Writers Imagine It Better
It's hard for me to imagine myself being an actual published author. I know I like the idea of it, if for no other reason that I can at least say in some way I left a tangible mark upon the world. And I certainly like the idea of being a successful author that can live off the money from book sales alone. Then my habit of staying up late and sleeping later won't be seen as lazy, but as part of my creative cycle.
But before either of those two things has any chance of happening, I'd actually have to write a book. And that's a lot of work! Maybe if it was as simple as sitting down and typing out 100,000+ words I wouldn't look at it so much as the literary equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. But it's not even close, at least not according to all I've heard and read about it.
First off, typing out those words in itself is a bit of a daunting task, or at least it would be for me. I've got a lot of story ideas, and quite a few of them very fleshed out (at least in my mind). So either I'm writing about one story and thinking about another, or I'm writing chapter one but my brain is in chapter three. It's nearly impossible for me to be on the same page with myself. Hell, I have a hard time focusing on just writing any one of these notes most the time (of which I'm trying to do more frequently now so I at least keep in the habit of writing regularly).
But even if I got a whole story out, next comes the editing part. Which means I have to read everything I wrote (and according to Stephen King, the best selling living author, it's best to wait about six months before proof reading so it's not so fresh in your mind and you can approach it more objectively). And then I rewrite a bunch of it. And then there's allowing a couple trusted friends to look over it, which will lead to more rewriting. In the end, you could easily end up writing more than twice as many words as will be published; it's almost like twice the work for half the result. And while I'm sure it's worth all the effort if you get published, that's a big "if" with no guarantees, especially for someone that's never been published before.
Which leads to the next big undertaking - getting published. You have to find an agent or you can try yourself to get a publisher to pick you up. Either way, it's a lot of work. And even if you find one or the other, there's still no guarantee you get published. The agent may not be able to find a publisher for you and eventually gives up or maybe the publisher backs out before going to press. Or maybe it's something else entirely. No matter what, until your book is on the shelves at bookstores, you're not actually a published author. Of course, there's the option of self-publishing, but that's a whole mess of its own that I don't want to think about let alone write about.
So anyways, yeah, it's a lot of work. With no amount of success guaranteed.
That being said...
Should I someday sit down and start writing, and for whatever reason I'm only able to write one book before I die, I've been thinking I should write a guide for men to the Friend Zone (with a section for women on why they're evil for even putting men into the zone). I mean, I'd like to write some novels and all, but if there's any on thing I feel qualified to write about (overqualified even), it's being stuck in the Friend Zone. I imagine it would be a humorous, light-hearted look at it all, but it wouldn't be without some actual advice (which would be me mainly saying what I did or didn't do and telling the reader to do the opposite).
And then you'd better believe, if I ever became a best-selling author and could live off the income of my book sales alone, I'd throw out every alarm clock in my house and sleep as much as I damn well pleased.
But before either of those two things has any chance of happening, I'd actually have to write a book. And that's a lot of work! Maybe if it was as simple as sitting down and typing out 100,000+ words I wouldn't look at it so much as the literary equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. But it's not even close, at least not according to all I've heard and read about it.
First off, typing out those words in itself is a bit of a daunting task, or at least it would be for me. I've got a lot of story ideas, and quite a few of them very fleshed out (at least in my mind). So either I'm writing about one story and thinking about another, or I'm writing chapter one but my brain is in chapter three. It's nearly impossible for me to be on the same page with myself. Hell, I have a hard time focusing on just writing any one of these notes most the time (of which I'm trying to do more frequently now so I at least keep in the habit of writing regularly).
But even if I got a whole story out, next comes the editing part. Which means I have to read everything I wrote (and according to Stephen King, the best selling living author, it's best to wait about six months before proof reading so it's not so fresh in your mind and you can approach it more objectively). And then I rewrite a bunch of it. And then there's allowing a couple trusted friends to look over it, which will lead to more rewriting. In the end, you could easily end up writing more than twice as many words as will be published; it's almost like twice the work for half the result. And while I'm sure it's worth all the effort if you get published, that's a big "if" with no guarantees, especially for someone that's never been published before.
Which leads to the next big undertaking - getting published. You have to find an agent or you can try yourself to get a publisher to pick you up. Either way, it's a lot of work. And even if you find one or the other, there's still no guarantee you get published. The agent may not be able to find a publisher for you and eventually gives up or maybe the publisher backs out before going to press. Or maybe it's something else entirely. No matter what, until your book is on the shelves at bookstores, you're not actually a published author. Of course, there's the option of self-publishing, but that's a whole mess of its own that I don't want to think about let alone write about.
So anyways, yeah, it's a lot of work. With no amount of success guaranteed.
That being said...
Should I someday sit down and start writing, and for whatever reason I'm only able to write one book before I die, I've been thinking I should write a guide for men to the Friend Zone (with a section for women on why they're evil for even putting men into the zone). I mean, I'd like to write some novels and all, but if there's any on thing I feel qualified to write about (overqualified even), it's being stuck in the Friend Zone. I imagine it would be a humorous, light-hearted look at it all, but it wouldn't be without some actual advice (which would be me mainly saying what I did or didn't do and telling the reader to do the opposite).
And then you'd better believe, if I ever became a best-selling author and could live off the income of my book sales alone, I'd throw out every alarm clock in my house and sleep as much as I damn well pleased.
posted by Paul | 12:54 AM
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