My problems, in brief:
1. I have the worst damn writer’s block and have not written much of anything since April.
2. In February, I signed with an agent after querying for a novel I’d completed, and I’ve been struggling with revisions for months now. I truly have lost interest in the book and finally found the courage to broach that with my agent, knowing that it meant risking my place at the agency. To my amazement, he was supportive and urged me to start a new project, but I don’t even know what that project might be and I’m psyching myself out a bit. Over the past three days, I have used timers to devote six hours to writing, and I still have zero ideas or material. I feel like everything wants to be a short story, not a book. On that note...
3. I want to publish a short story collection! I want to be a short story writer! Even though they’re such hard sells! I just broached this with my agent for a second time, since the first time I brought it up, he steered me towards writing a new novel instead and we didn’t have much of a conversation about the “stories route.” But deep down, I know I'm not a novelist, I just wrote a novel because people told me I could never sell a short story collection as a debut. And I don't like the novel and am now abandoning it, apparently.
4. I have a novella that's about to be serialized in a high tier online journal, and I'm freaking out because I'm like, why didn't I save that for a book? It could close a book. I could have a full collection of short stories right now if the novella was included, but if it's published online, it can't live in a collection. Would it be insane to write to the editor and ask him to give me the story back?! It's supposed to run August 11th. I love that novella and worked for months on it and want to milk the most out of it for my career. I subbed to the journal before I signed with my agent and was feeling a bit hopeless, just wanted a win.
Would love to hear thoughts on these quandaries, I feel like a moron who can't navigate the business side of writing at all. Nor the writing side at present, since I'm not writing, I'm sitting here with my timer ticking freaking out. Just want to get moving with a project, I think it'd put my mind at ease.
1. I have the worst damn writer’s block and have not written much of anything since April.
2. In February, I signed with an agent after querying for a novel I’d completed, and I’ve been struggling with revisions for months now. I truly have lost interest in the book and finally found the courage to broach that with my agent, knowing that it meant risking my place at the agency. To my amazement, he was supportive and urged me to start a new project, but I don’t even know what that project might be and I’m psyching myself out a bit. Over the past three days, I have used timers to devote six hours to writing, and I still have zero ideas or material. I feel like everything wants to be a short story, not a book. On that note...
3. I want to publish a short story collection! I want to be a short story writer! Even though they’re such hard sells! I just broached this with my agent for a second time, since the first time I brought it up, he steered me towards writing a new novel instead and we didn’t have much of a conversation about the “stories route.” But deep down, I know I'm not a novelist, I just wrote a novel because people told me I could never sell a short story collection as a debut. And I don't like the novel and am now abandoning it, apparently.
4. I have a novella that's about to be serialized in a high tier online journal, and I'm freaking out because I'm like, why didn't I save that for a book? It could close a book. I could have a full collection of short stories right now if the novella was included, but if it's published online, it can't live in a collection. Would it be insane to write to the editor and ask him to give me the story back?! It's supposed to run August 11th. I love that novella and worked for months on it and want to milk the most out of it for my career. I subbed to the journal before I signed with my agent and was feeling a bit hopeless, just wanted a win.
Would love to hear thoughts on these quandaries, I feel like a moron who can't navigate the business side of writing at all. Nor the writing side at present, since I'm not writing, I'm sitting here with my timer ticking freaking out. Just want to get moving with a project, I think it'd put my mind at ease.
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