I figured out something important this week. Don’t laugh. I figured out why writing a book is hard. Practice makes perfect, right? The more you do something, the easier it gets. I was thinking about these maxims while staring at a blank page making no progress on book 4 in the More Love in Andauk series. I’ve written enough books by now that it should be easy for me. Some aspects of it are easier. I’ve learned quite a bit in the years I’ve been doing this whole writing thing. Let’s not talk about how many years or I’ll have to pretend I’m sensitive about my age. I’m not. I just can’t tell anyone because all the people who keep trying to give me a senior discount will feel bad if they find out how many years I am from qualifying. Seriously, it’s more than a few.
Next week I will figure out how to avoid tangents.
I was staring at the page where my new book was supposed to appear, and it occurred to me that all the practice I have writing books involves different books. I don’t have any practice with this book. It’s perfectly reasonable that it still feels like hard work from time to time. I haven’t had any practice figuring out why this particular character is having so much trouble with her love life.
On a related note, I haven’t had any practice writing this particular post. Because it’s related, it’s not another tangent. It’s called “making an excuse.” And I haven’t had any practice writing the short story I’ll start posting next month even though I should have had practice last year. Someone gave me an idea for a Christmas story. Somehow, I forgot to write it. I can’t say much else about it yet, only that it will involve some familiar characters. This is called “building suspense.” I’m sharing a ton of lessons this month, one of which is called sarcasm.
Let’s hope next month’s lesson isn’t “Don’t tell people you’re
going to post a story you haven’t written yet because you might have to admit
you didn’t figure out how to write it in time.”