The Fiction Drug
By Jacob Malewitz
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Short Stories or novel for Alpine 9? Where do you walk in the city?
marketing angles, new writer ideas, idea of society, what is business 101
Have trouble escaping the chair and going for a walk? Have your eyesight, back, and fingers caused you pain as of late? Do you loathe wasting time on things when you could be sitting in your chair working?
You might be addicted to fiction, and must be a writer. Hopefully you are not addicted to video games, which have similar side effects but less just rewards. There is no cure for the fiction drug. There are no Fiction Anonymous meetings. Don’t worry, soon you will be sick of it all and quit. Or will you?
One might not make judgments, as Julia Cameron put it in The Artist’s Way, “accumulate pages, not judgments.” The fiction drug might play with one’s fears of failure. Should a writer quit his or her job? How many hours a day will one spend slaving over a manuscript? This condition can develop, even though one has never been published yet!
Everyone was an unknown at one point, and being an unknown and desiring not to be has driven many a writer to continue writing. The fiction drug is no substitute for good marketing, but the heavier the addiction, the greater the chance of getting the desired attention.
The more a writer finds out about a story, the more the process will bring rewards and the harder it is not to push on. Writing begets writing. Ideas beget ideas. The fiction drug is further down the path: first the idea, then the writing, then the drug.
It doesn’t matter what a writer’s chosen poison is, short fiction or the novel, flash fiction or novella … it’s all a drug, an incurable disease that can’t be fought. Nor should it …
When a writer quits, the fiction will sit in the writer’s body like a cancer till the end of his/her days. It will pop out in those moments of humanity, when something looks like it might read well on the page. It could be an argument between two lovers … the way a bird smacked into a invisible window somewhat oddly … the way one man earned money selling drugs … how one coworker thought she was better than you. It can be anything. It forces you to the page, it forces you to write it down, wondering why you did it in the first place. These small beginnings are each small scenes upon which you will be tapping into—for creative purposes—much of your life.
Living life as a writer is about experiences. When you start to think, “This could be a story,” after seeing a news article or listening to someone’s story, the plot will thicken with fiction ideas. You may want more, and knowing of fiction leads you right down that path. Fiction will never let go, can never be forgotten. The only way to satisfy it is with accumulating more pages.
If a writer feels a hole in their soul after finishing a big project, then they are suffering the dreaded effects of withdrawal from a story. That same feeling of a beginning, holding onto that one idea that just might break a story open, might never be the same. The withdrawal changes as the writer changes.
If one practices the drug, writing for hours every day, the quality of the fiction spurting out will get better. Hemingway wrote 500 words a day, and he was as addicted as any other writer.
In the end, the pursuit of the great fiction cannot be summed up in words, but in writing and enthusiasm for the writer. Such is the fiction drug.
-------------------
Age of Empires Gamer, Short Story Writer, Winning new markets for short story writers, writing in the journalism field
By Jacob Malewitz
Wordpress Buy 1
Short Stories or novel for Alpine 9? Where do you walk in the city?
marketing angles, new writer ideas, idea of society, what is business 101
Have trouble escaping the chair and going for a walk? Have your eyesight, back, and fingers caused you pain as of late? Do you loathe wasting time on things when you could be sitting in your chair working?
You might be addicted to fiction, and must be a writer. Hopefully you are not addicted to video games, which have similar side effects but less just rewards. There is no cure for the fiction drug. There are no Fiction Anonymous meetings. Don’t worry, soon you will be sick of it all and quit. Or will you?
One might not make judgments, as Julia Cameron put it in The Artist’s Way, “accumulate pages, not judgments.” The fiction drug might play with one’s fears of failure. Should a writer quit his or her job? How many hours a day will one spend slaving over a manuscript? This condition can develop, even though one has never been published yet!
Everyone was an unknown at one point, and being an unknown and desiring not to be has driven many a writer to continue writing. The fiction drug is no substitute for good marketing, but the heavier the addiction, the greater the chance of getting the desired attention.
The more a writer finds out about a story, the more the process will bring rewards and the harder it is not to push on. Writing begets writing. Ideas beget ideas. The fiction drug is further down the path: first the idea, then the writing, then the drug.
It doesn’t matter what a writer’s chosen poison is, short fiction or the novel, flash fiction or novella … it’s all a drug, an incurable disease that can’t be fought. Nor should it …
When a writer quits, the fiction will sit in the writer’s body like a cancer till the end of his/her days. It will pop out in those moments of humanity, when something looks like it might read well on the page. It could be an argument between two lovers … the way a bird smacked into a invisible window somewhat oddly … the way one man earned money selling drugs … how one coworker thought she was better than you. It can be anything. It forces you to the page, it forces you to write it down, wondering why you did it in the first place. These small beginnings are each small scenes upon which you will be tapping into—for creative purposes—much of your life.
Living life as a writer is about experiences. When you start to think, “This could be a story,” after seeing a news article or listening to someone’s story, the plot will thicken with fiction ideas. You may want more, and knowing of fiction leads you right down that path. Fiction will never let go, can never be forgotten. The only way to satisfy it is with accumulating more pages.
If a writer feels a hole in their soul after finishing a big project, then they are suffering the dreaded effects of withdrawal from a story. That same feeling of a beginning, holding onto that one idea that just might break a story open, might never be the same. The withdrawal changes as the writer changes.
If one practices the drug, writing for hours every day, the quality of the fiction spurting out will get better. Hemingway wrote 500 words a day, and he was as addicted as any other writer.
In the end, the pursuit of the great fiction cannot be summed up in words, but in writing and enthusiasm for the writer. Such is the fiction drug.
-------------------
Age of Empires Gamer, Short Story Writer, Winning new markets for short story writers, writing in the journalism field
