Do you have an idea for writing a short story, novel, poem or play? Whenever I meet someone new, and they find out that I wrote a book, the first thing they say is invariably "I have this great idea for a book", or "I have a million dollar idea, if only someone would make it", or "I always wanted to write a book".
I have a few knee-jerk responses that I give when people ask how to do it and the answer is: Work it. Don't keep WANTING to write it, sit down and write it. The first version is going to suck, just know that, be comfortable with that and then re-attack it, rewrite it, revise it, perfect it. Mold your baby so that you're happy with it. I made a mistake with the first book, one that I'm still struggling with, and that is that it wasn't the perfect creation, it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I'm happy with it, I'm proud of it, but it isn't perfect. Other authors tell me not to worry about it, people always screw up their first one, and eventually, after say 3 or 4 books, they go back and fix the first one. This conundrum has been twisting around in my head since the first review of Awakenings, and has truly seized my hands. I wrote most of the sequel to Awakenings shortly after, even during the publishing process of Awakenings, but locked up when the reviews came back less than stellar. I self-published Awakenings through Authorhouse in 2009, and I will be re-publishing it through Fantastic Journeys Publishing when I finish perfecting it. This could take another year, or it could take three months. The trick is MAKING the time to just sit down, and WORK IT. Comments are closed.
|
Author Quotes"That's just crazy enough to suck". Archives
May 2016
|