Burnout is a term those in the creative world tend to feel all too often. Author Cherie Priest was no exception to this common trend, but she’s here today to tell you of the story that helped pull her out of that place. Travel into the world of her newest novella, Cinderwich.
CHERIE PRIEST:
Did you ever have one of those jobs that sucks so bad, you fantasize about getting hit by a car or having a heart attack—purely to be free of it? Well, Cinderwich happened because I didn’t listen to my gut, and I took one of those jobs.
Deep-down I knew it would be a horror show (and not the fun kind) and woo boy howdy, was I right. The gig was as bad as I’d feared and worse, and when I finally extricated myself months later, I had a long, hard conversation with Writer Cherie about whether or not she wanted to keep doing this nonsense. I very seriously considered throwing in the towel and going back to teaching or something—because if such gigs were the price of supporting myself with my proverbial pen…then I didn’t want to do that anymore.
After this gig of infamy (and no, I won’t tell you what it was), I didn’t write again for ages.
The burnout breakdown hit me too hard, and it took time to begin the process of crawling back to my keyboard. But when I finally did, I decided to take my own advice and write something for fun. I would write something just for me, and if anyone else ever read it or liked it, then great—but most importantly, I had to enjoy writing it.
Was I still capable of finding pleasure or reward in wordsmithing? Or should I take up something steady and predictable like air conditioning repair?
There was only one way to find out.
But my new resolution raised a very big question: What story did I want to tell? What would make me happy to compose? Forget trying to sell it, forget tailoring it to a publisher, or a trend, or an audience. What would successfully tickle my brain, and remind me that I used to love this job?
With one last, feeble rally, I regrouped. I tried again.
And it turned out, I wanted to write fan-fiction about solving spooky little mysteries with my spooky little friends.
Was this a smart conclusion? No, not especially—but that didn’t stop me.
I picked a setting, a title, and a true crime incident from decades past to fictionalize. Then the characters arrived. Some of them I generated from thin air, but more than a few were inspired by dear friends who I did not get to see often enough…
Cinderwich: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop
Source: The Big Idea: Cherie Priest
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