Writing Fatigue and Burnout

The first is 100% me. I just commented on a writing discord I belong to that I'm beginning to feel like I won't be able to write until I'm an empty nester. Between work, household obligations, helping kids with homework or just spending time with them, spending quality time with wife, nearly every day I don't have anything left. And, by the time that's all done, it's like 11pm. I have to get up for work at 6:45am. Someone is always asking for attention.

And then, once you do write things, then you submit. And that takes time. Especially, when so many publications have nitpicking rules about formatting. Even ones that just say use Shunn may also ask you to take off your name, have a separate title page with specific info, add a bio on the last page, etc. And you have to manage, submittable, moksha, emails, website forms. Finally, you must track them all somehow excel, submission grinder. And I didn't even mention finding where to submit to in the first place and determine if it's a good fit, the right length, and if the market is open.

Some people will smugly say if you want to write then you'll find time. I don't think that's fair at all. It's not reasonable to imply that someone must have to sacrifice their livelihood, friends, family, health etc. That shouldn't be a way to gatekeep.

Literally, time is the only thing in my way. I'm not bothered by rejections. I don't have writer's block. I don't even think it's a real thing to be honest. I have tons of ideas, more ideas they I can write down. But it's just being able to sit down and compose everything together that's the struggle. Even if I wasn't exhausted at 11pm, I can't afford to stay up late every night and then have my day job performance suffer. I have a family to support.

I currently have this quarter's story outlined in my head with a little written down. It'll probably be around 5k. I've got something else to write and submit by the end of the month that will be 1500. I have no idea how I'll get those done at a good quality. I've got a few other ideas as well. And then there's my novel which has been stagnating at around 15k. I have a ton plotted out and many seeds of sections written, but I can never actually get to it.

Haha, thanks for allowing us space to vent.

Posted by: @time

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This will be the first quarter I haven't entered for years. From getting HMs with the occasional SHM, my last 2 entries have been RWC's, and like someone said a while back, I can't see which comments apply so they are no help. I'm not just not progressing, I'm going backwards. 

 

I think it was Hugh Howey on his podcast who said something like - people play golf every week whatever their level. I play golf but I usually have an idea what I'm doing wrong, I can watch videos and work on it. I'll never be a scratch player, but I know when I'm playing well. I've birdied every hole at my club. When it comes to writing I don't know what I'm doing badly or well.  The only measure of my writing is the RWC's which I see as poor.

Maybe I'll have a go next quarter. Maybe I've packed in. 

I understand the frustration, especially with creative writing. It's not just a game where when you practice you see tangible results, at least not all the time. It's just different and one market may love something that another market doesn't. WotF has the R(s), HM, SHM, and SF scale of rejections. SF are still rejections, but they let you know you are close. This has been very helpful in keeping me writing. I would have given up a couple years ago, then I received an HM from WotF. 

If you want, PM me and I'll look over one of the RWCs. Maybe something will jump out at me and I can help identify what can be polished. (also send the RWC comment).

Hang in there and keep writing. I'm struggling with being creative for this month's entry too.  

@time the next time Kary @karyenglish does a live slush read, submit 450 words for her to look over and comment on. I've found her comments to be very eye opening. It's usually at FyreCon which should be coming up soon. It's also anonymous so no one knows who submitted. It is online. "The Slush is Alive."

This is a great thread, and I'm glad Rob (DoctorJest) brought up this topic. I experience burnout frequently, and I often step away from writing for brief (or extended) respites to catch my breath and renew my energy. I've written about this extensively in posts on my website, but I have a couple thoughts I want to add for this discussion.

I would venture to guess that many of us writers — certainly not all, but at least a fair representation — are perfectionists. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to putting undue pressure on myself with submission deadlines, word count goals, consistency in my work, routing stories around on submissions, and making sure every tee is dotted and every eye is crossed. Wait. Or something. You know what I mean. We don't need someone standing behind us, lashing our scarred backs with wet noodles, because we do enough of that to ourselves.

We are also kings and queens of expecting way too much of our stories.
"This one's gonna win the contest!"
"Neil Clarke is gonna love this one!"
"Wait til Jody reads this!"
"Tor will give me a million dollar contract for this novel!"

Whoa! Easy! Slow down there, hoss! First, you gotta write the thing. Then you gotta finish it. Then you gotta rewrite it and whip it into the best shape you can, then you gotta submit it. After you submit it, guess what? It's 100% out of your control at that point. It's not your baby. You didn't just send it off to college. It ain't gonna drop by for unexpected visits on the holidays to catch up on old times. You wrote a story. That's it. It's nothing more than that. You gave it to someone else. Now it's their story, and they're allowed to do whatever they want with it.

We want to change the world with our stories, I get it. We want people to read our stories and have their minds blown. We want our stories to win us prizes and make us money and help us quit our day jobs and take us around the world on speaking tours and book tours and WorldCon panels. But they're just stories, three or four or five or six thousand words we strung together on paper and released into the wild like mice we trapped in our pantries. And it's a terribly unfair burden we place on ourselves and our stories, I think, to expect so much from them.

