - of course, but then this is what helps me to step it up a notch and make sure I am writing the best I can in what little time I've got. I think everyone needs to live in the middle of an optimistic and pessimistic world which coincidently is called reality and no one should ever let themselves be consumed to the point of neglect in any aspect of their life.

Christine, I think the writing only seems useless...

2009-10-22T09:56:24.187-07:00

Christine,

I think the writing only seems useless if you're following a really goal-oriented approach (and you aren't meeting the difficult goals). I'm more a process-oriented sort of guy. The value is in the writing itself. It's the experience, my chance to try and shape my understanding of the world and to explore something beyond myself and escape my own limitations. I think there's tremendous value in that. Now, I do have more material goals, too... but they're subsidiary to the writing and the reasons behind that writing. I write for the writing... the goals come later.

Miracle Max: You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.

:)

fainsully said: You know what's depressing? Almos...

2009-10-22T08:59:04.618-07:00

fainsully said:

You know what's depressing? Almost everyone in this thread is thinking "But I'll be the one who makes it" and almost everyone is wrong.

Hey, that's not depressing. There's that "almost" in "almost everyone is wrong"... Ah, ain't optimism grand?

"In the immortal and paraphrased words of Miracle Max: Woo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do. Go through his clothes and look for loose change."

Also: "Sonny, true love is the greatest thing in the world... except for a nice MLT - mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe... they're so perky, I love that."

Okay, so that last one had nothing to do with anything, I admit.

Fighting past the rejections, meeting obstacles he...

2009-10-22T08:22:48.463-07:00

Fighting past the rejections, meeting obstacles head on, and overcoming negs are to be commended. Always.

It's when you ignore your kids, spouse, job... As with all addiction, when it's detrimental to the rest of your life there is a problem.

On-line gaming could affect you in a similar way.

Nora Roberts has been quoted as telling her adolescent kids, unless there is blood or the house is burning down don't bother her when she is writing. But then she stops at a reasonable time to be a wife and mother. I think that is the perfect balance.

Writing is a job. You need to do it everyday. Take time in it. But you also need to be able to walk away from it and live the rest of your life. It can't be the end all of who you are.

When you have tendonitis.

2009-10-22T08:07:28.379-07:00

When you have tendonitis.

You have several questions that merit a response. ...

2009-10-22T07:58:32.107-07:00

You have several questions that merit a response. Below are my opinions.

I'm guilty of this as well - who am I to say whether or not someone will or won't be published?

Let me see, you are a professional in the industry, so, yes, you are qualified to give an honest opinion. I'll take a brutal professional opinion over enabling any day.

But is this the right approach? Is writing, especially when the odds are long and the cost to a personal life is high, sometimes akin to addiction?

I think you are in the perfect position to encourage balance. If the writing is poor, say so. Encourage the writer to continue, as practice should lead to improvement. The cost to personal life doesn't need to be high. It can be fulfilling. That isn't a crime. There are a lot of things with long odds. Don't let that be an excuss to never try. But, always, balance.

When does it cross the line from hobby to "habit?"

Habits are not wrong; bad habits are. So you love to write. Good for you. Do it every day. But also have a life. Don't forget the wife and kids; have fun; enjoy a vacation; write blog comments.

And should we be encouraging everyone to write?

YES! Writing is communication; the highest form, in my opinion. If more people write more, they will improve their communication skils. Published or not, better communications skills go a long way.

I think that the writing itself has to serve as it...

2009-10-22T07:24:01.562-07:00

I think that the writing itself has to serve as its own reward.

If your only purpose in writing is to be rich and famous, then you're probably wasting your time. I was in a rock band for several years and it isn't much different. You've got to love playing music the same way you love writing. If you're doing either one just for that big break, you might as well spend your savings on lottery tickets or something else equally foolish.

In both writing and music, I've seen plenty of really REALLY talented people who are never going to "make it". Do it for the experience, do it because there's nothing else you'd rather do and then you'll never regret it.

Anne has a really important point. I just watche...

2009-10-22T07:01:15.799-07:00

Anne has a really important point.

I just watched a documentary about aspiring Olympic athletes. The sacrifices they and their families made in pursuit of their dreams were mind boggling. Financially, mentally, physically. Yet, we call them heroes when they come home with a gold medal.

Have you ever seen what a medical intern sacrifices? Or a Fortune 500 CEO? Or what about soldiers? And what about their families? Like the President of the United States has balance in his life right now?

Why should someone seeking to be a top writer professionally be different?

Look what someone said about Nora Roberts.

Look what Stephen King went through trying to become published. Ah, talk about beans and rice.

But can you be a Great Writer and not make sacrifices? And where's the line of too much? After all, 99% of success is knowing when to quit. We all make the mistake of just thinking if we persist we can succeed.

Yet. Successful people were smart enough to know to persist at that which they could be successful at. Unsuccessful people weren't smart enough to know they should have quit and gone and persued what they could accomplish. Knowing when to quit is everything.

Well, there is such a thing as too much thinking c...

2009-10-22T06:32:50.478-07:00

Well, there is such a thing as too much thinking can be unhealthy.So if you answered the question of "When is writing unhealthy," you are about to be arrested for pop-warner psychology. And you will be found guilty in the WitLiz Yada Court of Law. (Of course, the great thing is, your punishment is writing for the rest of your natural life)

Let me be the first to confess I don't have a degree in psychology. And even if I did, I still wouldn't be qualified to answer the above question. To do so would mean making snap judgments into the lives of people I don't even know. And it is certainly none of my business how or why a writer chooses to conduct his/her writing life, or personal life for that matter.

Unless a writer invites me into their confidence, I don't know diddly squat. And its best not to make generalized assumptions, because they then evolve into pre-judgments.

And furthermore, if a writer does take me into their confidence, then its best that I listen and take what they say at face value, rather than put it under a psychiatric microscope for analysis.

That means if someone says, I want to write, I say, great. If someone says, I want to write for publication, I say, great, let me know if you need some help. If they say, I really thought I should have at least placed in the competition. My entry was so much better than the winner's, I say, Shut up! Work harder and be happy for the person who won. If they say, I'm really disappointed I didn't even place in the contest, I say, that's perfectly normal. But think how the winner must feel. Isn't that wonderful? Now get back to work.

A newbie writer quickly discovers how hard the work is, and they will quckly discover rejection. How they respond is going to be up to them. It is their right to respond however they want to. And it is absolutely necessary for them to experience the outcome of that response, whether for good or for bad.

In either case, it will be important for me to listen and not say I told you so. Or make snap judgments. That would be unkind and not worthy of a serious writer intent on publication.