I’ve been talking about my writing a lot recently – for a number of reasons and to a pretty mixed audience. It surprises me how easy people think it is to be published; as though every writer has a raft of offers (if only).
I explain the options of traditional publishing vs self publishing and how literary agents are the first line of resistance when it comes to most traditional publishing, but still I get the ‘of course you’re published’ comments that make me feel a little like I’ve failed them.
Getting an agent isn’t automatic, isn’t that easy for most people, and doesn’t guarantee publication anyway!
It surprises me how many people don’t know what goes on for writers, really – questions and assumptions I’ve heard about my own ‘career’ can be really demotivating, and quite honestly I have rejection letters and emails for that, I don’t need it from people in general conversation!
On the more positive side, editing has gone really well this week, despite a few shaky days when I couldn’t fit writing work in because of other things going on. In some respects I think the busy days helped me because I was so keen to make up some lost time that I’ve managed to do more in an editing session than I would normally expect.
I now have just 34 A4 pages left to go, and that is my task for tomorrow. I hope it won’t take more than 3 hours but if it does, I’ll just have to hunker down for a long evening. Luckily, as I am working a lot of extra hours from Tuesday onwards I should get out of work on time tomorrow!
I’m still enjoying revisiting the book; there have been a few changes to improve the flow but really, there’s not a lot of alteration. I want to build on this little world I have created though, and explore where these characters go – so I am really keen to get going on the sequel.
Perhaps that’s the part I miss when talking about writing. Publication is an ideal, because I want people to read what I’ve produced – but writing is the goal. I don’t write because I want a lucrative career, or a twitter following, or the film rights, or to be able to wear designer dresses to fancy awards. I write because I need to write. When I don’t sit down and build a story, or poem, or moment on a piece of paper, I am missing out on joy.
The rest is just wrapping paper. The writing is the gift.
Enjoy your gift,
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 
Leave a Reply