The reasons for making the decision to become a writer are
varied and totally dependent on what the person hopes to achieve. The
requirements to becoming not just a great author but a successful author in my
opinion are simply up to chance and money shouldn’t be the driving factor. Of
course earning currency would be nice but having a great story is what’s important
and expressing it a way that is enjoyable to the reader is equally necessary. I
cannot tell you how many times I’ve read a story that in concept is absolutely
fantastic but utterly disastrous in execution, this includes spelling and
grammar errors. A big reason why I’ve abandoned reading many a book halfway
through!
Also if you think readers can’t tell that you rushed through
a story simply for the sake of writing it guess again.
It was with these pet peeves in mind that I included them in
my reasons for even attempting to write my first book. I’ve always been told I
was good at writing or more accurately expressing a thought but that in no way
means I could be good at coming up with a great story that someone wants to
read (in fact I’m still not convinced that I am). I did know that I wanted to
do something that I loved and as it turns out its this.
I found myself looking forward to the weekends when I could
put on my writing socks (yes apparently I need to write with sock on…), lean
back in bed pillows propped behind my back with laptop in hand (actually on my
lap…), television on ‘How I Met Your Mother’ reruns and just tell a story. I
also found that I liked allowing the story to lead me taking me away totally
from where I thought it would go when I first started. This isn’t to say that I
didn’t have a draft of story points in my trusty ‘ideas book’ but it guided
what I was going to write it didn’t define it.
I’m about to self-publish this first offering and I’m
finding out all the things along the way that you need to consider which can be
mind boggling at times, maybe sharing my experiences will make the process less
overwhelming for others.
At this point I have no idea where writing will take me but
I do hope that somebody out there would enjoy the effort I put into making a
book, I enjoyed the effort in creating it.
