The life of a writer

I’m behind on writing, I’ll be the first to admit that. 8 years ago when I wrote “Amelia’s Story” I stayed home during the day and worked part time evenings. By day, the kids were in school and I was home alone, perfect writing opportunity. But these days are different. I’m working full time with various hours and trying to balance time with loved ones. So when do I write now? Good question. I’m trying to discipline myself to sit down and do it but there always seems to be something, someone and I’m distracted.

Being an Indy author makes it even harder and I don’t think a lot of people realize that.  Writing a book itself is a taunting task, it takes time and patience to get the first draft. But that’s only the beginning. Then there are revisions, edits, more revisions, more edits, ect. until the piece is the way you want it. An Indy author, well any author actually, has to build a following. I’ve heard it called a list, a tribe, a platform which are all basically the same- writers/authors need readers. And it helps to have this following of readers before a book is released. Unfortunately we live in a world where just because a book is published, no matter how, Indy or traditional, doesn’t mean that its going to sell. A writer has to have readers interested before that book release. People who the writer can email and say, “It’s available now,” and they’ll be excited because they’ve been waiting. To build that following, we have to stop the writing process and make a splash on social media, websites, and blogs. We have to let readers know, hey I’m out here and soon I’m going to release a book so please buy it.

Doesn’t sound so easy anymore does it? Write, but pause to promote yourself, keep writing so that you have something worth promoting yourself for. Maybe in time it gets easier, after a couple of published books and a good number of readers who are going to look for new material from you. But as an Indy author, it takes a whole lot to get to that point.

So what kind of a life does a writer have? None! We sit in rooms alone, lock ourselves in for hours or days at a time. Then we attend our jobs so that we have a room to lock ourselves in. Sleep, we don’t always get much of that. I can’t speak for the thousands of authors out there but as for me, my stories talk to me when I try to sleep. Characters complain that they aren’t getting enough attention, ideas on plots pop in my head, ect. Lately, I’m very tired!

Thanks for reading. That was just a little bit inside a writer’s mind. Now if you don’t mind me, I have a novel that I need to keep working on.