A typical writing week for this newbie author
Monday morning and I can write. Seriously, I sit at my computer and I know I can do it. Currently I’m in the late stages of editing a book I wrote several years ago and it is so much better than when I started. I have improved. I can write
Tuesday morning I decide to check if I’ve had any further Amazon reviews. It seems a good day to do it because I can write. There is a two star review for Do Opposites Attract: not really my cup of tea did they really have to tear each others clothes off so often. Okay, I can live with that. A five star review for Too Charming: really good book to read and I really enjoyed it she is a brilliant author as I have also read her other book. Oh boy, now I can’t just write, I’m a proper writer. I puff out my chest, grinning at my computer screen. For the next few hours I am hugely productive, making clever, witty, at times tear jerking changes. The words flow. This book is really shaping up.
.
In the evening I go onto Goodreads – a place I hadn’t dared to visit this month. There was a four star, a few three stars…and a one star.
Wednesday I can’t write. It doesn’t matter how many good reviews I’d had, the poor one stuck out. Reading the chapter I edited yesterday I found it clunky. It isn’t working. I change sentences round, then change them back again. I gaze out of the window…a lot. I find reasons to go onto Twitter and Facebook. The book will never get submitted. It’s not good enough.
On Thursday I hear that the book I submitted back in October is going to need a lot of editing. I had thought it was my best book yet. Clearly I don’t have a clue what I’m doing. I do other work, work that is more important than my writing because it earns me proper money. I am never going to be a writer. Later in the day a friend messages me to tell me how much she enjoyed my book. It’s a friend I don’t hear from very often so I think she must be telling me the truth, otherwise she’d have just kept quiet, wouldn’t she? It brings a smile to my face for the first time that day. In the evening I return to the book. Actually, it isn’t that bad.
On Friday I check Amazon again and find my rankings are up a bit. I must have sold a couple of books. I spend the whole day writing today and I really get into the book. I find myself nodding. This is really coming together. I like it.
The trick now is to get it finished and submitted before the next bad review comes in 🙂