Why do we choose to write, it’s not easy or glamorous, it eats our time and makes our families suddenly have to fend for themselves as we’re wrapped up in grammar, spelling, research, formatting, design, graphics, publicity and accountancy. We tie ourselves into a fantasy world and push away reality… why?
It’s hard work, I always have to smile when people say ‘Hell everyone’s a writer, what else do you do?’ That’s how people who have never written a word react.
It really is hard work to keep coming up with ideas that no one else has previously done, to find a voice that is different to other authors and to find time to have a life too. It’s tough but most authors will tell you it’s worth every second of the effort we put into it.
For me, I have added 2-3 hours to my day, that comes out of my sleeping time and my mornings now have a routine, before I started seriously writing I barely knew what mornings were let alone have a routine. Without that routine I would never be able to achieve a book a year. Yes, we all know those authors who can knock a book out in a couple of weeks… do they have any life at all? I have no idea how they do it or why… but that’s their lives and I couldn’t keep up with that. Most of us have jobs too, without the work in the outside world I may be able to manage two books a year but I don’t suppose I’ll ever know as I need some outside input.
So next time someone tells you they’ve written a book, please remember they have probably sweated blood over the pages of that book, when they tell you that they are indie authors, shake their hand because they’re the ones that have had to do all of the process themselves, they are not just authors they are editors, graphic designers, publishers, researchers and publicists and funding it all themselves.
The only thing they ask in return is the one thing they cannot do themselves… A review.
To every one of you out there, I bow deeply to you and wish you the success and all of the accolades you deserve.
Please stop by and check out the website http://scrichmondauthor.wixsite.com/mysite
S C Richmond 
Great post, Steph! I think it’s true of most creative jobs/hobbies, that people ignorant to them think they’re easy tasks that anyone can do. I’m a writer, but “what else I do” is photography, and the amount of people who think photography is simply pointing and shooting a camera, something you can do in seconds… Often people really don’t consider the amount of work that goes into something, and I think it’s largely because they only ever see the end results (which make things look nice, tidy, and fairly simple).
Thanks for sharing, Steph, this is one of my favourite topics to chat about, haha. Makes me waffle on for ages! 🙂
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Ah photography, something I really am pretty bad at, so i for one appreciate your hard work. Keep being awesome 😊
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Thanks Angie 😊
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