Better Writers Than I or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wait 

I am reading ‘Americanah’ right now, as you might know from my last post. It’s a beautiful book that has left me curious over my fate as a writer. I am not saying I’ve given up with that dream, for that would be silly. But, I need to constantly affirm my dedication to this life because nothing happens quickly in the writing world.

Every time I send out a story, I’ve only had a couple published, it takes eons for the literary magazines to get back with a ‘no, sir’. I get it, I get the stress of editing and choosing and putting out a product to which my name will be linked. But, it’s so annoying.

If there is another means of doing business, I am not sure what it is. Writing is a part of society so old and everpresent that it’s almost the point at which a group of people become a society. Like without written records, you might as well be living a constant ground hog day where no one gets passed the issues of the last generation.

So, what reall should be done? Is there a point of making the writing process easier?

My objections would be the easier something is to do, the more that it is done. (I always feel weird abstracting about human behaviour like this but sometimes it is necessary.) And that means the literary journals would get fewer submissions, eventually, from quality writers like me. And that means that they would lose their readership for something newer and better. Writing has after all been around much longer than literary magazines. So maybe there’s no need to worry – just wait.

Clay