What I've Learned So Far

Sometimes it feels like this.  

I've been writing daily for a while now and I'm really starting to appreciate the skills required to write a story that people will read and enjoy. People have always told me I'm a good writer (which is a great foundation) but there is so much more to writing a book than just sitting there and letting the words spill out.  I'm working on my first full-length novel and let me tell you, its a daunting task.  

Mostly because I refuse to write something that I wouldn't read myself.  I might be a little snobby in this respect but if I'm going to read something it needs to be well-done.  I get annoyed quickly when reading poorly written material and will skip and skim through the whole thing if my attention isn't grabbed and held onto almost immediately.  

I have so many ideas about what could be a good book.  I start writing and then look at it later and think, Would I read this?  If I were the reader, would I skip this section?  Is this part of the book even needed? How does this part go with the next part?  Does any of this make sense at all?  I realized last night that the whole premise behind my book needed to be changed because it just wasn't working for me and if it doesn't work for me it definitely won't work for the reader.  I'm not going to just write anything in order to meet my goal deadline.  

Basically, what I've learned so far about writing is that anyone can write a book, publish it and voila!...they can call themselves an author.  However, even with the persistence and ability it takes to write an entire book, it still needs to be readable and...that's very important.  Recently, I tried to read a book that spent a gazillion years on the Best Seller's list and to be honest, I felt deceived because the writing was crap.  I'm definitely not an expert in any way, but I do like to read and I can recognize bad writing from a mile away. Thank goodness I didn't buy it.  It actually gave me a headache and made me question the world's intelligence that literally everyone was fawning over this book and talking about how well it was written.  I wondered if I was living in a parallel universe.  I don't want people to feel that way when they read my writing.  

So...back to the writing desk I go.  Even though its mentally draining sometimes, I'm loving the process because once I get the basic skills down, I can replicate them on every project. What I've learned so far is that the basic ability to follow this task to fruition is only part of the equation.  If I'm going to do this I need to respect the art enough to learn to how to do it right.