Monday, February 8, 2016

Why Write

When I began my writing adventure I really didn't know what I was in for, or what would actually become of it. I just knew I had a story to tell and I wanted to get it down on paper, and then eventually a computer.

A tale had exploded from my head and after many revisions, rewrites, editing, and a year or so later, I had my first novel. I'm paraphrasing here because I don't want to bore you with my task of the endless query process and depressing rejections. Let's approximate, it took...a while before I signed a contract.


I didn't go to college. I didn't take creative writing courses. I didn't know the first thing about writing. But, I was a voracious reader. I find it a pleasant diversion of humdrum life to venture into a variety fantastic novels. 

Now ~ a few books and years later, I've learned quite a bit about grammar, pronouns, adverbs and adjectives (which I tend to overindulge in) and needless to say I'm still at the learning stages. Like life, I believe writing is an everyday learning process.

Then comes the unceasing and mindboggling marketing, promotions, and not only book promos, but promoting yourself as an author. Then after all that, book sales go into the dumpster. To get books into the public eye through promo newsletters, its beneficial to sell your baby at the low price of 99 cents. All that hard work for pennies seems ludicrous. Kindle ebooks, if you're an indie or self-published author are generally priced between $2.99 - $4.99, and I believe that's a steal.


It would be awesome to make scads of money for our novels, or have our books be a main source of income, but that's highly uncommon. Only if you're J.K. Rowlings, James Patterson, Stephen King .... etc... and/or happen to get your book made into a movie, then you might be swimming in dough. If your writing a novel and hoping for riches and notoriety,  then you'll be disappointed if that's your expectations. 


Usually between the revisions and the unceasing edits, I'm not a happy camper. I realize editing puts the varnish and shine on our books, but I start to dislike re-reading my words a gazillion times.  


After all my complaining and thinking about the arduous, long task of writing a novel, I'm asking myself....


Why do I write? 

I've been asking myself that question a lot lately. Definitely not for the money. 


I finally realized something! 


Last week I was adding words to my WIP, and I found myself smiling. Yes, I was smiling ~ because I liked it. I enjoyed the fantasy world I was creating. I liked being transported to another place and time just like when I'm reading. And, I have learned a few things. My style and grammar and punctuations are getting easier to handle.



Will I continue on my writing path? 


For now, I can't seem to stop the stories from drilling into my skull, at least for the time being. It's a dream to be bigger and better, but I must remember to just write the best that I can ~ to entertain readers, and myself.



If you're an aspiring writer, 
write what makes you happy! 
And write for the Love of it!!

10 comments:

  1. I have to write. It is part of my reason for being. Glad you enjoy writing and I did not go to any special writing school either so write on!

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  2. Writing freelance articles pays the bills...to make a living as a novelist, you'd have to have multiple books out each year and that's hard--publishers don't like to put out more than one or two books a year from an author. You could have multiple books with multiple publishers, but we all know how hard it is to get ONE publisher to buy your book! I thought being prolific was the answer. In my experience, it is possible to make a living writing...just not writing solely fiction.

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  3. Doing what you love to do is the very best of reasons to do it. How about that for a sentence?

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  4. I try to keep the love of writing fresh as I do it. Editing is not my friend, but I still enjoy the writing process.

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  5. Fantastic advice! I am in the process of finding the love again. But I definitely enjoy writing. Editing is always hard forme too. The money would be great, of course, but if it never comes, I hope to still keep on writing. Best of luck Cathrina.

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  6. It's true. I actually have one story that could probably make it big. I think about pursuing it just because of that fact. I adore the MC, but I'm not such a fan of the world he occupies. Still, I could probably suffer through it just to make money. Lol. *shrugs*

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