Finding Passion

Sandy said:

After being so disappointed with CLA, I doubt I will persue it any further.

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Don't let this detour be the only reason.

CLA is nothing. Literally. Consider the time your manuscript spent with them exactly as you would time the same manuscript might have spent in your desk drawer.

If it was a good manuscript before, it's still a good manuscript. If it wasn't, it still isn't.


Only you can tell where your true passion lies. I can't help you with that.

Sandy said:

Here's the question I have for you,...How do you find your passion?

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For me, writing isn't about passion. It's a compulsion. I think if you wait for your "Muse" to strike or your "passion" to kick in, you'll be disappointed.

Don't worry about CLA (Children's Literary Agency). They're nothing. Less than a blip in your writing life. In the last year, I've had two major rejections of my novel. I had tremendous hopes for these submissions, which were to a major science fiction publisher who asked to see it. After each rejection, I was in near despair and thought about quitting. After about a week, though, I couldn't stand it and began to write again -- every day. Like I said, a compulsion.

This may sound brutal, but if you can give up after CLA, then maybe you're not meant to be a writer. There's nothing wrong with that. Most people aren't writers. But if you need passion to write, you'll never finish anything.

Do this, go to the Writing Novels forum and look for Learning to Write with Uncle Jim. It's a loooong thread but well worth it. There's also a "highlights" thread available.

One of the things that Jim talks about is BIC time. BIC stands for Butt In Chair. The idea is that you determine to spend a certain time amount of time every day writing. It doesn't matter if you don't have anything worthwhile to write, write anyway. Start with 1 hour. Every day. No excuses. Passion or no passion.

Commit to doing this for 1 year. After that time, if you can quit, then maybe you should.

Passion

I enjoy the process of writing. If I didn't, I wouldn't be a writer. But many very good, and very well-known, writers claim not to enjoy the process of writing at all. I'm not sure what this means, except that I don't think passion for writing is necessarily a must have.

But, for me, life is about doing things I take great pleasure in. Since I've never been independently wealthy, it helps greatly if I can also get paid for the things I enjoy doing. Writing is something I enjoy doing, and soemthing I get paid to do, so it fills the bill. But I, too, have a great many interests. It's just that most of them do not pay.

This does not stop me from pursuing other interests. I do this and that and the other constantly. Other interests may not pay, but they are fun, and they help with the writing.

The thing is, you can pick one main interest that will occupy most of your time, and still pursue other interests on the side.

Sounds like you have "restless soul" syndrome, and I'm not sure there is a cure, except to keep looking for something you truly love doing. Sometimes a thing you love doing just comes along, and sometimes you just have to decide you're going to do something, be something, even if it doesn't fill every nook and cranny of your soul.

I think the fact that you're even posting here means there's some passion hidden somewhere. Revisit that story. Or start a new one, and ask yourself, "What if?" and let your imagination run wild. That passion might possibly come forward.

Sandy,

I like you have had a problem with CLA, but after being here with this group of great people I put it out of my head and continued on.
My story was a mixture of my love of wolves and watching children smile. I started it for myself because I had a story in my head that would not leave. So one day I sat down and tried to empty the old brain, but the more that left the more that came in to takes its place. I showed it to my daughter and she showed it to her friends they all loved it and wanted more. So quess what happened I sat down and wrote some more.
I always loved to write but not on a professional level because my fear would kick in, the fear that i was the only one who would like it, but I was wrong.
So Sandy please do not stop do it for your little one if nothing else. Writing is my quite place.