I'm about to start editing my first draft (first book). There's a lot to do, but I'm going to just do what I can each day.
And if you thought all that was hard and you end up self publishing, wait until you get to the advertising/selling/getting it out there part!
Oh Good God! the damn formatting! What a crash course in PDF's and page numbers and blank pages that was! How did I not know that you needed two blank PDF pages to make one book page blank on both sides in a paperback book????
I just realized something about my own writing. See, I get bored easily, which is why I hate reading. So if writing wasn't hard I would have given up a long time ago.
Oh gosh! I know what you mean. I decided to sit down one day and write a little fic, my first ever, last year. It ended up being over 100,000 words, with plot twists and far more in-depth than I ever imagined. Now I'm writing another, and it too is a monster. These are only for kicks and giggles, mind you, yet they are taking months and MONTHS of work. A publisher I work with (illustrate for) stumbled on my fan fiction and to my astonishment, said I could try my hand at writing for them, and now I'm scrambling to improve before I embarrass myself. Thus, the hasty membership to this forum. Now I am looking at taking some online courses, and adding some major life altering decisions into the mix to pursue this- because I can't squash the bug. I must write.
Yeah, I am beginning to find it very frustrating actually. I have been writing my book for years and it still isn't done. Now I've got side tracked with a short story thats gone long and polishing the finished draft is taking me forever. All with the significant likelihood of no payoff whatsoever. Why do we do this again?
Because we'll go insane if we don't. As much as I like my characters, I would rather them be on the page where they belong instead of floating around in my head.
I can relate....a little. The other night I came up with a great idea for a book series. I wrote most of it done and then ran upstairs to share it with my wife. Once I was actually saying it out loud I could feel the passion for the story leaving and I didn't care for it as much as I originally did. Granted it didn't write several chapters to get to that point like you did. That must be difficult; however, maybe you should continue. This could turn into something entirely different as you let the story and characters take you somewhere. Perhaps write it as though even you don't know what is going to happen next. Then the writing process, as well as the story, may be much more satisfactory. Best of luck to you! ~Chad Lutzke
You can relax. I don't knit ...yet. I write...! At the moment anyway ...but knitting does suit people of my age ...what size head have you got?
But Minstrel, I thought that was you in your avatar, and you clearly don't look like you have a basketball-sized head. And no one is smothering our resident squirrel!
^ NEIN!! <bats away the owl that I assume is you> No sticking the squirrel with the dreaded needles of death!!! >:[ But just out of curiosity, when you write the first draft, aren't you stuck in a Catch-22 situation? You don't want to worry too much about the writing, but at the same time, you want the writing to be somewhat readable, true? I mean, you still have to worry about the word usage, what presents the clearer imagery, etc.?
This resonates with me; I actually don't entirely enjoy writing, its not my passion. The writing is more a deeply rooted emotion that makes me sit down and write, however badly I manage.
KNITTING needles! No sticking at all! I'm knitting the squirrel a hat... and he just told me his head is the size of a pumpkin. So it's the jumbo needles...
