I once was lost but now I'm found...
Don't panic I'm not about to go all "preachy" on you, but I am about to make a vow.
Since the release of The Guardian and the Rogue Shadow I have slowly but surely found myself being dragged away from the Part-Time fun that is writing. I have been suffering with an issue that many indie writers tend to suffer with at some point and I don't mean an embarrassing rash in an embarrassing location. I'm talking about Writers Doubt.
That may not be an official term - and if it isn't I am coining it - but it is the best way to describe it. The symptoms of the dreaded WD include doubt - of course - about every aspect of your writing, about the glowing reviews and whether they are just a sack of lies. Thinking about whether family and friends truly believe in your writing ability or whether they were actually the same type of people that push the horrifyingly bad singers onto the X-Factor just to be ridiculed on a grand scale. When initial sales slump and your previous plans to become the "Next Big Thing", able to quit your job and write for a living, evaporate only to be replaced by an empty desire to quit completely.
All of these things - plus any more you guys out there wish to share - culminate in any and all motivation to just up and leave without a trace and that is just so, so sad. This is exactly what has happened to me. I was warned, I had read other blogs and spoken to a fair few other indie authors who had been through the same thing but at the time I had no concern over myself. I knew I couldn't ever lose motivation doing something I loved... but it happened. Up until a few days ago I hadn't touched my twitter, GoodReads or this website. I hadn't even looked at my amazon rankings - which was a daily routine for me in the past - WD was my own personal Dementor! I had put down the pen and didn't have any intention of picking it back up until a small light broke through my dark clouds.
Like most indie authors out there I had sent off free copies of my books to bloggers, book reviewers, website etc. etc. and several days ago I received an email out of the blue. Back at the end of 2013 amongst the pile I had sent out was Charline Ratcliff. Charline is VERY helpful to people like me, maybe some of you, in that she offers a review service alongside all of the other things she has going on. We all know people like her, they are a godsend to authors but i have NO idea how they find the time!
So, originally her review was planned to arrive to me early in 2014, she was inundated with other books and, as stated above, had her own things going on too. Instead, maybe by fate, her review arrived with me at the end of June where I really was not even thinking about writing. It landed in my inbox and it was a great review but more importantly it came at the exact right time. I'm not saying that the review itself was life-changing, I know it’s not going to suddenly make me sell millions of books, BUT it was the start of a turn around. I then shared a few emails with Charline and we chatted about WD - not that I called it that at the time as I didn't really want to sound like an idiot in real-time - and her positive attitude only aided my change of heart.
Slowly but surely over the past few days the writing itch has returned, motivation is calling me and it's in part thanks to the perfect timing of a book blogger / writer / all-round awesome person - Charline Ratcliff. So it's worth noting that although WD can seem irrepairable, like a bottomless pit of self-woe, sometimes the small things can break through the clouds and return you back to your previous highs. It can force you to pull on your super creative writing hat and cape - just me? - and return to the battlefield to fight for your place on the virtual shelf of kindles around the world.
From now on I will be doing just that, Book Three will be underway very shortly and hopefully released soon after. If you want to share your own experiences of Writers Doubt let me know in the comments below or why not check out Charline Ratcliff at http://www.charlineratcliff.com/ and maybe she can inspire you too.
Check out original over at www.sllewis.com
Since the release of The Guardian and the Rogue Shadow I have slowly but surely found myself being dragged away from the Part-Time fun that is writing. I have been suffering with an issue that many indie writers tend to suffer with at some point and I don't mean an embarrassing rash in an embarrassing location. I'm talking about Writers Doubt.
That may not be an official term - and if it isn't I am coining it - but it is the best way to describe it. The symptoms of the dreaded WD include doubt - of course - about every aspect of your writing, about the glowing reviews and whether they are just a sack of lies. Thinking about whether family and friends truly believe in your writing ability or whether they were actually the same type of people that push the horrifyingly bad singers onto the X-Factor just to be ridiculed on a grand scale. When initial sales slump and your previous plans to become the "Next Big Thing", able to quit your job and write for a living, evaporate only to be replaced by an empty desire to quit completely.
All of these things - plus any more you guys out there wish to share - culminate in any and all motivation to just up and leave without a trace and that is just so, so sad. This is exactly what has happened to me. I was warned, I had read other blogs and spoken to a fair few other indie authors who had been through the same thing but at the time I had no concern over myself. I knew I couldn't ever lose motivation doing something I loved... but it happened. Up until a few days ago I hadn't touched my twitter, GoodReads or this website. I hadn't even looked at my amazon rankings - which was a daily routine for me in the past - WD was my own personal Dementor! I had put down the pen and didn't have any intention of picking it back up until a small light broke through my dark clouds.
Like most indie authors out there I had sent off free copies of my books to bloggers, book reviewers, website etc. etc. and several days ago I received an email out of the blue. Back at the end of 2013 amongst the pile I had sent out was Charline Ratcliff. Charline is VERY helpful to people like me, maybe some of you, in that she offers a review service alongside all of the other things she has going on. We all know people like her, they are a godsend to authors but i have NO idea how they find the time!
So, originally her review was planned to arrive to me early in 2014, she was inundated with other books and, as stated above, had her own things going on too. Instead, maybe by fate, her review arrived with me at the end of June where I really was not even thinking about writing. It landed in my inbox and it was a great review but more importantly it came at the exact right time. I'm not saying that the review itself was life-changing, I know it’s not going to suddenly make me sell millions of books, BUT it was the start of a turn around. I then shared a few emails with Charline and we chatted about WD - not that I called it that at the time as I didn't really want to sound like an idiot in real-time - and her positive attitude only aided my change of heart.
Slowly but surely over the past few days the writing itch has returned, motivation is calling me and it's in part thanks to the perfect timing of a book blogger / writer / all-round awesome person - Charline Ratcliff. So it's worth noting that although WD can seem irrepairable, like a bottomless pit of self-woe, sometimes the small things can break through the clouds and return you back to your previous highs. It can force you to pull on your super creative writing hat and cape - just me? - and return to the battlefield to fight for your place on the virtual shelf of kindles around the world.
From now on I will be doing just that, Book Three will be underway very shortly and hopefully released soon after. If you want to share your own experiences of Writers Doubt let me know in the comments below or why not check out Charline Ratcliff at http://www.charlineratcliff.com/ and maybe she can inspire you too.
Check out original over at www.sllewis.com
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