Anyone who thinks writing is easy and think “oh I can do that,” feel free to smack some sense into them for me. They’ve been reading far too many bad books. There is nothing easy about writing. Okay, I take that back. The only thing easy about it for me is writing down the story. It’s when I can honestly say it’s fun. Then comes the editing. Editing can take anywhere from a few minutes to years. I know some people thought my story would never ever see the light of day because of my neverending editing. Editing goes far beyond the misspelled word or the poor sentence structure. It really does get easier the more books you write. Then again, it really doesn’t.
It’s worse if you are a new writer. You don’t just write a story on your computer, edit it and toss it out there. You have to add all the psychological issues you put yourself through during your journey, from your story hanging out on your computer to getting published for all to see. You must mention the times you posted an excerpt or a blurb of your book and you lay awake wondering what people will say. Then comes the critiques where you have to find it within yourself to brave the negativities enough to realize you don’t write as good as you think. And I mean the real critiques, not the “oh that’s really good” pats on the back which come from your family and friends.
Then there are those times you read someone else and you feel your writing is so inferior to theirs, you want to just throw in the towel for good.
For me, I find it’s sometimes good to get away from other writers. As much as it is important to commune with them, it’s important to take breaks from them as well. To get away from the how tos, the must dos, the should dos, please read my book and so on. We can’t forget that we are supposed to be reading for enjoyment too! This is one reason I turn off the writer in me when I read other people’s stories, unless they ask for my critique.
And if you want a critique, find someone you admire and ask for their help. Providing they aren’t Nora Roberts, some of them will be happy to read a chapter or so. They will help you with grammar, offer tips on how to tighten up sentences and give you pointers on plot and so on. What they won’t do is tell you what your characters should or shouldn’t do or say. They may point out certain feelings they get from your characters’ dialogue and action, but not judge your characters’ actions. They shouldn’t be telling you what’s realistic and what isn’t. If you are a good writer and have a vivid imagination, then you can have your hero fly in on a cow and rescue his true love. We see stupid things done in movies all the time and depending on how it’s done, it can win praises.
In the end, writing is all a matter of viewpoints. While one person can say you are the bombnizshitz, the next person could say you can’t write your way into a wrong. Most people on the New York Bestseller lists are there because either they or their publisher paid top dollar for promotion. How many times did we buy a book because it had the tagline “NY Bestseller” only to read it and go “what the hell?” The only thing a NY Bestseller tag does for me is say an author has money behind them. It doesn’t mean their good. What attracts me first is the cover, then the blurb, then I page through the book. If I feel myself transported someplace else, then I’m buying it. I suspect many of the general public follows this too. I feel sorry for them if they give the New York Times Bestseller List power to pick what they should read.
The best thing we can do as writers is to keep writing, honing our craft and following our hearts. We need to perservere against these dark days of publishing.
In the end, we should all feel proud that we dared to keep writing. We forced our way through the mire of edits and then dared to hit that “Send” button which placed it either in the hands of an agent, a publisher or directly into the hands of the public.
So how do you all feel about writing?