I Am Not A Bad Writer

Every once in a while something happens to remind me I am not a bad writer. I'm not even close to a bad writer. I'm just an unpublished writer, and only because I am still afraid to start the process of sending out query letters (are you tired of hearing that phrase from me? I am getting pretty damn tired of saying it...) and, well, finding an agent and getting myself published. Etc, etc, etc. But my writing is good. My stories are good. My word choice, turns of phrase, use of metaphor... it's all good. Sometimes it's even great. Sometimes, when rereading something I've written, I get so caught up in the story, the characters, the world of the book, I forget I am the creator and just enjoy the story because it's a good story. I mean, that's a good feeling. Fabulous.

The other day, coming back from an event where I was fortunate enough to hear a reading from one of my favourite authors (and fortunate enough to have a brief chat with her, where, she reminded me, perhaps four years is long enough to worry about one novel. It may, she said, be time to let it go out into the world. Ahem. Yes. So, so, so true), I sat on the subway next to a woman reading a novel. It was in large print, so it was pretty easy for me to sneak peaks at the content. This book was terrible. It was possibly the worst book I've ever surreptitiously read a dozen pages of. It was so horrifyingly bad I still can't believe it was ever published in the first place. I mean, I thought it was ... I don't know! I thought it was self-published or something. It was so bad.

Today I found out it is a sequel to another book. IT IS PART OF A SERIES!!!

Not only did some agent decide to represent this book; not only did that agent then find a publisher to publish the book; not only did this book make it onto bookshelves and into libraries: THIS BOOK IS ONE OF MANY. ONE OF MANY TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, WRETCHEDLY WRITTEN BOOKS IN A SERIES.

I need to get published. Like, yesterday. If only to give people an alternate choice when it comes to the fiction they read on the subway.