J. R. DePriest :verified_trans: :donor: :Moopsy: :EA DATA. SF:<p>This is a question for amateur authors out there.<br>How do you keep writing when nobody else cares?</p><p>If that's enough for you to understand what I'm asking, then you don't need to read anything else.<br>For anyone who wants to understand where I'm coming from, keep reading and it's likely to be long and most of y'all will peace out.</p> <p>I've been writing creative weird fiction since high school, thirty-five years ago, largely inspired by a childhood spent watching black and white creature features and other cheesy but incredibly earnest horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films and reading Clive Barker, Dean Koontz, Steven King, and, eventually Lovecraft and Derleth.<br>But I was also heavily inspired by James Joyce. Reading "The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" in English class was honestly life-changing. That's how I wanted to write. Joyce, along with Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", and Conrad Aiken's "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" were my goalposts.</p><p>So that's how I write, what I aspire to be.<br>I'm not.<br>I will never be.<br>I'm not a great writer, merely adequate.</p><p>Further, I do not have a novel in me, just short stories and the occasional poem.<br>Nobody cares about those today unless you are a name or have a collection to sell.</p><p>genAI scraping the web to mulch its growth means I don't even feel comfortable sharing much of my work online.</p><p>I enter contests and I do not win.</p><p>I have no "fan base" nor even peers who look forward to what I have next. Nobody asks, nobody cares.<br>My wife has never understood my stories but strongly encourages me to keep writing.</p><p>So. How do I keep writing when nobody cares but me, when nobody <em>else</em> cares?</p><p>I mean, I have other things to do. I have other responsibilities. I have a <em>real</em> job. I have mental health issues.<br>I could just stop writing forever and nobody would stop me.</p><p>I write, but not as often as I would like.<br>I often wonder what the point even is.<br>I want to share; I want to make connections. I want to find <strong>my people</strong>.<br>But I haven't.<br>Maybe never will.</p><p>Edit: added hashtags </p><p><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Writing</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/WritingAdvice" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WritingAdvice</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Writer</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Writers</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/WritersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WritersOfMastodon</span></a></p>