It amazes me how when people hear that I am the author of nine books (as of this writing), they immediately say, “I’ve always wanted to write a book,” or “I have a few book ideas I should start writing.” They make it seem like it’s so easy. But in reality, writing takes a lot of time and energy. It takes a lot of discipline and it is an ongoing learning process. It can also be very isolating, and most of all you have to have a thick skin to be in this business. It is by no means roses and butterflies.

Let me break it down by a few of the points mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Time and Energy

If you have an idea for a book or story, great! Getting it out of your head and putting it down on paper for it to make sense to the reader is where it gets tricky.

You can plan and plot the idea which I do sometimes with the use of notebooks and cue cards. Or you can let the story unfold, like I do at other times. Neither way is right or wrong; it just depends on the writer. It takes time to develop your style, and sometimes it gets frustrating.

I have been writing for many years and there are many times that I have walked away from writing only to return to it several years later. Sometimes I see the material with fresh eyes like the original Family Portrait Series and the re-imagined Banovic Series. Other times I scrap the idea and start something new. I have dozens of unpublished works that may never see the light of day. Which didn’t happen overnight… see where I am going with time?

From a business perspective, time equates to money. In the writing world, you spend a lot of time writing for no money.

Discipline

Carving out time in your day to sit anywhere with a pen and paper or a laptop can be challenging. There are so many distractions (looking at you Netflix) to keep you from writing.

When I was writing Changes, Book 1, I had two jobs. By day I worked at a production company and at night I worked at a television station. Somehow I found the time to write. I wrote on the weekends, nights, and any spare time I had.

Learning Process

This business is a constant learning process. These days there are more learning resources than ever to help you on your way, but you have to be willing to put in the time for research and learning. Here’s a good place to start, Joanna Penn has tons of resources and so does Nancy Christie.

Isolation

You can either write in a group or by yourself. If you’re in a writing group, at some point, you’ll need to shut out all the noise, lock yourself away, and get down to business. It’s part of the business. Any artist will tell you the same, whether you are a songwriter or painter, writing is an art form that gives you what you put into it.

Have a thick skin

If you can’t stand rejection, then don’t get into this business. You can write for some people but you cannot write for all. There will be people who love your work and others who will rip it to shreds. That’s just the nature of the beast with anything creative that you put out into the world. You can either let it stop you or you can shake it off and give your work a chance and time to find its tribe.

Patience to let go

Finishing a novel can take anywhere from a few months to years. As a writer, you are never satisfied with your work. There will always be something that could have been said better or the dialog could be better or a character doesn’t work and on and on. But at some point, you have to stop the madness, send your work off to your editor, and move on to the publishing part which I will discuss in another post.

So, if you are considering writing a book, these are just a few little realities to consider. If it’s your passion, then go for it. Writing a book is a skill, and like any other skill, it takes all of the above in repetition. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes commitment to the long journey.