Ever Get Depressed....

MMWyrm · Feb 18, 2008

.... that you will probably not have enough years left in your life to write all the novels you want to write?

I was thinking earlier today that, at 1.5 years per novel (my current rate), I'll only have time to write about 29 novels before I go senile.

Depressing.

Qui · Feb 18, 2008

Do you have a family history of senility at a certain age? My grandmother is eighty-four, and still mentally, physically, and emotionally fit. If she wanted, she could write a novel.

Then again, my brother died at thirty, so maybe you should write more than you worry.

Sean D. Schaffer · Feb 18, 2008

I get depressed, yes. But not for the same exact reason. I worry I'll never get published because I've been too lazy to take the submissions process seriously for any amount of time. That and I get depressed when I get rejections, thinking my work is no good.

So my depression is caused by my own laziness, and my own thin skin. The only thing I can do about that is stop worrying about what others think, and get off my duff so I can start submitting.

--Sean

Garpy · Feb 18, 2008

wow...29 books is enough, isn't it?

I'm on 1 book a year, and I'm hoping to be able to retire on my millions before I hit fifty.

*sigh*....I wish.

Cassiopeia · Feb 19, 2008

I don't think that allowing myself the luxury of such a self defeating inner dialog would be conducive to getting much accomplished. So no. I don't.

bluntforcetrauma · Feb 19, 2008

When I took the average age of my parents' lives, I have 23 years left (barring accidents, tornadoes, diseases, my wife becoming a serial killer). It seems only yesterday when I was a little boy playing shoot 'em up. Yep the sword's hanging over my head every minute.

seun · Feb 19, 2008

Never thought about that and it doesn't bother me now to think about it. I'm in the 'depressed because of never getting published' camp.

Zoombie · Feb 19, 2008

I try to not get depressed, it gets in the way of me being happy.

MMWyrm · Feb 19, 2008

Wow. You guys are really serious.

Now I'm even more depressed... you know, even though its not productive.

Nateskate · Feb 19, 2008

MMWyrm said:
.... that you will probably not have enough years left in your life to write all the novels you want to write?

I was thinking earlier today that, at 1.5 years per novel (my current rate), I'll only have time to write about 29 novels before I go senile.

Depressing.

Show off- You have that many years left!

Nakhlasmoke · Feb 19, 2008

Uh...write faster?

Seriously though, it's not the numbers that depress me, it's the thought that I'll never be quite good enough to write the books that are in my head.

Oh, and rejection after rejection depresses me too.

Saundra Julian · Feb 19, 2008

Depression sucks and steals your happy moments on earth.

C.bronco · Feb 19, 2008

MMWyrm said:
.... that you will probably not have enough years left in your life to write all the novels you want to write?

I was thinking earlier today that, at 1.5 years per novel (my current rate), I'll only have time to write about 29 novels before I go senile.

Depressing.

Write shorter books and type faster!

I am being facetious.

ishtar'sgate · Feb 19, 2008

MMWyrm said:
.... that you will probably not have enough years left in your life to write all the novels you want to write?

I was thinking earlier today that, at 1.5 years per novel (my current rate), I'll only have time to write about 29 novels before I go senile.

Depressing.

Being as I only think a couple of novels ahead of what I'm writing, that isn't a concern at all. Plenty of writers produce work well into their 80's and beyond so, no, I don't worry about it. Plus family genetics is on my side. My grandmother lived to 104 without getting senile and my mom is getting up there and sharp as a tack. I've got lots of years left in me.

Linnea

IceCreamEmpress · Feb 19, 2008

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

Of course, Keats wasn't wrong--he died when he was 26.

orion_mk3 · Feb 19, 2008

I'd say that unless you have a family history of senility, there's no need to worry. Or, rather, that worrying takes up valuable writing time

After all, my grandmother took up novel writing when she was 87 years old, and has just finished her third at age 90!

Phaeal · Feb 19, 2008

I have three different fantasy/SF milieus in which I can envision writing three plus novels, and then there are the stand-alone novels. However, I'm not depressed thinking about them all -- I'm cheered up. It would be much worse to have ideas for only one or two novels!

Charlie Horse · Feb 19, 2008

Senility never held me back from anything, especially writing. In fact, I'd like to say I didn't start writing until I went senile. I'd like to say that, if only I could remember...

What were we talking about again?

Cassiopeia · Feb 19, 2008

The problem with this line of thinking is that it's self propagating defeatism. I refuse to allow myself to gather a conclusion based on my fears. Am I a good enough writer? Sure you bet I am for some agent/publisher.

But I'll never find out if I stop writing and never finish my book.

So get busy. Get your butt in the chair put on some music and write your bleeding story already.

Red-Green · Feb 19, 2008

Not everybody can be Anthony Trollope. Forty-seven books by the time he died, many of them written while he was employed full-time as a postal inspector. 47 books in 68 years. He was 60 when he wrote The Way We Live Now, and I bet he died with a few ideas in his head. You can't be worrying that you won't finish all your novels before you die...that way lies madness.

scribbler1382 · Feb 19, 2008

Hey, Arthur C. Clarke is 90 and still going. He wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey when he was 58.

But I know what you mean. My big "death" worry usually comes when I'm nearing completion of a project. I'm always sure I'll die before I finish. If you can't tell, it hasn't happened yet.

Kerr · Feb 19, 2008

Well, I like to imagine one great book, take Gone With The Wind, for example, nine years in the making, published in 1936, won the Pulitzer, was made into a movie, and continues to captivate the world. That would be so enough....

JoNightshade · Feb 19, 2008

I'm more afraid of running out of ideas than time.

Cassiopeia · Feb 19, 2008

Kerr said:
Well, I like to imagine one great book, take Gone With The Wind, for example, nine years in the making, published in 1936, won the Pulitzer, was made into a movie, and continues to captivate the world. That would be so enough....

Oh I am so with you on that one. If I can write one thing that changes the lives of others or perhaps gives a new perspective on something then I will die a happy woman.

Oh you know, my kids say I've done that for them. I guess I'm good then. It's all bonus from here.

Scribhneoir · Feb 19, 2008

I figure whatever is left at the end of this life, I'll write in the next one.

I've got my share of things to be depressed by (a shaky job situation and four co-workers laid off yesterday, for instance), but writing isn't one of them. Writing is really the only thing in my life that is completely under my own control. That's a powerful feeling during those low moments.

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