The Non-Writing Writer by Beth Burnett

I don’t know if it happens to every writer, but it has certainly happened to me. I’ve become a non-writing writer. Now, that isn’t exactly true. I’ve written short stories here and there. I’ve even submitted a couple poems to anthologies. But my novel writing seems to be at a standstill. I have four unfinished novels going right now and I can’t seem to stay focused on any of them for very long.  In other words, I’m still writing—I just don’t know when I’m going to publish again.

I still write almost every single day. I think I’ve reached that critical stage in my career when I want to produce better work than I can. I have such ambitious ideas and I’m not sure how to bring them to fruition. My beta readers say the work I’ve sent them is good, even great. But I want more than great. I want stunning, breathtaking, edge-of-your-seat amazing. I don’t want to be great. I want to be awesome!

Of course, the realist in me understands that we keep improving day by day with hard work, practice, and perseverance. But I want to just skip ahead to the part where I’m a master without all the daily grind. I want my talent to keep up with my ideas which is hard because I have a lot of lofty ideas.

Ultimately, I think it has been good for me to write without any idea of when/what I’ll publish next. I don’t have a safety net. I’m trying things I’ve never tried before and I may crash and burn spectacularly. Or, I might soar and come out with something even more incredible than I’ve ever written before.

One thing I know is that my publisher will give a fair shot to anything I send her. One of the things that first drew me to Sapphire Books was their willingness to explore and expand the boundaries of the lesfic genre. And that gives me the freedom to explore and expand my own writing boundaries. Stay tuned. I just may surprise everyone.

Beth Burnett is the author of Coming Around Again.