I’ve written two plays that have been produced locally (Hampton Roads area of Virginia). They both played to very appreciative audiences, but were savaged by the local newspaper critic. My wife actually took the bad reviews worse than I did, since I knew that the critic was a hopeless jerk who couldn’t identify with happy endings, or the concept of a heterosexual romance.
But I digress...
It was scary putting myself out there on stage, with directors and actors interpreting my words, and audiences deciding whether or not they wanted to allow me to entertain them. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything, though.
I have a novel (spiritual thriller) that I’ve started many times. My wife wants me to finish it, but I keep telling her that when I started it, I was in a different place. Now I’m married and happy, and I don’t really want to go back to where I was when I started it. Maybe someday I can compartmentalize enough to do it... but not yet.
Congrats and kudos!!! Woohoo!!! I long ago decided that if critics raved over something—it sucked. If they didn’t like it, it was probably great. Critics are from a different planet!
With me, it’s not so much finishing a novel as shutting up the voices. It’s the only way they’ll leave me alone!! My husband has learned not to ask me what I’m thinking—he says my brain is a scary place—he’s right!! I can’t think one thought at a time—I have a whole three ring circus with a zoo and an amusement park and who knows what else going on at the same time. The scariest part is that I can keep track of all of it. Drives my hubbie and kids nuts!
It’s not always about getting published—sometimes it’s just “me” time.
I write a local gardening column—I can’t tell you how many people come into the garden center where I work and tell me—I never understood that before—or so, that’s why that happens! The best compliment I’ve ever gotten was from a good customer—he told me, and I’m paraphrasing—I don’t like to read, but your column—it’s fun! I have so much fun writing about gardening stuff and I know so much useless trivia... Everything I read/see/hear sticks to my brain. I can come up with the most obscure facts no one had ever heard of—I call it brain lint! My kids call me encyclopedia, but I love it!
That’s what writing, and reading, is really about. Having fun, visiting a different world for a bit.