I enjoyed your interview. It looks like you and I have similar views of humor and life, even though all my writing is scheduled for the future - but not too distant. Upon my retirement I plan to write a book (mostly for my family- but who knows what can happen once you actually DO something) I am just getting involved in Substack and learning how it works. I also enjoy listening to AGB!
“I decided I would write a space sitcom serial live on my Substack, and the sequel to my novel, and a weekly newsletter, and new stories every week for paid subscribers” Oh my goodness, no wonder you got burned out! I got burned out just from reading that. Though I can understand why you decided to attempt all of that. It’s so easy to make grand and exciting plans for future projects, but so much harder to actually execute all those plans. If only we could zap all the stories we want from our brain to the page.
I’m glad your burn out didn’t kill your love of writing.
Fun read. You interviewing...you. Made me strangely think of the film Adaptation. I hear you on the burnout; I’m trying to avoid that by being consistent but slow with my posts.
Be born with an obsessive personality. 😂 Fortunately, my obsessions all seem to be "healthy" things. Mostly creative things like writing, playing guitar, making comics, etc. But also active things like bike riding and walking. I go in phases.
I'm with you on the burnout thing. I am moving back to working on short stories, even though it means abandoning the novel I was working on, at least temporarily. I just couldn't bring myself to work on it that way. I don't like publishing something until I feel like it's finished. Anyway, I'm limiting my substack to 1 story and one poem per month. Even then, I'll probably run out of old stuff to republish.
By the way, it sounds like when you jumped from FB to Medium, you republished your FB back catalog, then republished it again plus more, on Substack. Seems like a winning strategy. When we all have to jump to the next thing in five years we can republish everything again! 😎
Exactly. I started Medium with the FB stuff. But then I got obsessed with writing and wrote hundreds of stories on Medium over the next three years. Now I have that backlog to draw on for Substack. Hopefully, I will continue to write more stories so when the next great thing comes along I will be ready for that also. 😂
Plus it gives me a chance to clean stories up a little. I am a better writer than I was three or four years ago.
Occasionally, one of my former Medium followers will remember a story. But they usually say it was fun to read it again. I forget a lot of them after a couple of years, myself. 🤣
Very interesting. It strikes me as very Borgesian: see his story Borges and I at https://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/borg&i.htm Were you aware of that when you interviewed yourself, Mark? It's a great idea, a nice way of telling people about plans and achievements in a lighthearted way. Well done!
Haha! I loved every line of this. It’s your very own personal writing history, and what a fun journey it sounds like it has been for you! I’m happy to hear you bounced back from the burnout and enjoy it again.
NOTE TO MARK’S READERS: The Britpop and Elise books, IMHO, are good for middle-school readers of either gender. (We are still a few years from testing this on our oldest grandniece, alas.) Gift idea with the holidays!
Thanks Jack! A middle school aged daughter of a friend of mine read the book and loved it.
I like to think of Britpop as a kid’s story for adults. Or maybe a story that makes adults feel like a kid again. I really didn’t have any age group in mind when I wrote it. I just wanted to keep it “clean.” Anyway, I appreciate the plug.
Great interview, Mark, though I don't know about that interviewer! I think we've all burned out at one point or another. I had actually thought about trying to add in NaNoWriMo next month despite the ongoing health challenges and other things I'm trying to do. Then I laughed myself silly and moved on. 🤣🤣🤣
I know it is popular, but I can't imagine doing NaNoWriMo. It seem like self-inflicted torture. 😂
Plus I can't write using the traditional "Write a quick, crappy first draft. Then rewrite it several times." method. My first draft is my final draft. I will tweak it, but no rewrites.
Burnout is an easy thing to fall into. I foolishly thought adding more stories was an incentive for people to go paid on my newsletter. But it turned out that nobody wanted extra stories. They just wanted to support me. Personally, I can't keep up with the newsletters I get. So "more newsletters" is not an incentive to me (he says hypocritically after posting an extra story.) 😂 I have decided that one newsletter per week is a good amount for me to manage. With the rare extra story.
