I have some bad habits. I’ll share some of them with you. These are from the Don’t ever do this and the If you’re doing this – stop right now files.
1.
Never write a book using the method I’m
about to describe. Every time I sit down to scribble away at my work in
progress I begin back at the beginning. I start from the first line and revise
away until I catch up to where I left off last time. Sometimes I get
sidetracked in deleting or adding to a section and it can take a long, long
time to reach the point where I progressed to last time. After ten or fifteen
sittings I leave the first couple of chapters alone and begin at the third or
fourth chapter until I catch up. It’s time consuming and laborious and probably
not the most efficient use of my writing time. I seem to be stuck with this
method; I just can’t shake it. There may still be time for you though.
2.
If you plan on writing a trilogy of
books don’t tell anyone, especially your readers. I released my first book at
the end of 2011. I was lucky; it was quite successful. The plan for my next
project was to write a story that I’d had in my head for many years. My readers
had other ideas though. They wanted to know more about Gerald Hardly McDougall, one of the characters from my first book.
This was a true privilege. So, I decided to turn my single, stand-alone novel
into a trilogy and wrote the second book of the trilogy. I was able to release that
book – My
Name Is Hardly,
during 2012. It is now 2015 and book three, the third book in this well-intentioned
trilogy is still a work in progress. If you’re going to write a trilogy or any
type of series of books that involves the completion of the last book – keep
the information to yourself.
3.
Don’t respond to reviews. I’ve done this
and it did not end in a nightmare scenario, but it could have. As the wise sage
said, reviews are for readers, not for writers. Read them, take the hit or the
glory and move on.
4.
Be prepared to listen to the truth. Do
not surround yourself with other authors who are only going to tell you of your
brilliance. You probably are brilliant; we all display brilliant streaks from
time to time, but it takes work to become a better writer. It’s more important
for me to hear what I’m doing wrong than what I’m doing right. I want to know
that my story has plot holes or characters that are unnecessary, and I want to
make those changes before I expose my work to my readers. I want to release the
best work I can and that means I need to hear the truth.
5.
There’s kind of a mental no-man’s land
that I fall into when I’m not working on a book. The longer I’m between
creations the deeper I sink into this land and the less relevant everything
around me feels. I need to make up stories and tell those stories. Without that
I’m not only incomplete, I’m incompatible, inconsolable, incon…I just don’t fit
in. So, I need to write. I don’t always do this though. I sometimes devote
hours of time to networking (yes, this
involves Facebook), as I try to determine the best methods of promoting my
work. This is important, but as a professional writer and self-publisher I need
to write more than perform non-writing related tasks. So, I created a
spreadsheet that helps me balance the work so that the majority of my working
day is devoted to writing. My readers want new books, and that’s where my
efforts should lie. A wise writer commented on a thread recently and observed
that self-published authors who have hit those top levels and connected with
thousands of readers have produced lots of words. They turn those words into
books and then repeat the same process. Readers have a short attention span. If
we can’t provide them with product they’ll go elsewhere, and they’ll forget
about us. If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the last few years it’s that
there are a lot of great writers out there. And, they’re producing some fantastic work. So, keep writing.
I have other bad habits
but I’ll keep those to myself for now. If you’d like a copy of the spreadsheet
I put together that helps me balance my writing versus non-writing time email me
and I’ll gladly send it on. And, good luck connecting with your readers they’re
out there!
