Writing a Book is Hard
The first four weeks of my 10-week writing workshop went so well. The online discussions were great, I became invested in the other people’s work, and I turned in some pretty good work of my own. Not to brag or anything, but I’m definitely one of the better writers in the group. Week 5, however, I had an unfortunate revelation about my experience so far.
What I realized was, despite the fact that I had been submitting work for a whole month, I had yet to actually write anything. Instead, I had simply been cutting and pasting blog posts into Word and sending those in. You know, I edited them so that they didn’t sound like blog posts, but as far as contributing newly written material, I had done maybe three paragraphs. So, last Thursday when I discovered that I had exhausted my supply of posts that fit the theme of the book about four hours before my submission was due, I was kind of fucked.
I was only submitting to the instructor that week, so it wasn’t the end of the world if I didn’t turn something in, but I wasn’t quite ready to give up. Thinking I still had a shot at churning out something decent, I went back to one of our group discussions and found a comment where someone wanted to know more about the suicides that happened in my hometown. So, I started writing about that.
Three and a half hours later I had a lot down, but it was crap. Plus, by that point I was so panicked about the deadline, that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. I begrudgingly accepted my fate and started composing the, “Sorry, I’m a slack ass,” email in my head.
To get myself out of frenzy mode, I took a walk upstairs to the kitchen. Then, once I calmed down, I actually went back to my desk and kept on writing. (I know, right?! I’m so proud.) By the next afternoon I had gotten the piece into much better shape and sent it in with a note apologizing for my slackness. My instructor was thrilled with what I submitted and gave me tons of great feedback and encouraged me to just go with the process.
And what I learned was that the secret to this writing a book thing is actually, the writing.
January 30th, 2012 at 9:12 pm
…….this book is so hotly anticipated! Keep up the progress. I’ve already pre-ordered through Barnes and Noble.
January 30th, 2012 at 9:29 pm
Random question….do you write or type? Just curious…
February 11th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
I do both. Lately, a lot more typing than writing by hand. I also have discovered the wonder of voice recording. I do a LOT of that as well. Though, I always do it with the intention of eventually transcribing it, which doesn’t always happen.
February 11th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
And … thanks F’Leigh! I’m looking forward to reading it too!