I think we get caught in the trap of feeling we have to provide more.
I've done NaNoWriMo twice at widely spaced intervals, and it kickstarted me during a couple of dry spells. So it held some value for me. I'm just too swamped and not well enough to take it on even though I have a project I'd love to start.
I'm having trouble committing. My health has been all over the place and I'm honestly struggling to do what I'm already doing. My foolish mind tried to tell me that if I had the NaNo commitment I would somehow be able to do more. I'm down sick I once again and managing very little. I haven't written in over a week. Going to try today for a bit.
Thank you, my friend. It keeps me sane! Discovering ai art has helped as I can literally go into it for under a minute, do something, and leave it to process. It also keeps me sane.
Found it difficult to concentrate on the whole of this interview, Mark. I mean, dang, you won a literary award! With a bona fide certificate and everything. And with your name on it. Wall mountable. I’m just going to go now and lick my wounds. Great production, though. Who’s your editor, by the way?
I enjoyed your interview. It looks like you and I have similar views of humor and life, even though all my writing is scheduled for the future - but not too distant. Upon my retirement I plan to write a book (mostly for my family- but who knows what can happen once you actually DO something) I am just getting involved in Substack and learning how it works. I also enjoy listening to AGB!
Thanks, Kenneth. Music was my first creative passion. But writing is fun also.
“I decided I would write a space sitcom serial live on my Substack, and the sequel to my novel, and a weekly newsletter, and new stories every week for paid subscribers” Oh my goodness, no wonder you got burned out! I got burned out just from reading that. Though I can understand why you decided to attempt all of that. It’s so easy to make grand and exciting plans for future projects, but so much harder to actually execute all those plans. If only we could zap all the stories we want from our brain to the page.
I’m glad your burn out didn’t kill your love of writing.
Yup. Pure foolishness on my part. I usually have to learn the hard way. Even at my age. 🤣
Fun read. You interviewing...you. Made me strangely think of the film Adaptation. I hear you on the burnout; I’m trying to avoid that by being consistent but slow with my posts.
Slow and consistent is the way to go. Having a buffer is smart also.
Hehe that was so much fun! Thank you 😊
Mark, can you please ask Mark how I can get some mojo to write hundreds of stories please?
Be born with an obsessive personality. 😂 Fortunately, my obsessions all seem to be "healthy" things. Mostly creative things like writing, playing guitar, making comics, etc. But also active things like bike riding and walking. I go in phases.
Thanks, MJ.
I'm with you on the burnout thing. I am moving back to working on short stories, even though it means abandoning the novel I was working on, at least temporarily. I just couldn't bring myself to work on it that way. I don't like publishing something until I feel like it's finished. Anyway, I'm limiting my substack to 1 story and one poem per month. Even then, I'll probably run out of old stuff to republish.
By the way, it sounds like when you jumped from FB to Medium, you republished your FB back catalog, then republished it again plus more, on Substack. Seems like a winning strategy. When we all have to jump to the next thing in five years we can republish everything again! 😎
Exactly. I started Medium with the FB stuff. But then I got obsessed with writing and wrote hundreds of stories on Medium over the next three years. Now I have that backlog to draw on for Substack. Hopefully, I will continue to write more stories so when the next great thing comes along I will be ready for that also. 😂
Plus it gives me a chance to clean stories up a little. I am a better writer than I was three or four years ago.
Occasionally, one of my former Medium followers will remember a story. But they usually say it was fun to read it again. I forget a lot of them after a couple of years, myself. 🤣
Very interesting. It strikes me as very Borgesian: see his story Borges and I at https://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/borg&i.htm Were you aware of that when you interviewed yourself, Mark? It's a great idea, a nice way of telling people about plans and achievements in a lighthearted way. Well done!
