Through the Thick and Thin of a Writer's Life
Over the past few weeks I haven't felt much like a writer. With deadlines looming on two different books, promotions on another and events which I cheerfully (and with a certain degree of insanity) agreed to mastermind, I wonder what happened to the that relatively easy time before I was unpublished. Hmmm, would I trade it? Not for one second!
You see, regardless of what goes on once a writer has become published they have a responsibility to the readers of their work, whether they be publisher or consumer. So, while I take my husband from one doctor's appointment to the next, the back of my brain is constantly working on plot problems, motivation and the serious lack of time.
For the first year, I was up at 4:00 a.m. drinking ice water or hot chocolate, depending on the time of year, hair in every direction, clad in my wrinkled pajamas, merrily pounding away on the keyboard on one book or the other. Sometimes to the sounds of Gary Morris or the Osmonds (oh crud, I just dated myself) and sometimes in complete silence my creations came into reality. My first published book, Out of the Shadows . . . Into the Light (December 2004) was followed by 13 and 0: Reflections of Champions, (August 2005) which was then followed by Forged in the Refiner's Fire (February 2006). Somewhere along the way, 4:00 a.m. became 5:00, then 6:00 -- now it's whenever I wake up and whatever time I can squeeze in during an insanely busy day. Not for one blessed second would I trade this. No way would I go back.
Through thick and thin, a writer must produce quality work. Sometimes inspiration flows and pages upon pages fly by as you capture that which comes from your muse. Most of the time you slog away, cranking out four pages if you're lucky, usually trimming most of it away in the morning’s first edit. Whichever one it is, you have to keep writing. For some it's a burning inside that begins to overwhelm if you haven't written for a while. A dear friend of mine, also a writer as well as a teacher, said he was going to implode if he didn't get the time to start writing something soon. Yeah, I feel his pain.
So through the thick and thin of life I still thank God every single day that somebody likes my work and I’m a writer.
You see, regardless of what goes on once a writer has become published they have a responsibility to the readers of their work, whether they be publisher or consumer. So, while I take my husband from one doctor's appointment to the next, the back of my brain is constantly working on plot problems, motivation and the serious lack of time.
For the first year, I was up at 4:00 a.m. drinking ice water or hot chocolate, depending on the time of year, hair in every direction, clad in my wrinkled pajamas, merrily pounding away on the keyboard on one book or the other. Sometimes to the sounds of Gary Morris or the Osmonds (oh crud, I just dated myself) and sometimes in complete silence my creations came into reality. My first published book, Out of the Shadows . . . Into the Light (December 2004) was followed by 13 and 0: Reflections of Champions, (August 2005) which was then followed by Forged in the Refiner's Fire (February 2006). Somewhere along the way, 4:00 a.m. became 5:00, then 6:00 -- now it's whenever I wake up and whatever time I can squeeze in during an insanely busy day. Not for one blessed second would I trade this. No way would I go back.
Through thick and thin, a writer must produce quality work. Sometimes inspiration flows and pages upon pages fly by as you capture that which comes from your muse. Most of the time you slog away, cranking out four pages if you're lucky, usually trimming most of it away in the morning’s first edit. Whichever one it is, you have to keep writing. For some it's a burning inside that begins to overwhelm if you haven't written for a while. A dear friend of mine, also a writer as well as a teacher, said he was going to implode if he didn't get the time to start writing something soon. Yeah, I feel his pain.
So through the thick and thin of life I still thank God every single day that somebody likes my work and I’m a writer.
Unknown — 3/17/2006 07:30:00 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I don't know how you do it Candace. Just reading everything you have to do makes me tired.
Yeah, it makes me tired too . . . nevertheless, this is my life and how it works. My favorite authors publish between four and five books every single year. So I'm a slacker compared to them. Of course, they don't have to do all the marketing that I do . . . nevertheless, I work constantly on approving my writing, self-motivation and self-discipline.
[how do you work this thing? It ate my comment!]
So who publishes 4 & 5 books every year?
Besides Sylvia Browne who seems to have a new one every month. And she's not someone I would read. I was researching writers who were more prolific after age 50. Not that I'm 50 yet. I'm just too close for comfort and haven't written any of the 30+ novel ideas that are collecting dust in my underwear drawer.
Well, Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz, under their various nom de plumes as well as their actual names, just to name two. The quality of their writing is fantastic, structure great for the fiction genre I write in. They write hardback, paperback, two or three, maybe four sub-genres within the main genre. I love their work!
I wouldn't read Sylvia Browne either.
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