Reviving the Burnt-Out Author
What to do with yourself after all the joy seems to have left writing itself. Because of bad advice swallowed readily, but its promised results never arrived...
Excerpt from my latest book - now in beta-release (see below…)
You may have run across many writers who seem to be shells of their former selves.
Burnt-out and seemingly hollow. All because they swallowed the crazy continual advice from the Amazon algorithm-hackers.
That advice was to write and publish massive works every month, year after year. And with little reward, this just left them slogging away at yet another job. Just Over Broke.
Until at last it seemed that their muses quit talking to them. For the muses were also slaves to the system.
Muses like pretty things, they like their books being born to popular reception, to acclaim, to lots of new homes where they are appreciated for the story-craft they bring.
A dark, unpretty scene for those authors. Writing had been the light in their life. But now, it was fraught with worry, tension, angst. And yes, they could write – but it would never be the same.
Well, they could tough it out – but...
And that last unfinished sentence says that we don't want to go there again. It's a horror story where all the main characters (along with the rest of the town) died – on or off page.
Yes, I've been there, done that. I spent over three years writing and publishing fiction every week with few results. And less payments.
It wasn't like the pulp fiction days, where you submitted hand-typed copies to editors who either pink-slipped it or published it in their monthly magazine. And a check came back instead of pink-slips, if you got good at it. Otherwise, along with the published successes we can still read today, many other published authors slunk off to oblivion. They found other supports, other jobs to fill their time.
I was fortunate in that I have this quiet farm to work on while I wasn't writing. And my fiction work was supported by my non-fiction sales. Like they had for years. I have a few books that are perennial-sellers and these have more than covered my bills.
A little left-over nest egg (from frugal savings) let me invest in some trailer frames and build a tiny home. Meanwhile, I found a gorgeous gal and got married, to start living in that home. Right here on the farm. I'd slowed and quit writing fiction by then. I was writing, but much shorter short-form posts, reformatting my earlier blog posts.
Yet – the writing bug still haunted me. Because I was hard-wired that way. Plus, I had all these fiction and non-fiction books that I'd rushed to publish. So I could revive them and give them better marketing – maybe. If only I could get some steam in the old boiler.
What you see here in your hands is a book I didn't have to create. But my old curiosity came back to me. Like the old days.
But this time, it was different. The old phrase came back: “Once burnt, twice shy.” Or Twain's story about the long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
So I took my time. And questioned everything about my old practices, as well as the research data I was uncovering.
That seemed to be the ticket – answering the question, “How to I create a perennial-selling book from the get-go?”
The answer came back: “Take care with every little bit.” That meant – work for quality, not speed.
This research helped with my healing. Because I had to trundle back through all the material I had laying around, including other's old books and courses I'd amassed on my hard drives. My regular-selling books also helped. While my income still wasn't what I wanted, it continued to come in every month. So between that and the farm, I wasn't going to starve anytime soon.
Now I could relax and find my old bliss once more – that fuel that gave me the high-octane rush in my “old days” of publishing a couple short stories every week.
Looking back now, I see that I pretty much followed and tested all the Get Rich Quick advice I'd discovered about algorithm-cracking on Amazon. And even took the time to follow the content marketing guru's into yet another dark hole of social media marketing.
It took this book project in front of me – wanting to see if I'd missed any thing, and what I'd left unexamined – to both take a lay of the land, and work out how to quit the “big money” rat race. To get back to that bliss where I could take my time to craft sentences word by word.
Haunting me was that certainty that I could simply churn out fiction again – but what was the point?
This book is the point.
A livable income also implies a life worth living. So this process has also led me to review my life and what could be improved in it.
I think that's the process anyone who has gone this route still has. You've had some success with your writing. And writing itself was a source of joy – however that story was received. You have some income somehow. Enough to keep living for the immediate future.
Next is getting back to having fun. Which means writing.
So it's time to take stock, to get back to the things that won. Listing out the workable approaches, and getting these back in – while throwing out the unworkable things.
It also means walks in nature and learning to deliberately observe life around you again. And taking a less-hurried walk through Wal-Mart, noting the faces and shapes of people pushing their carts through long aisles – while wondering what their own life stories might be.
The key lesson showed up one day: all the talent you've ever had is still there. The only missing part is that spark you had to go and write down the story you saw etched in those faces. You have to open your ears to your muses again, to get their attention, to apologize for all that went before.
Get a fresh start.
For me, I've found a stack of printed books from past-masters of teaching writers how to really write – and make a decent living at it. Of course, this is all old-school. The days before Internet. Of typing carbon-copies to save back when you sent the original off to an editor with a self-stamped reply envelope included.
The point of that study is to tear down and rebuild my own writer engine and transmission. Get it all running again. But this time, we're restoring a classic. And taking it out to infrequent car shows. Win some awards, maybe. But mostly just enjoy the process – and maybe talk to some other classics fans meanwhile.
Right now, I know there is an approach no one teaches any more. That approach trained writers in its day to write perennial-selling books like clockwork – but not having to over-wind the alarm in some rush to get things out faster.
So what's next?
Any author who's been around has a back-list. I certainly do. We've discovered Kickstarter, where fans can get collected bundles of ebooks as well as collectible print versions – and pay you for the experience of being part of your community.
Here's where a reclusive author like me can get over my old, crusty, curmudgeon self and learn to enjoy marketing and entrepreneurship as creative outlets in and of themselves.
There's the bookend-realization. Regular success means writers learn marketing, and marketers learn writing. Both are simple in their basics, but take an earnest craft-building discipline to master.
And meanwhile, we learn to drop-kick the money-chasing offers into next week – in favor of the quiet building of regular-selling books that just keep on keeping on.
Within this above (and the above-mentioned new book) are tips to follow for any burnt-out writers reading this. You have my best wishes in rebuilding your life the way you want it.
Because that's the reason you still have for being here. Living life your way. And meanwhile telling the world about your journey.
Currently still in beta-release until I get the backmatter, blurb, final cover, etc. figured out…