So I Wrote a Book...

So I wrote a book. What does that even mean? And what does it look like when I call myself a writer?  

Some people seem to think that authors sit and write for hours at a time, never leaving their office spaces, holing up in dedicated writing time all day. They wake up naturally to the sun shining through their curtains, make coffee in a perfectly clean kitchen, and sit down to write effortlessly perfect prose. The words flow easily for hours on end with no break other than to sip coffee and take the occasional walk outside to gather inspiration. In the evenings, they attend social gatherings where they have deep literary conversations and casually mention they’re working on a novel.  

It appears romantic and edgy and maybe even easy, relaxed, and glamorous.  

That’s so cute.  

And so very wrong. At least for me.  

I don’t often talk about my writing life, mainly because up until not long ago, I was actually very private about my writing. Telling people that I had started working on my novel felt a bit cliché and perhaps a bit kitschy. So I kept it to myself. That is until a holiday gathering last year when my husband inadvertently announced to some of my family that I was in the process of writing my first book. In all fairness, he only told them because he was proud of me. It was, after all, his encouragement that led to this choice. And in hindsight, the support I received from those specific family members has been nothing short of amazing. But at the time, I immediately panicked, then locked myself in my parents’ bedroom for a while where I proceeded to message my writing group friends to share my angst. 

Yeah, I know, it was presumptuous and maybe even egocentric to think that broad in terms of who will read my work and what might happen for me as an author. But my friends immediately wrote back with words of understanding and empathy. They understood just how vulnerable and scared I felt.   

Writing is truly invisible work for a long time, basically until it all comes to fruition. The hours don’t always make sense, the only proof of a hard day’s work is a word count on the screen or the scribbled notes and edits on paper, and nothing looks like it has been done until it IS done.  

There is so much that goes into writing a novel: writing the book for the very first time, the drafting process, editing, editing some more, rewriting, editing again, waiting for editors, rewriting yet again, editing another time, obtaining copyrights, ISBN, and legal “stuff” for the book, hold-ups for any number of reasons, rethinking scenes and paragraphs and sentences and words, making notes in the middle of the night to go back to certain pages to review tiny little details. And the list goes on. Plus there is the challenge of navigating life and family while trying to make time to write and do all of the little things that seem meaningless until they’re not. 

I’d love to tell you that my life as a writer is easy and comes with no obstacles, that it looks like the scene I set up at the beginning of this blog. But it’s not, and that’s just fine too.  

For me – and I can only speak for myself and no other writers – a day of writing looks different all the time. I still put my family and home at the top of my priority list, and I don’t miss anything my kids have going on. Ideally, I wake up, go to the gym, come home and get my kids off to school, then I spend the day writing off and on. Writing sessions usually bookend laundry, dishes, housekeeping, horse chores, grocery shopping, all the things that are typical for moms who stay home full time.  

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to post a series of blogs with some information about writing and publishing that I’ve learned on my own journey and exploration to becoming an author. Again, remember that this is MY experience, and every writer’s methods look different. I’m definitely no expert, but I will do my best to share what the writing life looks like for me and hopefully answer a lot of the questions I’ve been asked along the way.  

In the meantime, feel free to ask me questions about the writing life, what the process has been for me, anything you want to know. Simply comment on this blog, send me a message, or comment on the social media posts and I’ll do my best to answer anything that comes up.  

Until then, thank you, as always, for all of the support and encouragement!