/lit/ - Literature

>>12721012
Mickey Spillane’s “Mike Hammer” books are fun reads. Manly men and womanly women. And alcohol.

>>8893266

>>7199744
No. I write every morning for thirty to forty-five minutes, 5 days a week.

Either you want it bad enough to set up a schedule or you come on here and try to elicit sympathy for your lack of will.

A little background about me: I am close to 30 years old, recently graduated from a state school with a degree in English Literature.
I have always wanted to become a writer. Somehow, I thought, some way, I would make my living through my talents with the written word.
So you can imagine how excited I was when I was offered a full-time job as a copywriter with a local startup.
It was a bit of a challenge getting accustomed to the strict writing guidelines at first, but after a couple weeks of researching, writing, and editing, I had it down pat. The content was nothing too challenging- I was tasked with handling the web content of various clients, which entailed researching and writing various search-engine optimized articles for their websites. (I won't name the company or the clients so don't bother to ask.)
It wasn't glamorous. I didn't receive any credit. But for eight hours a day, five days a week, I was getting paid actual money to write words. I was supporting myself financially by being a writer, and it felt great.
But soon enough, I started to see a problem with my new lifestyle. All throughout school, I had been engaged in creative writing; fiction, poetry, screenplays... I would write in whatever creative format I could, Ideas had always seemed to pop into my head as fast as I could write.
But after I settled into my routine of professional writing, I realized that by the time I got home at the end of each day, the last thing I wanted to do was write another word. I was mentally exhausting myself, unable to find that old familiar spark of inspiration that used to come so easily to me.
I would write informational content all day long, come home, and tune out as I lay on the couch in front of Netflix, passively absorbing entertainment.
I was making my living as a writer, but I was unhappy. My personal writing had suffered, and I felt like I hadn't experienced an original,creative though in months.
So I tried to push myself to write. I would tell myself, "Ok, if I can write something I don't care about for 8 hours every day, then surely I can write something I do care about for at least one more hour each day."
But it was as useless as trying to squeeze water from a stone. My creative abilities had withered like an atrophied muscle. I would look over what I had written at the end of my hour and hate myself even more. It was uninspired trash.
I know many of you here on this board have had similar ideals about making your living as a writer. As enticing as it might seem, there is no glory in a life like that. Creative minds must be nurtured and exercised, not pushed aside and allowed to rot.
So if you have a talent for writing and wish to make a living for yourself doing what you love, don't make the same mistake I did and turn to soulless professional writing. It will sap your creative drive and leave you without the will to write the stories you truly want to write.

Get on my level, you pleblords.
If you're not an alcoholic writing the first draft of your novel on a typewriter, then you will never be a real writer.

Welcome to the official thread for /lit/izens working on their novel, or those of you wondering about the process.

Tell us what your novel is about.
Post passages for critique.
Share novel writing wisdom.
Discuss the novelist lifestyle.
Ask each other about publishers or agents.
Share in the struggle that is novel writing.

Well, /lit/, I'm unemployed, broke, have a bottle of single malt scotch, a box of printer paper and an outline of a story about a child forced to be a prodigy by his overbearing father.

I'll see you on the other side.