Miss Bennet Was a Sensible Woman -About the Frustrating Publishing Industry and Writing Biz

Lately I've been busy writing. A good thing by all account, right?
Sure, but only as far as my writing goes.
My blog, for example, suffered. I've been posting intermittently and more out of inertia than actual will.

Also lately I've been reading posts about the writing business and the publishing industry:

Deborah asked if the saying Most writers are as poor as churchmice makes you mad. Well, my take on this is that if this saying does make you angry then you will probably beat it.

Clive discussed the difficulty of getting published, lamenting the lack, or the limited amount of inspired agents and editors.

All I want to say is that each time I get into a writing business rut, I always try and remember Miss Elizabeth Bennet's words:

"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess," said Darcy, "of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done."

"My fingers," said Elizabeth, "do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women's do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault -- because I would not take the trouble of practising. It is not that I do not believe my fingers as capable as any other woman's of superior execution."

Getting back to my first two sentences, I can only say this to be only too true. Case in point, my suffering blog.
I try to live by Lizzy's statement and whenever frustrated also remember Asimov's words:

You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.

Categories: writing, publishing, general