Writing

A cross post from the Wyrdsmiths blog:

I got together with Lyda Morehouse and Naomi Kritzer today and talked about Captain America, also about writing. I have been going through a bad patch, in which I envy other writers and feel bad about my writing career. Naomi pointed out that I have stories almost ready to go out and I am wasting time -- weeks and months -- tweeking them. They should go out the door.

It's perfectly true that fiction does not sell till editors look at it, and most of my work sells sooner or later.

I have no idea why I'm stalled right now. But the obvious thing to do -- as Naomi says -- is get the stories out.

There are plenty of things that can go wrong with a writing career. All you can do is make sure that the things going wrong have nothing to do with you. Don't do the work of malign fate for malign fate.