Writers know what I mean. Writing is hard! It’s about finding the story and getting it down in a coherent way. It’s about editing, rewriting, deleting, and thinking and mulling and… I could go on. Wait! I already have.
But it’s also about finding the sweet spot of the story, the joy of a beautiful sentence, of falling in love with the characters, nurturing and cajoling them along and the sadness of leaving them when it comes to the end. It’s all consuming, night and day in your head until it’s time to let it go. Out into the world for others to see, to judge, to like or not.
I’ve been writing my next book for the last eighteen months, pushing it along slowly and methodically at times, researching and looking for the story. The draft is done and there are two stories not one. Parts of it have been rewritten at least three times so far.
Rewriting is not new to me. My first novel was rewritten at least twenty times, my second perhaps ten or more times. I enjoy the editing and rewriting process as I mould the book from rough diamond to something polished and a joy to read (I hope).
Someone said to me yesterday. “Surely it’s easier by now.” I raised my eyebrows. It’s not easier. Should it be? For me it’s not. And neither will the next one and the next one after that. There’s no easy shortcut. It doesn’t get done by any other way than sitting/standing in front of a keyboard or notebook or Dictaphone and just writing.
Writing is just plain, hard work!
S.C. Karakaltsas 
I often compare writing to voice acting. I do both for a living, and to most people they are deceptively easy jobs when taken at face value… but all the stuff that leads to producing a finished product is really not easy at all. The word “tedious” often comes to mind!
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I guess it’s our job to make it all look easy. And yes it can be tedious at times.
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Couldn’t agree more; my novel-writing can only be a ‘hobby’ with very limited time available for it, so just finishing my first draft will be a major accomplishment for me!
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Couldn’t agree more! My novel-writing can only be a hobby with the limited time available to me, so just finishing the first draft will be a major accomplishment for me!
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And when it’s done celebrate. It’s an amazing accomplishment that not many achieve.
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It is incredibly hard, and perhaps its understandable that most don’t recognise the fact. We create an illusion, real life undermines that. Noone wants reality impinging with facts. However I sometime wish I had never started because of just how hard it is, and then I just sit and do it again.
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Exactly. I actually love it. Although I’ve just deleted 2000 words from my manuscript this afternoon. Oh well, it had to done. 😀
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