Was on social media this week and someone posted about this. Writing as an Indie author is a rough road. Writing is only a small part of the business, sadly. Writing your story, novel or short, is only a tiny sliver in the pie chart.
You gotta edit it over and over, smooth out the rough parts, streamline the plot curvy or straight, get the title just so and make it sing. But even that’s just a piece.
You gotta submit it…EXCEPT before you can do that you gotta get your cover letter up to speed. Synopsis and query and book comps (insert Eye Roll Emoji here: ERE–I’ll go into a tirade on book comps some day…bunch of B.S. is what that is…), before you ever get to submitting.
Then you slog through rejections, being told over and over how your your story is just fine (ERE) but it doesn’t quite fit what we’re looking for. Meanwhile the markets are telling you that they want something Harry Potterish (well not really) or some other trendy book series that made a crap ton of money for them, but that’s what they really mean, even though they don’t even understand what that means…
Are you depressed yet? 🙂
It’s okay. As a writer and author you’re allowed to have down days. You will. You’ll sit at your keyboard and wonder why the hell you waste your time when you can’t get your stories in front of people you know will love them. It’s like walking through hot coals one excrutiating step at a time, looking for that one home run hit.
Now are you depressed? 🙂 🙂 🙂
What the hell, Crawford? Why am I reading this? I’m already feeling bad about this business and you’re making it worse…
Because that’s only the surface. That’s the waves on top of the sea, churning and throwing your boat this way and that, threatening to dump you at any moment.
If you drop down below, you reach the tranquil calm while above you everything cavorts and rolls and swells. Get back to the core…your core, and you remember why you started this in the first place.
It’s those moments when you’re in sync with your keyboard or your notebook and the words are flying so fast your fingers will ache at the end of the night (or morning if that’s your thing). IT’s being in that ‘zone’ where you see the story unfolding in front of your eyes and the twists just show up and drop onto the page. The angst of your characters as they try to survive and thrive even though they’re up against obstacles no sane person could face, let alone win against.
It’s writing a scene that hits you in the soul and you know it’s good no matter how many edits it will eventually need. It’s watching the end build in a climax that later, you wonder how the hell you ever came up with that because you’re surely not that clever. It’s getting a scene just right and giving your readers a gut punch they never saw coming.
I’ve had lots of moments like that and it’s the reason I keep returning to the keyboard. I love it when the writing machine is running full tilt like a semi screaming down the road and the breeze is tearing in through the windows at you. It’s watching Riker and McCoy scrambling down the side of ridge as everything’s coming apart around them, death chasing them and setting up a cliffhanger for the fourth act. It’s Allen watching his daughter caught up in something bigger than everyone and not understanding what’s going on in A Murmuration of Starlings published by New Myths. It’s watching Carrie finally cross paths with a doctor who’s not just interested in shoving pills down her throat in Welcome To Fudgetown published by Dark Horses Magazine.. It’s Gavin finally realizing what he has to do to escape his curse though everyone around him told him not to in She’s Never Gone published by Wicked Shadow Press.
It’s James “Jiminy” Katzin forced to face the consequences of his actions in Was It Worth It, even though it hasn’t been published yet.
It’s all those moments when you hit it just right and you know it’s good even though it hasn’t been given a nod yet. It’s that feeling that rolls down your backside when a piece just feels so good, and the best part is you know YOU created that.
That’s why we write.
Sure we want the publication, the pats on the back, the accolades, the cash and the notoriety but it’s the dance with language that brings that warmth and pride when you knock a story out of the park. Even if only ten people ever read it, I do not care. It’s worth the toil and the sweat and hours.
Don’t quit and don’t give up. Ever. When writing is part of your soul, let it sing. Even if you’re the only one listening to the melody.
Craig