My State of the Union Address (Why I Quit Writing)

The long and short of this post is that I’d like to say that 2015 was a mess: a good mess in some ways, and a terrible, pull-my-hair-out-and-cry mess in others. I’ve debated about doing this blog post for a while because I’m not really sure what will come of it, let alone where it will go or what it will and will not talk about. But I’ve decided to just do it (in lieu of the freelance editing I *should* be doing, lol) because I think I owe some people an explanation (and a blog post or two) and I definitely owe myself the release of saying some things and letting them go.

So, without further ado, this is my February 2016 State of the Union Address, the state referring to my state (more mental state than anything, as my hobbit stature leaves little to be desired) and the union being my writing career.

Also, I’ve been watching the US primaries on TV a lot lately, and I’m quite political at the moment. But that’s for another post…

First things first, let’s paint the scene: it’s March 2015, I’m working a 9-to-5, I’m getting paid well enough, but my contract is ending at the beginning of April and I know I’ll be flung into the jobless abyss soon enough. But that’s okay! I have a novel releasing in May and dreams of being self-employed as a freelance writer and editor while continuing to work on my fiction career, so I’m hopeful.

Spring 2015 comes, and I’m in the thick of doing final prep for my debut novel “The Black Oracle“. I’m working tirelessly at a freelance writing career, making modest returns but ultimately working more hours than I’m being paid for. At one point, I calculated I was working for $5.00 Canadian an hour after all was said and done — and that was when I was being paid… (We won’t mention the guy who commissioned work and then, when payment time came, disappeared off the face of the world). But again, it’s okay! This is what being a struggling artist is all about, right? I’m happy (tired, but happy), and I feel like I’m moving in a direction that I like, and at the end of the day, I’ve always said I’d rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable. And to prove that, I take a trip to Calgary the week before my release date to celebrate.

And then it’s release day! Copies of “The Black Oracle” arrive at my house, purchase links go live online, and to top it off, an agent (yes, a REAL, live, accomplished agent! THEY EXIST!) responds to a query for a separate novel and says she’s interested in reading it in full. Five days later, I’m at my book launch event, and friends and family and even people I don’t know are buying my book, and even though I’ve only had one hour of sleep (‘cuz I partied a touch too hard the night before), it’s a success!

Needless to say, I’m on top of the world. My dream is coming true right in front of my eyes, and I’m doing everything I said I was one day gonna do. Take that naysayers!

But at that moment, that’s where everything started to fall apart.

I can’t pinpoint why it happened, but it started around June. For lack of a better word, I started to become depressed. This isn’t a woe-is-me post, and I promise I’m not going to focus on this for too long because the POINT of this post is still to come, but the truth is, I just wasn’t happy anymore. After the initial sales bump of The Black Oracle’s release, sales fell drastically. No one was reading my book, few people were reviewing it (even when I was offering it for free), and I fumbled on marketing the book (mostly because I just didn’t know what to do). Further, the agent decided she didn’t want to represent my next novel (which is completely okay!), and the signings I went to depressed me more than anything. For most of them, I sat in the back of a bookstore while customers avoided eye contact and my cookies (who avoids cookies, though, for real?).

This feeling peaked in July after the final signing I went to. I carried my box of books into the store in the pouring rain (pathetic fallacy, much?) and literally did not sell a single copy over the two-hour signing. To add insult to injury, the manager of the store came up to me after the signing was over and told me that I should be more interesting. As an introvert, not only do I not know how to be more interesting, but I wasn’t even sure what that would mean (“Should I dance? Do readers like it when authors dance?”).

Besides, was I not interesting enough already?

The next few months were hard for me. I stopped marketing completely. I stopped looking for freelance work completely and watched my income plummet. I couldn’t write anything, and when I tried, I just made myself angry, like delete-my-document, throw-my-laptop angry. I remember one day talking to my mum on the phone and practically crying.

On top of it, I was for all intents and purposes unemployed. I was unproductive and unhappy. I focused on side projects and watched them crash and burn. I was ashamed and upset and embarrassed for myself and for my work. I was a failure, and I felt like I was wasting time on something that I had a hard time identifying with anymore. I was ready to give up writing.

And then I did.

One day, I just decided to stop. I had some writing-related obligations, some of which I finished, others which I flubbed on entirely. But in essence, I had given up. I wasn’t going to write anymore. I didn’t want to write anymore. I stopped writing completely and became focused on getting a full-time job (the one thing I SWORE I would never return to).

And in a way, giving up was exactly what I needed to do.

*Cue turning point in post. I apologize for the dramatics.*

In that moment, quitting was good for me. I broke away from writing. I didn’t touch it for four full months (after writing non-stop since I was 15, that was a big thing). I moved back in with my parents. I redecorated my childhood bedroom. I decided to start tutoring French and English as a way to create income while I waited for a full-time job (okay, my mum encouraged me, but we made it happen).

And then all at once, the tutoring became the full-time job. I was making enough money to pay the bills (yes, I live with my parents, and I pay bills…). I was tossing around the idea of travelling again and moving out again and starting a business and hiring employees. I noticed my mood was improving (being on unemployment insurance is soul-destroying), and I was enjoying myself more, and I was allowing myself to do things that I hadn’t done in years because I had been so fixated on becoming a full-time writer.

But what was troubling was that I was surviving. I had gone four months without writing, and of course I missed it, but what I didn’t miss was the pressure. I didn’t miss advertising my book and my “brand” to every available ear and eye. I didn’t miss tirelessly emailing reviewers and scouring websites for someone–anyone!–to care about what I was doing. Most of all, I didn’t miss the pressure of writing for some magical, probably non-existent audience that would propel me to the status of full-time writer.

And all of this was troubling because it meant that maybe I could survive without writing. That maybe I was more than my writing.

That maybe I wasn’t meant to be a writer.

So, I gave myself a window. I said, “Michael, go back. Write something. See where it goes. If you’re happy, keep going. If you’re not, stop.” I was giving myself the freedom to give up again if I wanted to. I was allowing myself to be creative without worrying about what audiences or editors or literary agents would think.

I was allowing myself to have fun again, something I hadn’t done in years because I had been so obsessed–nay, sick with the pressure of taking my writing and making money on it.

Because what I realized during that time was that I didn’t need to make money on my writing to be successful. I could redefine what success meant to me. If success meant that I never published again but I could have fun doing what I loved doing, then that’s what I was going to do. If success meant writing for myself and not giving a flying f*ck about what would sell or what was marketable or what was interesting (I’m still not over it, bookstore manager!), then that’s what I was going to do.

In short, the purpose of my writing had shifted over the course of 2015, and the focus on the financial side of the arts industry was robbing me of my creativity and depressing me because I was equating sales numbers and review counts with my definition of success. Once I took the money out of the writing equation, once I had stopped freelance writing and editing (minus a few good, reputable contracts), I was left with just the thing I loved in the first place.

And that thing was writing.

So, I’m glad I quit writing. I’m glad I gave up. Quitting writing gave me the opportunity to start to rebuild myself and rebuild my life. I guess the purpose of this post is to say that if you’re in the place that I was at (Editing Note: “In the place that I was at” is sloppy, but I think I’m gonna leave it to make a point), in that place where everything feels hopeless and you’re ready just to give up on your dreams (writing or unrelated), honestly, just do it.

Just give up.

Because if you love it enough, it will come back, and if it doesn’t, maybe it was never meant to be.

Thanks to everyone for sticking by me the past year, and thanks for reading this if you made it all the way through the post.

As per 9gag community etiquette, here’s a potato. Sorry for the long post.