Why I Write*

I’ve got this big obsession to get my novel(s) published. I’ve been having it for years now. Up ‘til now I’ve got my 4 short stories publishes in 2 magazines**. Each magazine 2 stories.

Now, I’m doing all I can to write and write and write to have at least one novel publishes.

But, it’s not been that easy. No, no, no…

I’ve been writing this novel that I adore so much both for its simplicity and complexity at a time. I gave it to a publisher and guess what, 7 months already and they neither say yes nor no. So, I took it back. Now, this novel is in the hands of my fellow pals. They’re reading it and promised to give me a feedback, a critic.

In the mean time, I’ve also got another novel, an unfinished one. I enjoyed writing it but I stopped writing since I had no bloody idea how to end it. Not a cheerful ending for sure, yet not a tearful one either. Yet, still undefined.

Because of that, I wrote another one, up ‘til now, I’ve gone not too far with it, only 9 pages. Yet, I enjoy writing it as well.

So, what’s the problem?

The problem is that I’m not sure either one of those novels will get published by a publisher. I don’t think they’re all market-minded ones. I wrote them all only for my own satisfaction.

I tried to write things for other people’s satisfaction which means market-minded. But I hated doing that. It wasn’t fun anymore. I write because I find joy in it. What’s the point of writing if I don’t like it then?

Then I tried to look back. And, guess what…I loved the process of writing my 4 published short stories. I didn’t try to make it as marketable as possible. I just wrote, sent it then they got published. Yes, that simple.

So, now, I think that’s what I’m going to do. Go to hell with other’s people satisfaction and the chance to get published. Now I’ll just write and write and send it to the publisher. Or, if I’ve got some money of my own, I think I’ll publish my novels by my self. J

*Just to let you know, I made this wonderful decision after I read some chapters in a book titled ‘Why I Write’ edited by Will Blythe and those lovely writers are so inspirational. Thanks, y’all!

**All my writings are in Indonesian. I think I’ll write one someday in English. Yet, I’ve written some extremely short stories in English, even French in my other blog, http://myfictionstories.blogspot.com. Yes, that’s also mine! Happy reading, y’all!