Yes, the Road is Long, Hard, and Full of Twists and Turns

Listening to: Florence + the Machine - Ceremonials

Mood: Pensive

“That genre is a hard sale right now.”

I’m fairly certain most writers have heard this at least once about the genre(s) they write in. I’ve been told for years urban fantasy is a tough sale. I’ve been told sci-fi is really hard to break into, and horror even harder. Honestly though, many agents and editors I know or follow on Twitter say that everything is a hard sale right now. Everything. So I keep writing what I love because I want to and because I know that someday I’ll land my dream agent and get published. Sometimes it’s hard it to keep going when we hear this frequently or get piles of rejections. I suffer from this every once in awhile. And just because I know it, and tell myself to keep pressing on, and tell everyone else I know that I'm going to keep trying, it doesn’t mean I don’t suffer from bouts of “What the hell am I doing?”, or “Am I insane for following this dream?”, “Maybe I’m not good enough.” , or worst of all “Is it just me?”

The fabulous Dahlia Adler wrote a post last week about many of the things I’ve been feeling recently, and she summed it up better than I possibly could have. http://dailydahlia.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/its-not-just-you/

Go read it, even if you’re not a writer, because we’ve all felt this way at some point in our lives (or often). And if you’re not a writer, maybe it’ll just help explain why your writer friend/significant other/spouse is a little crazy or down sometimes.

Her post helped me get through the funk I was drowning in last week, and I’m immensely grateful for it.