Today I’m welcoming Christine Henderson who talks about the way writers live for their work … is it unrequited love, or does it give back as much as it consumes? Chris reflects…
In his poem of “Locksley Hall” Tennyson writes, “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” Ah love! We all cherish it, fantasize about it and read about it! According to Romance Writers of America (RWA), Romance fiction sales were estimated at $1.336 billion for 2012 (Business of Consumer Book Publishing 2012).
As writers we must be crazy in love with the craft. How else would you describe someone who for years sends out manuscripts only to be constantly rejected? Talk about unrequited love? Writers live and breathe it. When we can’t find someone to publish our love tomes, we do it on our own and bare our hearts for all to see.
Passion for writing can become consuming. Could that be why so many famous literary figures have crashed and burned in their lives? Think of Poe and Fitzgerald. Writing can drive a person mad. Yet still we persist. We have an insatiable desire to put pen to paper – or these days, fingers to keyboards. Some may even be writing by voice to computers.
In celebrating the love of writing, I am going to leave you with some quotes by writers who had their love returned and celebrated consistently in print. May your love of writing be celebrated as well!
Authors and lovers always suffer some infatuation, from which only absence can set them free. Samuel Johnson
When I am dead, I hope it may be said: His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.
Hilaire Belloc
Life can’t ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer’s lover until death – fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, and constant. Edna Ferber
It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous. Robert Benchley
I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly. Edgar Rice Burroughs
For more on Chris and her writing go to http://TheWriteChris.blogspot.com. There you will find weekly interviews with other authors and her experiences with writing.