Is there anything better than telling a story to the world? No, there is not!
I thought I’d put some thoughts down about my writing life. It’s a wonderful mix of left brain/right brain, love/hate, drive/ procrastination, confidence/despair. A writer’s life holds such contradictions, it’s no wonder we fear for our sanity.
But a writing life is wonderful. There is nothing better than escaping into one’s own world, in fact, I live there most of the time. Creating a character from our imagination and then having them surprise us with their actions or words is such a joy. For, though readers like to imagine a writer has control of all aspects of their manuscript, this isn’t the case. Once let loose on the page, our imagination and characters can and do make amazing things happen.
At the moment, the right side of my brain is taking a back seat to the left- yes, I’m editing. I love this part of the process where you get to file off all the rough edges and see your word sculpture taking shape. It’s a multistep process. For example, The Elf King’s Lady, which I’m working on at the moment, was edited multiple times by myself before it was sent to my editor. She has come back with suggested changes which I’m currently working on. Once this is complete, the manuscript will move to another editor and then her suggestions will be sent back to me for another revision. There will be another edit after that and more work for me to do but by then I will almost have the finished product.
With at least four books to be released this year, I’ve been editing all year and the pressure is mounting within to write another story. I have three ideas in mind, involving my world for which there are now two series: my self-published Brightcastle Saga and Momentum’s Wildecoast Saga. Momentum’s will obviously be the focus. Lucky I have Brightcastle Saga Book 2 already written and-you guessed it- awaiting another edit!
Sounds busy but I pace myself. I have to. All writers have another life and most have other jobs. Almost all have children or grandchildren to care for (other than their book babies).
I hope that gives an insight into my writing life though I really haven’t touched on the agony of actually writing the story yet. That would be a whole blog series! Perhaps I can look at that later in the year and get some other writers to help.
In the meantime, happy reading- you’d better enjoy it because now you know how much blood sweat and tears goes into a book.
