I’m 63 years old. Earnest Hemingway committed suicide when he was 62. Dostoyevsky was 60 when he died, shortly after he wrote “The Brothers Karamazov”. F. Scott Fitzgerald died of alcoholism when he was in his 40’s. Truman Capote died of complications from alcoholism. I’m not saying I am anywhere near as good as these writers, but their lives were not that much better than mine. They died miserable deaths. I hope that when I die I am at peace.
6 Likes
I hope so too.
Have you written about your experiences with sz?
1 Like
I’ve touched on it. I’ve really done more writing on people who need help and don’t get it. In my last story I wrote about a guy who was dumped on skid row after being in the mental hospital.
1 Like
That sounds interesting. I’ve wanted to write, but I just can’t do it with where my head is at, at the moment. Do you write short stories or novels?
1 Like
Mostly short stories. I’ve made attempts at writing a novel, but I don’t have enough attention span to carry it through. Maybe I can stop my thoughts from racing long enough to write a novel. I hope so.
2 Likes
That’s really impressive. Do you have any published?
1 Like
I have published two crime novels a long time ago, the first was quite good, it won an award and a grant, good reviews too. The second was very bad, a lot of really bad reviews too. Besides that three collections of poetry at small, avantgarde publishers.
Since then i have tried to write a novel, but failed. At the moment i have a unpublished crime novel, but haven’t got the guts so send it to a publisher because i fear it will be rejected and i don’t know if it’s any good.
Its hard having an MI and still maintaining the ability to write a novel. Keep on writing @crimby , you never know if you suddenly hit the nail on the head.
5 Likes
I have a few publications in library anthologies, but I don’t have any publications in what people would call prestigious journals. The competition to get into one of them is really intense. I recall reading that the “Atlantic Monthly” gets 10,000 submissions for every submission it publishes in their magazine. They did say that 90% of these submissions are totally amateur, but that still leaves a thousand competent submissions that a writer has to beat out to get into the “Antlantic Monthly”. There are a lot of magazines with less prestige that publish quality fiction, but the competition to get into them is really fierce too. You might make a little money if you win a competition in one of those magazines, but most of the pay for regular submissions is poor. You have to put in a LOT of work to get even token pay for a general submissions story. But there are a lot of good writers who pursue those kinds of publications in spite of the low pay. A lot of very good stories are out there competing for publication. The kind of writing that makes a lot of money is written for popular tastes and not literary quality. There are some excellent writers out there who have made lots of money from what they have published, but if you look at their numbers compared to the number of competent, good stories seeking publication the odds are very small that you will make much money writing. A lot of aspiring writers support themselves teaching writing in the universities. They don’t make a lot of money, but they can support themselves like that.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.