I'm going to ramble on a little bit because, well, it's what I do! Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a writer/author? Yes or No, I'm gonna tell you anyway! :) I am both a writer and an author. Yes, there is a difference. I am a writer because people hire me to write for them. It's a job. I am an author because I create people, places, and exciting worlds for people to get lost in.
Living the life of an author/writer is not at all what I thought it would be. It's not write a book, send it off and poof, magic happens. In fact, if I had to choose the easiest part of the book process is, I would have to say writing the damn book. That's right, sitting down and actually writing the thing is the easiest part of it all. There are the endless nights of re-writing, re-re-writing, crying and screaming and cussing, re-re-re-writing, and that is ALL before it goes to the editor. The torment and pain get much worse after that because you have cover design meetings, proof approval or disapproval, tweaks and changes on covers. Then formatting which is a COMPLETELY different story for a completely different time. Let me just say this, formatting a document is about as fun as lightly my eyebrows on fire and trying to put it out using gasoline! Yeah, that fun. Then after all of that fun stuff, it comes BACK from the editor and you RE-WRITE for the 159,569,999 time. Then, in some cases, you might actually send it back to the editor. These are just a few things an author goes through.... that's not including publicity, marketing, event bookings, signings, conventions . . . the list continues.
I was going through some stuff, preparing to make a post here, when I decided I was going to post the prologue of my murder thriller I released last year. I got the post ready, and my writing program that I have threw up some lovely red lines indicating I had some errors. My program does it for everything I write, even on the internet. Anyway, I was looking and apparently, I'd misspelled a word. Okay, this happens. It is exceedingly rare that a manuscript of any kind will be 100% error free. However, I don't use that excuse for poor spelling and whatnot. Is an editor supposed to catch this stuff? Yep, but consider this.... if you spend HOURS (we are talking 8-15 hours) staring at a document, you will miss things. Combing through a manuscript that is 107,985 words long can you tell me that you will have every single word, phrase, and bit of punctuation in the correct spot or spelled right?! IF so then, by all means, I will hire you to be my editor.
Well, that tiny little part of my brain that is OCD about my writing decided to open up the file. This is something I do on occasion, typically when I am doing a promo, about to do a video, or about to do a book signing. Anyway, I open it up and open up my program with it. Now, I've only had this program a few months (I published my book in Feb of last year). I must have been a glutton for punishment because I found crap I'd missed all over the place. This program really gets in there and meticulously combs through every single word, phrase, period, comma, and every other absurdly annoying thing in the friggn writing universe.
So now, my OCD is raging, and I have a migraine. lol
Nothing is every perfect, even in the literary world. I have found mistakes in books by authors on the New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists. Does this give me a pass? No. It doesn't because as long as I am writing, I will always try to make my books perfect for my fans. Because while I may not be on the NYT Best selling list, people like my stuff. I've had a little girl cry because she read my books and was beside herself when she met me. She even went so far as to bug my son to introduce her! THAT . . . is why I do the 50 million re-writes. THAT is why I go over books almost a year later after publication (some seven years after publication). THAT is why I stay up rambling to whoever is reading this. I have met some truly amazing people since I have been doing this.
I've had some amazing highs....
and some soul-crushing lows, and still, I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world!
I am a writer by trade, author by choice! <3
