When You Start Writing a Book, Consider Time Eaters
April 15, 2014
We’ve all had them, the day where nothing seems to go right and where nothing you planned works out the way you want it to, and you have to start writing a book- or doing something with it. No matter how much you take on, and how well you’ve planned it, there is always something that goes a bit off.
Never the less, we worked on the chapters which needed to be done so that our readers can have a better experience. That wasn’t an easy thing to do. We had a plan to get through two chapters and also make sure that our synopsis and outlines were followed within the book.
What went wrong? Nothing, except that everything went to “heck.” We did get some productive things done, but not as much as we could have. The problem was simple in retrospect, we had piled up too many things in the time we were not meeting, and at the meeting we became focus on the bumps and not the here and now.
Ever heard of the term “and then there are days?”
We’ve all had them, the day where nothing seems to go right and where nothing you planned works out the way you want it to, and you have to start writing a book- or doing something with it. No matter how much you take on, and how well you’ve planned it, there is always something that goes a bit off.
Publishing is like that as well. I recently sat down with my editor to discuss some ways to make a book that I am co-writing with another person stronger and more useful. Considering it’s written for a niche market, there needs to be a something to it. That day was planned out, except, that there were a couple of pylons in the way. We had both forgotten our other commitments, one of which was family time.
Never the less, we worked on the chapters which needed to be done so that our readers can have a better experience. That wasn’t an easy thing to do. We had a plan to get through two chapters and also make sure that our synopsis and outlines were followed within the book.
It seemed like a good plan, it seemed like we could do this, but I had a time limit and my editor tends to be very busy, and he has little time to deal with publishing options which came up. We talked about self-publishing this book, and we talked about the merits of finding a literary agent. We talked about what needed to be done to market this book, and we talked about formatting. Unfortunately, all this talk meant again, we had little time for editing, or writing.
We needed to discuss these issues, but we needed to edit. What happened was we lost our focus, we lost our direction. I am a bit of a talker, so this leads to many conversations which often aren’t needed at the particular moment in time. Editing is not my strong suite, and I feel that I have trouble getting any reader’s attention. I will say I’m not a bad writer, but I have a lot of room for improvement.
What went wrong? Nothing, except that everything went to “heck.” We did get some productive things done, but not as much as we could have. The problem was simple in retrospect, we had piled up too many things in the time we were not meeting, and at the meeting we became focus on the bumps and not the here and now.
It’s a sort of neurological thing, where you know you have to get something done, but the rest of the somethings you need to do as well with the people you interact with are still there. Timing is everything when it comes to writing, and this is why it all went sideways. Yes, things got done but not the things that were most needed.
Will it affect creativity? If we had not realized what was happening it most certainly would have affected me. I am creative but I lack a grounding focus, which is why working as a team on both books and Living a Life of Writing is so vital to becoming more creative, and publishing more.
If timing is everything, planning is simple, I could focus on edits, and not worry- at that time- about other publishing matters. My mind would have been at ease and I am sure so would my editors.
