Lovecraft Despairs

I know many of you are writers. It is a frustrating profession, and Lovecraft felt the stress.

[To Wandrei, November 27, 1931, p, 291 in MTS] Dear Melmoth: ... I have ... done some experimenting in the hope of improving my style somewhat, & the result of such practice may soon take the form as a kind of a story called "The Shaodow over Innsmouth". The experimenting consisted of writing out the same plot in different manners, but is ending rather negatively - with four versions torn up & the fifth taking form in about the same waythat it would have if I hadn't experimented at all. My stuff does not satisfy me ..."

[To Wandrei, October 19, 1932, p. 313, 314 in MTS] Hail, Melmoth! ... Belknap read my "Shadow Over Innsmouth" & thought it shewed {sic} a decline in the old man's powers. Between that opinion & Comte d'Erlette's {August Derleth} annihilation of "Witch's House", I'm about ready to fade from the map."

Well fellow writers, Mr. Lovecraft recovered and continued to write. Somedays, that's all we can do: Write and pray to the muse.

[MTS] Mysetries of Time and Space: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Donald Wandrei, ed. Joshi & Schultz, 2002, isbn 1892389495