Right now I’m taking a downturn. You know, of course, that these happen to everyone. If I were to put my life story to press (which I might yet do. You have been warned.), there would be a lot of downturns. It’s not just something writers deal with — it’s something everyone deals with. The main difference for me is that I have the option of putting it all to pixels.
As I mull over some additional work in addition to the second Pardigan novel, I am wonderi9ng whether the various things I post to forums counts as part of my creative life, or whether they are distracting me from what I really need to do.
In a way, I am following some precedent. After all H.P. Lovecraft (who was a pretty terrible person in all other aspects) sent reams of correspondence to fellow writers. This spread his ideas like wildfire among these writers, who would add things to what became “the Mythos” that is still being added to today. (I hope new stories in that continuity have become less racist over the years.)
On one particular forum, my ability to write comedy is challenged pretty regularly. I love those challenges. I don’t know if anyone else likes the jokes, but they haven’t tossed me out yet. It’s one of the things that gives me some optimism in there times. At least jokes about penguins are still funny. And I still occasionally use a reference so obscure that even gamers find it too much.
I try not to be mean-spirited about it. Someone on one of the boards I was posting to at the time said “If it isn’t offensive to somebody, it isn’t funny”. I chided that for having a mean-spirited view of humor. And I just don’t understand that mindset.