So, you want to write a book, do you? There’s a story burning inside you just waiting to get out, is there? Well let me tell you there are obstacles. There are stubborn villains that want to get in your way and stop that book from making it onto the page. A villain that wants to stop you before you start. A nemesis that will drag at your ankles with every step you make towards the end of your first draft.
That Nemesis is time.
There are authors that spend all their time writing or visiting chat shows or cashing ridiculously large royalty cheques. (I think a lot of readers picture all authors living the life of J.K. Rowling) There are a larger cohort of novelists who manage to earn just enough money from their passionate scribbles to do the work full time. The rest of us envy this second group.
I think most novelists daydream about writing the book that everyone wants to read. It wins Edgars and Silver Daggers or Bookers or gets picked by Oprah (is she still doing her book club?) But we dream of that the way normal people dream of winning the lottery. (Yes, I am placing writers in a separate category from the ‘normals.’ But that’s another blog)
What I aspire to, as a writer, and what I think most professional writers aspire to, is simply selling enough books to allow them to go “full time.” We don’t want to be rich. We just want to sell enough books to pay for our supper. And the rent. And probably more books…
Which brings me to the Author’s nemesis. Most writers don’t sell enough work to commit to their writing full time, which means we have a day job. Day jobs are a real pain in the butt because they dramatically curtail our writing time! It means a rough draft we could write in six months can take two years. It means that we are looking for 15-minute or 30-minute windows of time where we can squeeze a few words in here or there as we slog through a draft, even though we have a clear idea where we are going.
The lack of time means that we step away from our manuscript so frequently that we often lose the threads. (Note to self: When I rough draft Archie Cavendish 3 I am going to write the days of the week in the margins!)
It also means that if we are blessed with a patient spouse who understands our strange compulsion and supports our need to stare at a blank page (or screen) and relentlessly hurl our vocabulary at it, we are making other compromises.
Thank goodness my wife supports the fact that I have two full-time jobs – even though one doesn’t pay a cent!
There aren’t enough hours in the day or days in the week for us to efficiently juggle the job and the work. It can be fraying and frustrating – and is one of the reasons why writing is something you should only pursue if you really can’t stop yourself. It means working at odd hours of the night or morning as you try to keep dragging yourself toward the finish line.
And if DO you get that first book into the public sphere – and if people like it (How exciting when they do!) – you are almost instantly back in the ring, punch drunk as father time swings at you again and again. But you keep writing, when you can, where you can. You don’t hope to be rich; you don’t even hope to be a New York Times best seller. You just dream to sell enough books that you can throw off the shackles of nine-to-five (or the night shift, or the dog watch) so that you can commit yourself whole-heartedly to that thing you were put on the earth to do:
Tell stories.
Are you a writer? What do you think? Is finding the time to write your biggest challenge? How do you overcome it? Or do you think other challenges are a bigger struggle than finding the time? Join the conversation and let me know.
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