J. R. DePriest :verified_trans: :donor: :Moopsy: :EA DATA. SF: on Nostr: This is a question for amateur authors out there. How do you keep writing when nobody ...

This is a question for amateur authors out there.
How do you keep writing when nobody else cares?

If that's enough for you to understand what I'm asking, then you don't need to read anything else.
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.

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.
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.

So that's how I write, what I aspire to be.
I'm not.
I will never be.
I'm not a great writer, merely adequate.

Further, I do not have a novel in me, just short stories and the occasional poem.
Nobody cares about those today unless you are a name or have a collection to sell.

genAI scraping the web to mulch its growth means I don't even feel comfortable sharing much of my work online.

I enter contests and I do not win.

I have no "fan base" nor even peers who look forward to what I have next. Nobody asks, nobody cares.
My wife has never understood my stories but strongly encourages me to keep writing.

So. How do I keep writing when nobody cares but me, when nobody *else* cares?

I mean, I have other things to do. I have other responsibilities. I have a *real* job. I have mental health issues.
I could just stop writing forever and nobody would stop me.

I write, but not as often as I would like.
I often wonder what the point even is.
I want to share; I want to make connections. I want to find **my people**.
But I haven't.
Maybe never will.

Edit: added hashtags

#Writing #WritingAdvice #Writer #Writers #WritersOfMastodon