Why Write?
Raven West
♦ February 10, 2013
♦ Leave a comment
I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember and since the BIG 6-0 is less than a year away, I can’t remember what I ate for lunch let alone when I started putting my thoughts on paper and releasing them on an unsuspecting and, judging by the Amazon rankings, uncaring world.
While I can’t remember exactly when I began writing, I can certainly recall when I stopped. Just as many of you can recall where you were when a major catastrophic event occurred; President Kennedy’s Assassination in Dallas, the space shuttle Challenger exploding on take-off, the twin towers collapsing on 9/11, I can recall the exact moment when my Muse packed her bags and took off for points unknown.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010.
The dawn of the iPad, the birth of electronic publishing (Ebooks), and the beginning of the end to what I had, up until that date, considered to be a unique and special career. I was a writer. I was a published author. My books were stocked on shelves in bookstores from New York to California. I was invited to speak at writer’s conferences. Fans lined up with copies of my book at signing and book fairs. I was special. I was good. People read what I wrote and agreed. Being a writer was something to be proud. Most important, people would pay me to read what I wrote. Life was good.
Until Wednesday, January 27, 2010. Ebooks changed everything.
Now, anyone with a computer and a little knowledge can be a “published” author. You don’t even need money, not one dime. That joy I once experienced when my book appeared on Amazon is now shared by millions who never took even one writing class.
When everyone can be a “published” author, EVERYONE and I do mean EVERYONE will be. With the invention of the Ebook and all the Ebook readers, being a “published” author is the easiest goal in the world. It’s certainly easier than exercising to lose 20 pounds. You don’t even have to get off your chair to succeed!
With thousands of bloggers and millions of tweeters who are being followed by still more millions, going viral on YouTube, getting “liked” by friends they will never see much less want to hang out with, my Muse simply had enough.
“What is the point?”, she asked, just before slamming the door. “You spend so much time agonizing over that one perfect sentence and here’s some jerk who coughs up a bunch of common a four-letter words and hits the best seller list. You just don’t get it. I’m outta here.”
And, she’s right. I don’t get it. I don’t get the popularity, or the rationality of zombies or the romantic appeal of blood sucking vampires. (Apparently they don’t need a good blood flow to get an erection. They take some kind of erectile vampire juice. If that’s true, I’d like to find some for my husband. Viagra is so expensive!) If this is what the reading public wants, why waste my time?
And yet.
I have to admit even writing this for the blog-hop has stirred up a bit of excitement I thought long dead. (Viagra or vampire love juice notwithstanding!) And I do enjoy a good hop. Maybe, just maybe, it will be enough to jump-start my writing once again.
Or at the very least, entice my Muse to return!
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Author Raven West 
Why Write?
Raven West ♦ February 10, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment
I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember and since the BIG 6-0 is less than a year away, I can’t remember what I ate for lunch let alone when I started putting my thoughts on paper and releasing them on an unsuspecting and, judging by the Amazon rankings, uncaring world.
While I can’t remember exactly when I began writing, I can certainly recall when I stopped. Just as many of you can recall where you were when a major catastrophic event occurred; President Kennedy’s Assassination in Dallas, the space shuttle Challenger exploding on take-off, the twin towers collapsing on 9/11, I can recall the exact moment when my Muse packed her bags and took off for points unknown.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010.
The dawn of the iPad, the birth of electronic publishing (Ebooks), and the beginning of the end to what I had, up until that date, considered to be a unique and special career. I was a writer. I was a published author. My books were stocked on shelves in bookstores from New York to California. I was invited to speak at writer’s conferences. Fans lined up with copies of my book at signing and book fairs. I was special. I was good. People read what I wrote and agreed. Being a writer was something to be proud. Most important, people would pay me to read what I wrote. Life was good.
Until Wednesday, January 27, 2010. Ebooks changed everything.
Now, anyone with a computer and a little knowledge can be a “published” author. You don’t even need money, not one dime. That joy I once experienced when my book appeared on Amazon is now shared by millions who never took even one writing class.
When everyone can be a “published” author, EVERYONE and I do mean EVERYONE will be. With the invention of the Ebook and all the Ebook readers, being a “published” author is the easiest goal in the world. It’s certainly easier than exercising to lose 20 pounds. You don’t even have to get off your chair to succeed!
With thousands of bloggers and millions of tweeters who are being followed by still more millions, going viral on YouTube, getting “liked” by friends they will never see much less want to hang out with, my Muse simply had enough.
“What is the point?”, she asked, just before slamming the door. “You spend so much time agonizing over that one perfect sentence and here’s some jerk who coughs up a bunch of common a four-letter words and hits the best seller list. You just don’t get it. I’m outta here.”
And, she’s right. I don’t get it. I don’t get the popularity, or the rationality of zombies or the romantic appeal of blood sucking vampires. (Apparently they don’t need a good blood flow to get an erection. They take some kind of erectile vampire juice. If that’s true, I’d like to find some for my husband. Viagra is so expensive!) If this is what the reading public wants, why waste my time?
And yet.
I have to admit even writing this for the blog-hop has stirred up a bit of excitement I thought long dead. (Viagra or vampire love juice notwithstanding!) And I do enjoy a good hop. Maybe, just maybe, it will be enough to jump-start my writing once again.
Or at the very least, entice my Muse to return!
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