“What is the most important thing you learned after completing your first book?”
That being a writer is nothing like I expected it to be.
Again, as I said last week when asked about publishing a first book, the “I did it” was a biggie for me and a few ideas below should have been in last week’s, but here we go:
Then I have to say that
1) it is easier to finish a book than I thought it would be, (why I procrastinate is another issue)
2) it doesn’t have to be perfect, (my best, but not perfect)
3) I will never be a best-selling author, (they won’t be breaking down my door to bring me movie-rights offers)
4) There are plenty of small publishers and a million new books published a year; there are too many books for too few readers, but at least, now there is a chance of someone reading works and there is the satisfaction of saying that yes, you are published, but my expectations are very low
5) there are no book tours, big publishing houses don’t even do them anymore. and no one is going to promote except you, and it takes a bundle of money, and as far as I can tell, no or next-to-no return. Horn-tooting has never been a thing that I can do, (and I can tell you that it gets old really quickly watching others push too hard on social media, but I feel for them)
6) the most important thing is that I need to write, I want to write, I can write and it has to be my work; I can’t let others influence me. No outrageous scenes of sex and gore, or even descriptions of clothing and food that are beyond what I deem actually flow in with the story, no matter how many people put their two cents in, or have decided to go that way with their own works and think that I should, too.
There we have it. I write because I love to, I feel compelled to. If I did not, I would not. That is satisfaction enough, even though who would not want to be read, adored, and be considered among the ‘greats’?
Life has many joys and sorrows, times of peace and worries. I can’t let writing be on the wrong sides of these. Personal satisfaction is peace. I need peace. Writing gives me peace and I will not let anyone make it into anything else.
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
To write for the love of writing—a true calling for those willing to embrace the adventure. Thanks for today’s inspiration, Tonette!
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Writing allows me peace — now and then — but it’s also filled with considerable stress and frustration. Especially when dealing with deadlines and external pressures.
Love your mention of writers who supply a LOT of “description” — like you, I want it to “actually flow in with the story.” I think I’ve mentioned this example before — and I no longer even remember which author or which story — but I was reading something where the writer spent nearly two full pages describing the gate a character was about to enter. I was thinking, as I read, “just let him walk through the gate, already!”. And it’s not as if that gate had any special significance to the plot or to some other character. I truly believe it was what we often see referred to as an author’s “conceit” — that he/she had seen a gate they thought was stunning (for some reason) and therefore decided to share its detailed description with readers (even though it had little to do with the current story).
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Conceit is a possibility…the old ‘kill your darlings’ should have been applied to the gate!
I probably mentioned this, too, but one book describes every outfits that the protagonist puts on throughout the book. Twice, a flitty skirt with strappy sandals and the rest, (at least 5 times), it was capri pants with a sleeveless shirt and flipflops, and every single piece was pink!
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It’s nice to have a mental picture of the scene, but too much detail can derail the enjoyment. I like Jeff’s reaction to the gate description – “Just let him walk through the gate, already!” Nice list of lessons learned.
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I have people pressuring me to put recipes in my works…that will never happen. You have to have some ‘name’ to get a cookbook published,(even if you aren’t a cook), so that’s what my other blog is for, not my novels/stories.
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“…nothing like I expected it to be.” What a perfect description of a writer’s journey!
I love your thoughts about writing. (PS – If you get the procrastination thing figured out, can you let me know? That’s one of my problems too!)
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I have to keep consulting Dennis Polumbo’s “Writing From the Inside Out”, and it helps…but I put off reading it!!!
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Oh, well said! I learned many of the same things that you did.
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We have to relax and enjoy, Elaine. Pushing to try to please others and trying to be popular and successful are detrimental to a person’s work and peace of mind.
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