The writing has been very slow-going. I dicked around with a couple short stories for a while, then dropped them. I haven't touched my novel since early May. As for the two writing groups, only one has actually met, but external events have caused me to miss all meetings since the second get-together. I touched base with a guy for the second group and we still have to work out a mutually beneficial schedule.
But the fact is that I haven't sat down and dedicated myself to writing. I'm maintaining my blogs, which are spiking in attention fortunately. The blog in which I complain about traffic has received considerable attention from the local community and is starting to turn up in New York's radar; my regular blog continues to get inexplicable international attention so I've decided to capitalize upon that and expound upon global issues.
I terminated my Open Salon account, due to the high school politics of its citizens. Worthy writers were being passed by while sensationalist, talentless ****s were jockeying for visibility through pressure. I terminated my Twitter account, as I prefer the flexibility of Tumblr. I eliminated a couple other satellite blogs because there wasn't enough kickback in them, my energy was better diverted elsewhere.
I don't even post here much because I'm tired of all the solicitations: "Hi! I don't read any of your stuff, but how would you love to read my latest brilliant work!" No one can be faulted for self-promotion, that's for sure. I just thought this arena would be more of an exchange of ideas, rather than free advertisement and self-aggrandization. Don't ask me where I got that crazy idea, though.
Damn! Dude, this entry sounds like a suicide note. In the risk of sounding cliquish, don't give up the fight. I don't know how long you have been writing/trying to get published, but keep this in mind, this stuff doesn't happen overnight. As far as you haven't been writing, well i just have one thing to say about that, WRITE!
jasonI personally have, quite my job, I now work at a place that 1-forces me to focus on my writing and becoming better at it, because it doesn't pay crap. and 2-I have the time to write on a daily, 8-12 hours. I know that is a bit extreme, and I know that most people will never have that kind of time to devote, but the thing is, I believe in myself,(Dear god I can't believe i actually said that) and I know that I can accomplish my goal.
Here are a few things that I have found that helped me out.
Google or go to the charlie rose show, and click under writers on writing. The in depth interviews of writers such as john grisham, elmore lenord and so on are worth their weight in gold. I watch them at least three times a week, and always come out with something more interesting. one thing that john grisham said in one of those interviews was, "if an aspiring writer does not write at least one page a day, he/she will never get anything done."
The other thing that has helped me, is joining a site called zoetrope. It's free, it's owned and monitored by Francis Coppola and it is monitored by him and his staff. So if they see something that they like, it will get published. The great thing about this is that in order for you to post a story, you have to read and review 4 stories. So you will get some feed back from other writers and reviewers,and let me tell you, it is gold.
Anyway, I hope I didn't rabble on too much, but when I saw that title, I knew I had to say something.
Keep up the fight, Jason
10:43 AM CST