The Writer's Life

There are so many roadblocks, pitfalls and challenges to creating a book. First, we need an idea, plot, characters. Then we need to form them into some sort of logical progression. After that, it’s edits and rewrites and more edits, and somewhere in between we have to create a query that makes our book sound enticing in two paragraphs and a synopsis that summarizes the story from start to finish in a couple of pages. If anyone tells me they like writing a synopsis, I’ll assume they’re lying through their teeth.

This doesn’t take into account the distractions of a day job (which many of us have) and the obligations and pleasures of family and friends. Carving out time to do the writing is sometimes as much of a challenge as actually writing the book.

All those challenges take place in the comfort of your own home. Once you let your baby out into the big, bad world, there’s rejection, revise & resubmit letters, contract assessment, edits and more edits (when you’d already thought your baby was PERFECT). After publication, you worry whether you’re going to sell anything. Are you doing enough promotion or too much? What if no one reviews your book? Worse, what if they give you a bad review? What if everyone hates it? (Yes, many of us are this neurotic.) There are also pirates and plagiarists to worry about. Life as a writer is fraught with worry, and then you need to worry… can I do it again? Can I go through that all again for the next book?

Clearly, though, my cat thinks I do not struggle or suffer enough and has taken it upon herself to add just that little bit more…

Don’t get me wrong, the joy of creating something from nothing makes up for a lot of pain. Knowing complete strangers can read your words and feel moved is what keeps so many of chipping away at those roadblocks. Thank you, to all the readers out there who help make it worthwhile for us.

KC Burn