Signs It’s Time to Give Up on Your Dream of Being a Writer
Quitting can be the best decision a writer can make. These signs it’ s time to give up your dream of being a writer will help you shake off unachievable goals and set new, better ones.
Sometimes, giving up on your writing dreams is the smartest, healthiest thing to do…but the trick is know if it’s time to change your strategy and set different writing goals, or to give up on your dream of being a writer.
Here’s one of my favorite quips, from W.C. Fields:
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.”
Are you being a damn fool about writing – or are you simply paying your dues and putting in your time, as all long-lasting successful writers and bloggers must do? These signs it’s time to give up may help you re-evaluate your goals, or chuck them and set new ones altogether.
For more tips on achieving goals, read Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time (one of my husband’s favorite books)
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Why Giving Up on Your Dreams Gets a Bad Rap
Persistence is admirable – especially when you think of first-time novelists whose first book win a prestigious literary award or bloggers who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year doing what they love (and even getting book contracts!). Some writers beat all odds to achieve their writing goals.
And yet, research shows that dogged determination can lead to depression, helplessness, and a weakened immune system.
Giving up on your goals is often associated with failure and weakness. We hear the clichés “Nobody likes a quitter”, “Winners never quit” and “Quitting is not the answer,” time and time again – even if quitting is the only answer. The stigma attached to quitting goes beyond quips about quitters. For example, we see people accomplish superhuman tasks – such as running a marathon after doctors say they’ll never walk again – and we think those achievements are possible for everyone.
Remarkable accomplishments do happen, but they’re not the norm, says Dana S. Dunn, Professor of Social Psychology at the Moravian College in Pennsylvania and author of Research Methods for Social Psychology. “We tend to overgeneralize from a handful of instances in which people do amazing things,” he says. “The danger of looking at people who succeeded against all odds is that we don’t know how they got there. We don’t necessarily know the steps they took, their background, or the support they had.”
The notions of persistence and accomplishment are embedded in many of our communities, workplaces, and families. “We’re socialized that we must always succeed, but we don’t always recognize that we’re limited by resources such as time, circumstance, and ability,” says Dunn. “Motivation isn’t the problem. Our own infrastructure can hold us back. We don’t always have the right education, technical expertise, or resources.”
By the way, I’m not talking about writing for the sake of writing, or writing for your own pleasure. I’m talking about writing to get published regularly, or earning a full-time living as a freelance writer or blogger.
If you’re determined not to give up on your dream of writing for a living, read 4 Signs You Need to Reevaluate Your Writing or Publication Goals. But if you’re seriously struggling to make your dreams come true, then you might find these “signs it’s time to give up” interesting…
Signs It’s Time to Give Up on Your Dream of Being a Writer
Aspiring writers – or successful freelance writers who are ready to move on – know it’s time to pursue different goals when they:
- Have lost their joy and passion for writing their novel or pitching their magazine article ideas
- Aren’t making as much of an effort
- Are “talking the talk” but not “walking the walk”
- Can’t overcome fear of failure, or fear of success
- Spend more time surfing the internet and reading forum comments than writing or blogging
- Are pursuing goals that aren’t in line with their beliefs, values, personality, and future plans
- Realize that their writing goals – and the process of achieving their writing goals – doesn’t resonate with who they are
- Dread the thought of pursuing or achieving the goal
- Have lost their creativity
- Resent the time and energy the goal takes
- Can’t overcome their laziness or lack of motivation. Can’t fire up the muse!
Setting and achieving your goals to be a freelance writer or novelist is challenging (to say the least!!), but if you’re motivated and dedicated, the obstacles to getting published will be balanced by the joy of pushing through and getting results. But, if the negative parts of being an aspiring published writer overshadow the positives, then writing for publication may not be right for you.
If you’re scared to write, read Finding the Courage to Write – 6 Ways to Cope With Writing Fears.
What do you think, fellow scribes – are you tempted to give up on your dream of earning a living as a freelance writer or being a published author? I welcome your comments below…
Category: Fiction Writers, Non-Fiction Writing, The Writer's Life
Oh my, I seem to have a few of said signs. I thought that I was just experiencing burnout for a little while. Second to Charlotte, I love writing too much, as well. I’ve been writing ever since in elementary school. So let me choose to re-evaluate first.
Thanks for the insight, Laurie.
Charlotte, I’m with you! I write more for the internet than print magazines — and I prefer writing for my blogs more than any other type of writing. I used to think that focusing on blogging was giving up on my writing dreams, but now I don’t. I love it too much and it feels too good to be a cop-out!
Kelly, I totally understand about writing to sell…and I think some writers can do it. But, the most successful, happy writers are those who write what they love to read and write. Good luck with your freelancing and your novel — I hope to hear from you again.
Rebecca, congratulations on the questionnaire — that’s great validation about your idea! I wish you all the best with your outline…keep me posted on how it goes.
Cheers,
Laurie
.-= Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen´s last blog post ..Writing Quips and Tips From John Irving =-.
I thought about giving up freelance writing and writing in general, but have reevaluated it. I submitted a questionnaire to see if my idea would “fly” and just heard back. Yep! My idea would sell. So…I will create an outline and go from there.
I completed two short films which were well received by members of various writing groups. My goal is to get them produced. I wrote a teleplay which I’d really love to have produced.
I have many good ideas. It’s a matter of choosing the ones I have passion for.
.-= Rebecca´s last blog post ..Find Inspiration within Writing Groups =-.
I gave up trying to be a novelist years ago. The market just didn’t want what I was selling. Worse, I had invested a lot of time and resources in learning to write and writing in a genre I personally abhorred and never read, just because it seemed an easy way in. But I learned it wasn’t that simple. My next venture will be commercial freelancing while I spend off-hours working on the novel I really wanted to write all along. I may or may not actually market that novel.
I’ve not given up, just re-focused. When I grew weary of the old game of sending out stories and articles to be published, I switched over to working more on the internet. When my first novel didn’t sell, I cast a cold eye on it and learned what I could–then wrote another, better one.
I love writing too much to give it up. I’m lucky to be able to make a living at it, but even if I couldn’t, I’d still write every day.
This is a great post on a little discussed topic.
.-= Charlotte Rains Dixon´s last blog post ..When to Go Back, When to Let Go? =-.