Lastly, it is about Einstein's theory of time-relativity. I cannot tell you how much time and energy I've wasted saying to myself, "Man, if only I had started writing back when I was a toddler." I wasn't born clutching an iPad in my fist (for which my mother is eternally grateful). I haven't been writing stories since the time I could read. I didn't chase an MFA or study fiction writing in college. I was never a journalist. Like many, I came to writing late in life, after I already had a full-time job and a family and a mortgage and was responsible for putting food on the table and medicine in my kids' grimy little mouths. Writing is a priority, yes, but all that other stuff is a HIGHER priority, which is how it should be. Unless of course you're one of those writers who's into angst and depression and alcohol and divorce and enjoys starvation and living in a van down by the river. But I'm one of those weird people who believes that pursuing a creative life — whether that manifests as writing or music or dancing or art in all its many forms — is actually meant to be enjoyed. When all the stress builds to a point where it's not fun anymore, it's 100% healthy to step away and regroup until some semblance of balance is restored. Keep it light. Keep it fun. Keep it happy. Otherwise, what's the point?

Good discussion! Thanks!

Here's an interesting Ted Talk by the author of "Eat, Pray, Love", Elizabeth Gilbert, about the fear of failure after succeeding. It might help put things in perspective. Many creatives suffer from this. Writers, comedians, artists, singers, and so on. I watch it every so often to help me stay on track as to what my ultimate goals are. Because success isn't the end.

Success, failure and the drive to keep creating | Elizabeth Gilbert - YouTube

Posted by: @crlisle

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@time the next time Kary @karyenglish does a live slush read, submit 450 words for her to look over and comment on. I've found her comments to be very eye opening. It's usually at FyreCon which should be coming up soon. It's also anonymous so no one knows who submitted. It is online. "The Slush is Alive."

That's a great idea, thank for sharing.  I love learning new things every day. 

@morgan-broadhead - Well said (typed).

Posted by: @undreamedages

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I don't have writer's block. I don't even think it's a real thing to be honest. I have tons of ideas, more ideas they I can write down.

I can relate to this when it comes to writer's block for new stories, as I've never really been short of ideas per se, and I rarely struggle with starting. But the kind of writer's block I struggle with more often is when I reach a point in a story I'm working on where something needs to happen, especially at a story pivot point, and for all my ideas, none of them is the right one. A new story would be no problem, but that particular story is blocked.

(This is different to the "this story is just bad" thing, where I just throw the whole thing out because I feel like there's no saving it. I keep track of the ideas for those, though, in case they're useful for another story later on.) 

One thing I picked up from an old teach-yourself-writing book, years back, was to just sit back and brainstorm. Write down everything that could happen, no matter how ridiculous or outlandish. Write down five ideas, look at them, and see if any of them feels organic to the story. If they do, great, you can proceed with that, you are unblocked! And if not, just brainstorm and write down another five. The key is, none of them needs to be the right idea, or even a good idea, they just need to be a possibility. Aliens abduct the lead character? Write it down! Horse charges in from a nearby field for no reason? Write it!

It seems like you should just get trash from this exercise, really, but I've found it helps me clear through those blocks surprisingly well. Sometimes the trash ideas spark better ones. Sometimes, one of these random ideas just actually fits, even though you didn't think it would. And usually, what comes out of it is something I'd never considered before at all.

Posted by: @morgan-broadhead

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We don't need someone standing behind us, lashing our scarred backs with wet noodles, because we do enough of that to ourselves.

We are also kings and queens of expecting way too much of our stories.
"This one's gonna win the contest!"
"Neil Clarke is gonna love this one!"
"Wait til Jody reads this!"
"Tor will give me a million dollar contract for this novel!"

Whoa! Easy! Slow down there, hoss! First, you gotta write the thing.

Though I do think this is a double edged sword of self-belief/self-deception. Self-belief can keep us going - writing the Q4 entry for instance having just got a RWC on the Q3 for example. Sending out another query letter after 6 months of 'no's, or even worse, silence.

The self-deception is whats harmful - not that we aren't writing something great, but we forget its not in a vacuum. When, maybe not *everyone*, but literally hundreds of others are *also* writing something great, we forget that fact and only really knowing how we feel about our own piece we set ourselves up for disappointment. And if we are disappointed, we forget that it doesn't mean it was bad. Just that others did really well. 

I may be rambling...lol

I just know that part of me *needs* to believe my stuff is good to continue writing, but if I don't keep in mind a 'no' doesn't mean I was wrong, just that there are other people that can write something better for that market right now, it can be damaging, and that's for me at least the hardest balance to keep

Posted by: @doctorjest

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Posted by: @undreamedages

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I don't have writer's block. I don't even think it's a real thing to be honest. I have tons of ideas, more ideas they I can write down.

 

One thing I picked up from an old teach-yourself-writing book, years back, was to just sit back and brainstorm. Write down everything that could happen, no matter how ridiculous or outlandish.

 

I also think part of it is just the physical act of writing (/typing). Even if I don't write outlandish things, even if I just go with the first wrong thing I thought of, the very act of creating seems to activate the right pathways in my brain and I tend to find a better solution while creating what I know to be the wrong one.