No, I was unfamiliar with that. I actually got the idea from Elle Griffin who got it from someone else. 🤣 Borrowing from the best, I suppose.
Indeed! But original at the same time!
Haha! I loved every line of this. It’s your very own personal writing history, and what a fun journey it sounds like it has been for you! I’m happy to hear you bounced back from the burnout and enjoy it again.
Thanks, Justin. It has been a winding road. And aside from a short bout of overdoing it, a fun journey. 🤓
NOTE TO MARK’S READERS: The Britpop and Elise books, IMHO, are good for middle-school readers of either gender. (We are still a few years from testing this on our oldest grandniece, alas.) Gift idea with the holidays!
You will also enjoy this as an adult, btw.
Thanks Jack! A middle school aged daughter of a friend of mine read the book and loved it.
I like to think of Britpop as a kid’s story for adults. Or maybe a story that makes adults feel like a kid again. I really didn’t have any age group in mind when I wrote it. I just wanted to keep it “clean.” Anyway, I appreciate the plug.
Thanks, Jack! I started reading Britpop on Medium years ago, but I never had a chance to finish it. I’m thinking I should pick it back up again.
Great interview, Mark, though I don't know about that interviewer! I think we've all burned out at one point or another. I had actually thought about trying to add in NaNoWriMo next month despite the ongoing health challenges and other things I'm trying to do. Then I laughed myself silly and moved on. 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah, the interviewer was a bit of a jerk. 😉
I know it is popular, but I can't imagine doing NaNoWriMo. It seem like self-inflicted torture. 😂
Plus I can't write using the traditional "Write a quick, crappy first draft. Then rewrite it several times." method. My first draft is my final draft. I will tweak it, but no rewrites.
Burnout is an easy thing to fall into. I foolishly thought adding more stories was an incentive for people to go paid on my newsletter. But it turned out that nobody wanted extra stories. They just wanted to support me. Personally, I can't keep up with the newsletters I get. So "more newsletters" is not an incentive to me (he says hypocritically after posting an extra story.) 😂 I have decided that one newsletter per week is a good amount for me to manage. With the rare extra story.
I think we get caught in the trap of feeling we have to provide more.
I've done NaNoWriMo twice at widely spaced intervals, and it kickstarted me during a couple of dry spells. So it held some value for me. I'm just too swamped and not well enough to take it on even though I have a project I'd love to start.
True. More is not always better. But quality is.
I think you should start the project. Without the pressure of word counts and deadlines. Who needs that? 😂 Just enjoy it at its own pace.
I'm having trouble committing. My health has been all over the place and I'm honestly struggling to do what I'm already doing. My foolish mind tried to tell me that if I had the NaNo commitment I would somehow be able to do more. I'm down sick I once again and managing very little. I haven't written in over a week. Going to try today for a bit.
I hope you are doing better soon. Don’t overdo it. Writing will still be there when you are ready.
Thank you, my friend. It keeps me sane! Discovering ai art has helped as I can literally go into it for under a minute, do something, and leave it to process. It also keeps me sane.
Creative and hilarious as usual. :) My kids asked why I was laughing. Lol
Thank you Pearl. I like keeping your kids guessing. 😂
Found it difficult to concentrate on the whole of this interview, Mark. I mean, dang, you won a literary award! With a bona fide certificate and everything. And with your name on it. Wall mountable. I’m just going to go now and lick my wounds. Great production, though. Who’s your editor, by the way?
It was very prestigious. The ceremony took place in the gym, after all. 🙂
My editor is Mark Starlin. But I wouldn't recommend him.
Thanks Mark. What a great way to tell a story. Thanks for interviewing yourself.
Thanks, Marji. I am glad you enjoyed it. Even though the interviewer was not great. 😉
What a fun-filled morning read! Your middle school award filed with the family’s important documents! 😂
Thanks Mark! I am marveling at your creativity.
Thank you. I appreciate you reading and commenting! 😀
And appreciating my "keep your middle school awards forever" strategy, also.