Hello, all!
Today, i wanted to give budding writers, readers, and just plain old curious folks a little glimpse of the sacrifices made to write. Because writing a book, let alone multiple books, is not a passive process. it takes time, a hell of a lot of patience, and a ton of work.
So, here goes.
One of the first things to go, for me, was tv and movie time. I usually watch a bit with my husband while we eat, but beyond that…it’s just background noise.. we occasionally have a binge day, where I set my writing aside for a few hours, but that’s like…every couple weeks.
Now, for me, that was an easy thing to do. I’d already sacrificed these poor creatures to the OCDemons when I was a kid. Remotes were “dirty,” as was the couch, even though nothing in the house I grew up in was ever all that dirty. It just violated the rules set forth by my OCD.
So, tv and movies were never a huge part of my life. For some, this is a big problem.
But you can’t expect a book to materialize in front of you, with your name on the cover, if all you do after work is sit in front of a tv for hours on end.
Not unless you want it to take about 20 years.
Now, video games have been harder to let go.
When I was younger, these, too, were sacrificed at the alter of the OCDemons. But after college, they were resurrected. And they found me.
Hell, for a while, when Final Fantasy XIV came out, my husband and I would alternate nights, and that was just…what we did. One of us played, and the other either did chores, or watched. Then, the next night, it switched. We did that for months.
And don’t even get me started on Skyrim or Fallout 4. I sank so much time into those games, and I loved every second of it.
But I want to write. I want to, eventually, make a career out of writing so I can write even more. That means cutting out other things to make time for it.
So, I put less time into video games.
And…all my other various hobbies. Lol.
And…also some social time.
Basically, what I’m saying is that it takes work and dedication.
And if you’re going to do it, if you’re going to put in the effort of writing a book, you may as well put in the effort to do it right. That means learning about grammar, and style, and flow, and character arcs, and so many other things…In addition to writing time.
So, anyone beginning a writing career, balance is going to be hard. You’re going to have to give up a lot. But if it’s your dream, do it. Make time for loved ones, of course, but if it comes down to choosing between watching a show you’ve seen several times or hammering out a chapter…
You know what you have to do.
Readers…please just appreciate the effort that goes into a book. As a ton of online posts would say, “feed an author, leave a review.” Lol.
But seriously, leave reviews.
Amazon doesn’t put books into certain featured lists until they get a certain number of reviews. They’re pretty important.
Anyway, I’ll stop ranting and raving for now. It’s been a pretty productive week. I typed just over 6,600 words for Salt and Silver, and have a chapter handwritten. Then, just the epilogue and I might add a chapter. I’ve got it planned, and it’ll help with balance and closure, but it isn’t completely necessary.
We’ll see. I’ll probably write it, and then go through the story with and without it. Then…it may face the guillotine.
Either way, I’m getting so freaking close to being done with the first draft. And the closing line of the last chapter…
I can’t tell you (literally, because spoilers) how happy I am with it. That one line wraps it all up so damn nicely.
I still have to type that part up, and I’m genuinely looking forward to typing that last line. It won’t be the last part I type, because I’ll still have to do the epilogue. But I want to get to that part of the story, again. The rush of it when I wrote it out by hand…
*sighs contentedly*
Well, for now, I’ll be signing off.
Keep reading. Keep writing.
Later.