Writers Never Die -- Or Retire?
I'm at a crossroads. I'm sort of retired, but not really because writers never actually retire. Not as long as their brain functions. I've made my living writing my whole adult life, so it's something ingrained in me. However, I'm slowing down and the driving urge to create every day no longer thrives in me.
I've hit dry spells before and found myself unsure of what to write. I remember that what I wanted to write and what the editors at the publishers I'd been working for wanted were two very different things. So, I stopped writing novels and concentrated on writing non-fiction again. I had been a newspaper reporter before I sold my first novel.
However, I returned to novel writing eventually. Romances of all kinds have always been my drug of choice. Nowadays I'm not totally retired from writing -- but close. And God willing, I won't stop until I'm incapable of writing or dead. Even after death, writers don't instantly fade from the landscape. Our writing endures. For the vast majority of us, it won't endure forever as with such luminaries as Dickens, Poe, Shakespeare, Austin, etc. But our work will linger for a good long while after we're gone. It will remain nestled in readers' brains and hearts and they will smile when the recall "that book" they so enjoyed or "those characters" that made them sigh or smile or cry a little.
When you're a writer, you can't turn off your ideas. Even when I was writing nonfiction mostly, I was dreaming up fiction stories or rewriting the ones I was reading. It's like eating for us. You can go a while without it, but then you have to indulge or wither away.
So, here I am retired and still working. I know a lot of people are here with me. Most of them might WANT to retire and simply can't because it's not financially feasible. I can, but I don't want to, so I won't. I'll keep working here and there and looking for more readers for my books.
It's an odd place to be, though. Every day -- even weekends -- I feel that I must work as I have for so, so many years. Maybe I will learn to take days off. I won't write on Sunday and maybe not even on Saturday. That seems like a good step toward retiring. I might even go away for a few days and not take my laptop so that I don't write while I'm gone. I know that I'm enjoying reading more than ever, so that's a good thing. My go-go attitude kept my mortgage paid, the lights and heat on, and food in the fridge. I've lived a blessed life, being able to make my living as a writer since even before I graduated from college. I know this. I've known it every day when I sat down at the computer (or typewriter, back in the day) and set to work.
While I've enjoyed this blogging experience, I'm stepping away as part of my weaning from deadline writing. I will continue to read and delight in the blogs here and I wish you all good wishes and good royalties! Don't let the AI "writers" deter you. Authenticity will always rise to the top..
Happy Trails!
