C is for Career (and more)

On this third day of the A to Z Challenge, I'm thinking C is for Career. Do you have a career? A career is a thing of the past for me. As for a writing career, it never really got off the ground. I've had more nonfiction success but my passion isn't nonfiction. Really, I never visualized myself with a writing career.

With fiction, I tend to chase markets. I thought it was fun in my younger days. (Truth be known, I still think it's fun.) But, unless on assignment, I've always started projects that I didn't finish, or completed but never revised. I always took rejection too seriously, and moved around so much because of hubby's work that any writing routine was a challenge.

Anyway, at best, I'm probably a mediocre writer. My sentences don't sing--not even to me. Not like Elizabeth Berg's or Nora's.

There was a time (in my younger days) I was driven. Not so much anymore. A successful writer has to put writing first. I can't do that. And won't. There are people, places and things that come first in my life.

Maybe I'm just Confused. Another C-word. I look at what's happening in publishing and sometimes, it just doesn't seem worth the effort. I read blogs that state the market is saturated with self-published authors creating ebooks, and that no one is making any money. I read another blog that says why get an agent, they have no role in our writing lives/careers anymore. Another blog will say publishers are cheating us out of our rights, tying up ebooks forever and a day.

Yeah, I'm confused. Didn't this used to be fun? Okay, yeah, sometimes it still is.

But, I wonder what I'd do if I was a writer just starting out, and didn't know what I know from years and years of studying, writing, taking classes and reading the trade mags? What would my career path be? Would I take the indie route and hope some witty tweet, blog post, interview would snag attention, make me a best seller? Would I pursue an agent while publishing short ebooks and stories, and hope one helped the other? Many writers suggest we do that--both.

A friend told me years ago that she didn't love writing enough to write for the fun of it. I didn't understand what she meant (and remember feeling sad for her) but I think I understand now.

Creating a Career in writing is a real Challenge. Everything has Changed.

I don't like change, even though change often brings better/more opportunities.

I like assignments. I like for someone to tell me what to do so I can just do it. Not have to think or plan. Just produce. Maybe that's why I've always chased the markets. 

Do you have a career plan? Share it with me ... better yet, create one for me.


I am blogging my way through the alphabet with others who are doing the same. 
Please support the bloggers of the #AtoZchallenge by visiting, sharing or commenting.  It's fun!

Wise Words from Elizabeth Berg

I've been searching for Escaping into the Open (the art of writing true) by Elizabeth Berg and finally found it this week. The book interweaves Elizabeth Berg's story of her own writing journey and offers encouraging advice on how to create stories that spring from deep within the heart.

It's wonderful! Let me give you a passage that really speaks to me:

The real problem with talking too much about what you're doing is that you set yourself up for judgment. And if someone sneers at your idea, however subtly they do it, it can cripple you And they don't even have to sneer--someone simply asking too many questions, pushing you too hard to say what something is before you know what it is, can freeze you up.

Amen and Amen!

Of course, many of you out there won't be able to identify with this at all. You can spill your entire story to any stranger on the street before you've written one word and still sit down and write a good novel. I can't. I feel my way along--page by page and chapter by chapter--and I'm never quite sure if I'm on the right path. So you can see that brainstorming with writer friends just doesn't work for me. I've always been somewhat of a loner in my writing. I've been in a million critique groups--compatible with maybe one-third of them.

Believe me, I'd love to have rhino skin. I'd love to be able to take it on the chin when someone sneers in my direction. I'd love to be able to brainstorm and let my stories spew and not be intimidated or shut down when someone with a stronger POV than mine says, "that won't work because of this, this and this and you need to change that to this and this to that and totally remove the ..."

Berg does believe in critique groups, and so do I, but I also agree with Berg when she says:

Just take care in choosing those whom you ask to look at it; and then be careful of what you do with their advice.

I'd really like to learn how to brainstorm with others. I believe if I could master this my stories would be less problematic. I know writers who take off on week long retreats and all they do is toss ideas around, work out their plots, help each other grow them into complete stories. Color me green with envy. Do you think this is something that can be learned? Reckon I could train myself to be that open and trusting?

Do you brainstorm with friends? How often? How many friends? What's your brainstorming procedure? How well does it work for you?