Finding the courage to write

As an author of three novels, with a fourth on the way, I could tell you all the usual stories… about wanting to write since I was quite young, about what an avid reader I am, about how many stories I have inside of me.

“I could do that… I could write a novel.”

It’s a story I could tell you that would see many people nod and respond, “yeah, I’m the same. I also want to do that. I’ve got a book in me.”

And yet, for so many people writing a book, opening a café, starting a restaurant are the stuff of unfulfilled dreams. For those who take the leap, a high percentage quickly realize that romantic notions, when translated into reality, often become hard work.

Because, as so many of those who leap before they look find out, writing is a job.

Getting started with Writing

Let me tell you why.

Most people don’t have the luxury of giving up their day jobs, hiring nannies to look after their children, or letting their lives go in order to sit down and write. So in the beginning, for most of us, writing becomes a side-task to the other things that we do.

It’s the thing that you squeeze in, between a 9-5 routine, cleaning your house, doing your laundry, cooking meals, spending time with your spouse, partner and/or kids. It’s the thing you do when you’re not too tired, or too ill to focus. It’s the thing that you do that once you begin, you realize is going to take a long time to complete.

And that’s just writing the first draft.

But let’s step back for a moment.

The Process of Writing

Before you start writing, you need to know what you’re writing about. Who you’re writing about. Why are you writing to begin with? What story are you trying to tell? What genre? Are you writing romance? Science fiction? Dystopian? Who is your audience, and what is it about the genre that excites you?

I can’t speak for everyone, but writing a book for me was like going on holiday to a place you’ve never been before. First you need to decide you’re going on holiday. Then you need to pick the destination. Then you need to figure out how you’re going to get there, where you’re going to stay, and what you’re going to do once you’re there.

When it comes to these things, I’m not much of a planner.

But in writing a book, let alone a series, you need to have some sense of who your characters are, what the precipitating actions are, how and why they respond to them the way they do, and how you evolve them over the course of a book / series. This takes planning. It’s tough to just wander in and meander without a high prospect of getting completely lost.

So you have to put skills to use that may not be natural to you… or you may have to borrow skills from other things that you do and make them applicable to your writing.

Once you’ve figured these things out… you write. And you write. And you write. 

There is no simple way around this. You get up early in the morning and put some words on a page. During your lunch break, you put some words on a page. In the evening, you find a few spare moments to put some words on a page.

And you repeat this process indefinitely… or at least until you have a full draft. But, you’re not done yet.

Then come the revisions. Because no matter how proud we are about completing a full draft, the moment we put those last words on the page we realized that they’re not the last words you’ll put on the page.

Now you’ll need to follow the same process as above, possibly several times over, before you get to a manuscript that you are happy with. And then the next part of the process begins.

If you’re going to try and find an agent you’ll begin reaching out with cover letters and excerpts… but as I didn’t go that route, I’ll focus on the indie author route.

The Indie Publishing Process

I won’t go into detail here as I’ll save that for future posts. But suffice to say that you will need to…

Find a book cover designer

Find an editor

Find a proofreader

Format your books into ebooks and paperback

Consider building a beta group of readers

Build a website

Have social media accounts

Have an emailer programme for newsletters

Write newsletters

Build a following

Figure out if you’re going to be wide (on all platforms) or exclusive to Amazon

Create marketing and advertising materials

Set up advertising accounts on Facebook and Amazon

Upload your books to the platforms you’ve chosen

Promote them… 

And most importantly… write more books…

This becomes a never-ending cycle, and some might think at this stage… Why would anyone put themselves through that?

Writing as a career

It’s simple… this is the point where you separate the wheat from the chaff. Writers who move beyond the romantic notion of writing and want to become authors recognize that being an author is a job. It is hard work. And it can be thankless work in the early years.

Think about your own career. Maybe you graduated from University and got an entry level job. Maybe you moved into a vocation as an entry level worker. No matter how you started, you likely started at the bottom of the ladder. You are given tasks to do, you perform them, and you are critiqued by your boss and others on how well you do them. It is a learning loop that you never really escape no matter how long you’ve been doing it, and no matter how senior you become.

As writers who become authors, we do this too. Except in our early years, our “on the job” learning is public. Our readers are our co-workers and bosses. They tell us how well we are doing. They rate and review our work. And if we are smart, we listen and learn and look to improve–as you would do in any job.

That’s how it works. Our mistakes are out in the world for all to see. And will our first book be perfect? There’s a secret here… very few are. But you hope that as you listen and learn, and practice the craft of writing, you progress and become better over time. Bad reviews on early books can hurt. I can tell you from experience. But they can also be tools for learning.

What you do with feedback and criticism sets you up for how well–or badly–your career will go.

So Why Am I Writing This?

I can tell you, it’s not to disabuse you of the notion of being an author. Without authors I would never have developed the joy of reading and writing. No, it’s not about that. It’s to say that writing is a profession that is worth pursuing… if you are willing to put the time and effort into it, to learn, to make mistakes, to grow, and to thrive.

I’ve spent a lifetime becoming somewhat of an expert in other disciplines. And now, I am a new starter once again. I am learning from the ground up. And I am making mistakes. And I am listening. And learning. I admit, I won’t always get it right. And I’m also learning that where one person loves what you write and can’t say enough about what it means to them, for others it will miss the mark.

Every book isn’t for every reader. That’s a lesson I’ve learned.

But it doesn’t mean that what they have to say is invalid. You need to allow for all kinds of feedback in your career if you want to find your way. You need to be willing to put in the hard work that it will take to get you there. You have to take it seriously, or your readers won’t. When you’re starting out, most won’t expect you to be perfect. But they want to see that you’ve put effort into it and that you’re growing.

Every time you set out to write, write the best thing that you possibly can with what you have learned. Demonstrate that you listen by making progress in your prose. Show readers that it's not a hobby–that you take it, and them, seriously.

And swallow your pride. You’ll need to do that because when you look back at your earlier work, unless you are one of the few whose first novel was their best, you will recognize how much you have learned and evolved over time.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for your time!

B. Scott Hoadley is the author of urban fantasy series OLD BLOOD SAGA.

His books, The Weaver, Old Blood and Hunter’s Moon are available in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and Paperback on Amazon - https://author.to/bscotthoadley

His fourth book, Blood Ties, is due out Christmas 2023.

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