Author Thoughts

I don’t think I’ve come across one author that doesn’t sometimes struggle with the process of breathing life into their book. It’s no lie that writing is actually really hard – you are literally using what is inside your soul to makes something (hopefully) new and filled with complex concepts. Sometimes there is a deep meaning to be shared or it is purely for the beauty of feeding the imagination, but we will all agree, it’s never easy.

I’ve had a book I think is unique, beautiful and filled with things I love best in fantasy just sitting half finished in my folders. There have been several alpha readers who have absolutely loved it, but I haven’t found it within myself to finish. Sitting down so often in the last few years to stare at the blank page, trying to capture the threads of thought and creation that so intricately bind the tale together. There were things I wanted  to get across, hidden meanings and beautiful resolutions, but as I sit there, I’m just empty.

I think so often us as authors feel empty in front of our hungry manuscripts that demand so much from us emotionally and time and attention-wise.

To attempt a return to where I somehow fell completely off the wagon with my tale – I read a few articles about ‘How to write a book’. There are three very basic steps that returned in article after article.

1. Begin
2. Stay Motivated
3. Finish

These sound so obvious and overly simplified, but after thinking hard about what is actually contained within each of those steps – it totally makes sense.

Daily word counts, timelines, idea boards, lists, profiles, anything that helps you along is part of staying motivated. I think that is one of the main issues with not only writing, but in the world today – the absence of maintaining motivation. I definitely recognise it as a weakness of my own and in the name of bettering myself and finishing my story – i challenge myself to dig deep and once again find that flame of motivation that got me to 80, 000 words.

I have a story to tell, we all do, that’s why we burn up inside with the insatiable desire to write – we have something important to share – but it’s up to us to keep that fire burning.