I don't have time to read all the replies so you might have heard this already. My own golden rule for writing is I only write for myself until I am happy with what I write. beyond that, I don't write for anyone at all - not even publishers. It either feels right or not. 25 submissions a month though ... that is pretty wow. I got my first book deal by ignoring submission rules. I did what felt best for me and I got a phone call. I hope this helps.
You're such a rebel. I write purely for the fame and fortune. No, just kidding. I probably write to impress my lover. It's been working for a few years. Being a writer is sexy. Paris Review rejection slips and such around the house. A handwritten note framed from a well-know editor. A first print out of my WIP novel that not a soul has read. Tell me that shit ain't hot. I like the lifestyle. I understand that quite a bit of rejection comes with it. I consider myself to be quite prolific. I like to spend my time reading and writing. But I don't know if I'm writing for myself. Maybe at first in the early drafts. But I think understanding contemporary fiction and the market can help a wrier somewhat shape their work accordingly. And that sort of thing is important when it comes to selling fiction or any sort of writing. Just my opinion.
I always thought that you wrote for yourself first and foremost because you loved to write, you have a story, something to say, and you want to put it down. I guess after that, where it goes from there, depends on want you want, no shame either way, published or not. I know only one person who wrote with fortune in mind, because he'd got himself in a hole and wanted a way out; that was Jeffrey Archer. It worked for him but his writing has sparked more than a few debates.
If I only wrote for myself, I could keep all these stories in my head and skip the annoying step of trying to translate that to paper. I write to be read.
I guess I write because I love the act of writing, I love problem solving the sentences and figuring out the plot and all that...I am craft orientated, and the process of writing is enjoyable, challenging, frightening; and ultimately satisfying. It was only lately that I considered publishing.
Actually I think Archer actually admitted as much, he was financially stuck and then he started writing books. Personally I think that his popularity owed much to the fact that was already well known and traded off that notoriety. I've read a couple of his books, liked some of it but not all.
Yes, as @TE says 'I write for them, it is my gift to the world. I don't write for me. That'd be like @Krispee engineer - constructing a motor-driven rotating ass-tickling quill plugged to the mains and erected on the bedroom sideboard. Have you made any of those @Krispee. I'm not too far away, y'know.. xxx
Well, I guess we'll never know the actual truth. He seems to have a following like that of Patterson, another polarizing author.
What's the R5 interview? I've seen the odd interview with Archer, and yes he does come across something like that. Lee Child of course, will always be cool. Even though I don't read his books anymore.
Oh Patterson, not Archer, sorry crossed wires. I have read most of Lee Child's novels but lately they've become a bit too similar. So many other works to read.
They're so ballsy. Obviously I haven't read any because I'm too sophisticated. When I found an excerpt it was instant hit. 'I was walking down the road and bundled into an aeroplane to the White House...'
I think having something to say is a big part of it. At first I was more of a reader, but the more you read the more there seems to be an ongoing conversation happening in the literary scene. I think it's when you have something to add to the conversation that things come together. I think we all have big dreams, but I don't think about that so much as I am writing.
Um... I've got a "maybe" lingering. I check my submissions on duotrope and the stats and responses. And at one publication that was open in the fall and closed now seems to have gone through their slush pile. There in one submission left, according to duotrope. It's mine. Still no idea on how long it will be before I hear from them, but there's something they like about my story, worth holding onto and giving more thought at least.
One of mine crashed. Luckily, I have it somewhere else where they speak my language. As a consequence I pulled the longboard out of the yard and the wetsuit from the attic. Re-launch of my waterboy career tomorrow afternoon [mourning].
That or you are having entire conversations on your own...way too many voices lol. Yeah, I'm always dreaming, I've got that kind of imagination, there's always something weird boiling around in there. It's being able to translate that to the real.
Selfsabotage... maybe a little. I withdrew a submission that went to in-progress on submittable. The thing was that it was in-progess at another place that I would like to hear from first. The one I withdrew I submitted first, and it would seem these responses should have come out at similar times. So, I guess I'm letting it ride a little on the place that's a bigger deal. I don't know what I'm worried about. It's not like this is my most rejected story. It's not like this story has brought in 80-plus rejections. I've still got it out at several places, but I think the way I have it now I will be rejected in a preferred order. My lover says after this I should just let go of this story.
I guess you've got to know what to hang on to and what to let go. The story becomes your baby in so many ways, giving it room to do it's thing is always difficult.