My stories that I am working on is all I have in my life
No family. No friends. No girlfriend. No respectable career to make up for the lack of the other stuff either.
My work doesn't really even pay most of the bills. It isn't going to keep me warm at night. It won't keep me company. Yet I have the compulsion to keep working on my stories.
I think every day about how this one writer was so devoted to his craft to the detriment of everything else, went through three divorces and all his wives left him and how he refused to do interviews for money and ate canned beans and asked his pregnant wife to get a job so he can keep writing and she left him.
Writers, why are we like this?
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It sounds like you have other problems and you're writing as an alternative to facing them.
That's just my first impression from your post though, I don't know you as a person or anything.
I am also a writer and I can't really relate to anything you say in your post. My solitude is voluntary.
The only problems are the one's he already told you in the op. There is no mystery. How does one face that?
>I think every day about how this one writer was so devoted to his craft to the detriment of everything else, went through three divorces and all his wives left him and how he refused to do interviews for money and ate canned beans and asked his pregnant wife to get a job so he can keep writing and she left him.
That's McCarthy, I think?
Yes
do people like these get into some sort of trance? They lose track of time while writing for few hours?
Does writing must be extremely pleasurable and fullfilling for you if you want to be writer?
This. It's part of why I have to hold myself from writing if I don't want to pause my life for a bit. If I start writing, suddenly two weeks pass by and I realize I wasn't taking care of other parts of my life.
As a writer, yes.
Writing is extremely pleasurable in a myriad of ways. Your writings are your own delusion, and you can do whatever you want. As you get better, you find better ways to describe things using sense and experiences. You think of creative premises and prompts and are able to fulfill them.
Every day I just want to write all day. Oftentimes I've despise taking meals, because cooking and eating takes me out of my flow.
It's pretty masturbatory to be honest, but you're really able to express yourself artistically and truely.
Sounds cringe tbh
Who are some great writers that also had/have their shit together and aren't mopey losers like OP?
There aren’t any. People who have their shit together either don’t write because they have nothing to say, or become James Patterson.
>people with actual lives have nothing to say
Cope
come back when you're 18+
holy moron
Anton Chekhov was said to have a very social life, and that he wrote even faster when he had a party at his home. He sounds surprisingly normal for a russian writer
I think one possible reason is that we spent our younger years buried in books when we probably should’ve been going to our professors’ office hours, putting in more time in the office, going to the gym, socializing, dating. I can sympathize with you. Reading and writing is pretty much all I have. It’s taken up most of my time for the last several years, probably to the detriment of my career and overall life.
Let's just hope our literary effort pays off. My writing is my hail mary long shot to a decent life.
I feel you, fren. While my gf is in her way to become a college professor, I'm an esl teacher with a unfinished Philosophy degree. Thats the only hope I have too
Aren’t you worried she’ll leave for a department head or some banker or lawyer or something?
that's why I'm betting on my writing. I still have, like, 4 years for my debut novel to be accepted until she really gets a university job. like houellebeqc said, being a (published) writer is one of the only jobs one can have where you have no money but still you don't look embarrassing to other people.
Mine won’t because I don’t put in that much effort. I’m also in my thirties already. If I was going to be a great novelist, things would’ve gone a little differently by now.
Houellebecq published his first novel with 38 (or 36, he isn't sure when he was born)
Like basically every great novelist, published poems and short fiction in his 20s in small and local publications. He also started a literary review club at university. Not really the same as a 30-something civil servant with no literary credentials whatsoever.
>He also started a literary review club at university
Where did you read about this? Im curious.!
99% of IQfy is hopeless then
Pays off how? I've given up getting published, because nobody reads anymore. I just write to satisfy my own fantasies.
Don't quit
WGMI
>My stories that I am working on is all I have in my life
Then you lack the necessary life experience to be a good writer.
I have pretty extensive life experiences besides having kids.
If you want to be a writer, you might want to learn how to construct a sentence.
yrs
>write
>it's just a bunch of words
>it won't fix your life
>it won't keep you from killing yourself
>none of it actually matters
Writing is a way of expressing oneself; some find it helpful, whilst others do not.
helpful how exactly?
I can't think of a single example where I've written something down, read it afterwards, and it having helped me in any way whatsoever. In fact, I just get upset because now I'm old and going to die, whereas before I was young with a sense of purpose. It all sucks, there's nothing good about this life, pack it up, it's fricking over.
> I can't think of a single example where I've written something down, read it afterwards, and it having helped me
You are amongst those whom do not find writing helpful. You have just proved my point in a way.
Give me one single example as to how writing would help anyone in any way. You're whoring yourself out in letters.
> I write to free myself from the strain of being overly self-contained and needing to express myself.
Anon just provided you with example.
It's fun.
> Writing is a way of expressing oneself; some find it helpful, whilst others do not.
> I can't think of a single example where I've written something down, read it afterwards, and it having helped me
> I write to free myself from the strain of being overly self-contained and needing to express myself.
Case in point.
>>none of it actually matters
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Thank you AssCreed, very cool!
The majority of writers were either wealthy or had a good social circle which supported them. They never experienced hardship like you do, perhaps a few in the last century like Pessoa or Dostoy.
The truth is that no one will ever read your work and even if you get published, your book might be bought by 2000 people of which less than half will finish it from cover to cover. This is based on real data by publishers btw.
Get a degree in library science. There's a shortage of librarians in many places. You will not have an extravagant lifestyle but you will have low-intensity but intellectually stimulating work paired with ample time to think, read, and write. Maybe move to a different place to do this. Hope you can get things together and learn to connect to others, OP.
I dislike work because I see it as below me. I don’t get along with my family. I’ve only had superficial friendships throughout my life. My only love was a woman that cheated on me. I write to free myself from the strain of being overly self-contained and needing to express myself.
If you’re a NEET what do you even write about?
A narcissistic 17th century priest.
Notes from Underground
i write because i have things to say. papers, essays, and so forth. why else?
if you're broke you might as well write a few critical essays. what's the point of demoralizing on the internet? i suspect you're full of bs.
>i write because i have things to say. why else?
Sir, you might be on the wrong board. This isn't IQfy.
>one chance at life
>spend it reading and writing
That's bleak man
I think you should do something rash and a little self-destructive but in the end you learn about yourself and the world and you come away from the experience with a new found appreciation for life and acknowledge all the treasures lying in the ground just waiting to be picked up if you weren't afraid to get your hands a little dirty
It's not that I was sitting at home all my life, its just that everything else means little to me
What the hell were you doing if you have no friends, lover, career or family?
I'm an Excel slave
>What the hell were you doing if you have no friends, lover, career or family?
Behold, a hylic who lives the way he's told.
>What the hell were you doing if you have no friends, lover, career or family?
I come from an abusive household to the point of ending up in foster care, so I no longer talk to anyone except my dad, who I speak to very rarely.
I had partners in the past but none recently, especially after my last partner died years ago. She was the only one I truly loved. Now I just have one night stands once in a while.
I was in the military, then cybersecurity, and now studying to be a personal trainer when I discovered I was diabetic and can't have a sedentary job long term while also sitting a lot for writing. I am trying to return to the military, which I initially joined for my writing but I want to go back for more inspiration and to talk to more people. But writing is the only thing that really matters to me.
That's fricked up. Look into Ray Peat to cure diabetes
I am already low carb and avoid seed oils
Peat is high carb
https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/glucose-sucrose-diabetes.shtml
https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/sugar-issues.shtml
https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/glycemia.shtml
https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/diabetes.shtml
You sound like a petty bourgeoisie who , falsely, believes his way of life is superior to everyone else’s way of life.