A Year of Battling the Shadows
It’s been over a year since I last updated. Even though I take writing with the seriousness of a job, this “respite” was something I seemed to need. Why?
I love writing, and it was (and is) my intention to publish a novel a year minimum, but ideally two or more plus multiple short stories. I had my third novel, Forbidden: Evil Days almost ready since a year ago. Yet I did not move for a year. The reason?
Everybody says it is hard to start out on your own, especially when you’re no tycoon daughter and have to climb every step on your own. However, I had noticed that I was having a harder luck than any other person who was getting started like me, even though I have quite some confidence in my writing. Places that supposedly gave you a few reviews gave me none. People who offered to review disappeared into thin air after getting my book. And the few people who did answer all treated me like I was forcing them to down garbage. Many of their critics proved valid, but you can criticize someone and still be nice. They really didn’t need to try belittling me, insulting my characters or laughing at what I write. I was sure I had the misfortune of meeting the absolute worst people on the block. In any case, a phrase came around over and over: “You need an editor”.
Yeah, right! I have no money, barely managing to buy food and pay the bills, and I would hire someone that charges so much? However, I realized that something had to be done. This situation just couldn’t go on. I wanted to go forward, so I had to remove the blocks somehow! The issues that came out from the people who read (totally unrelated to each other) were:
-Bad grammar. Apparently I sucked at English. It is not my mother language, after all.
-Lack of descriptions. I knew I had this problem because of my past as a fanfic author, but I thought I had gotten better.
-Specifically my first novel, it seemed the beginning was boring and undefined. Really? Well, I tried to keep an air of mystery—did I overdo it?
Okay, I don’t have money for an editor, but this needed to be fixed. The simple answer was: If I can’t hire an editor, might as well become one myself.
So last year…
-I learned English. No, I mean, really learned, starting from the very foundations, the first grade, the very structure of sentences. Been back to the drawing board in the most humbling of ways. Pride will not help at all here.
-Enlarged my personal thesaurus. English is a very poor language compared to Spanish or Japanese. It has very few synonyms and few words.
-Started to pay attention to every little thing that might need a description.
-Absolutely rewrote Forbidden and Forbidden: New Days, now with this more sophisticated, better grammar. I used an editor. :)
So yeah… Last year was absolutely unproductive, and yet building stronger foundations for my career is probably the most important thing I could have done.
In any case, I think I’ve learned enough for now… I guess? The other day I was comparing my writing to 50 Shades of Grey’s (which is usually considered mediocre) and mine came out on top (grammatically speaking), so I think I’m ready to go on. Now my grammar is mediocre at worst, LOL!
Ready to resume the fight! Very soon, we’ll have Evil Days around!
