Writing Hardships

Writing is really fun, but it's also really hard! Here are some of the struggles us writer's face on the way to becoming the next Steven King!

1. Realizing we're not as good as we thought.  I can't tell you how many times I've shared a first-draft chapter with a friend and then realized it was a piece of junk that needed to be re-written a million times over. In the moment, we writers can become so infatuated with our ideas that we gloss over the terrible grammar, phrasing, awkward dialogue, and poor plotting. As the theory goes, our best editing work is done after we press send.

2. Getting bad reviews. When we write, the finished product is basically our child. As authors, we encourage our readers to leave honest, thoughtful, objective reviews. After all, not everybody is gonna like our book. Even famous authors get bad reviews. The hard part comes, when that person's review is nothing but insults, nitpicking, sarcastic comments, and a little of discernible truth sprinkled throughout. Then to add salt to the wound, they give you 1 star and shrink your rating to practically nothing. Ouch, right? Unfortunately, bad reviews come with the job. Constructive criticism can be helpful, but if you're going leave a brutally honest review, at least try to be nice. We authors are sensitive...

3. PCD aka Post Character Depression. After we've been working on a book for five years and we finally publish, it's like a part of our souls have died. Just think, we've been hanging out with these characters, getting into their minds, living in their worlds. Then poof! Published. Your little characters are out and available to be judged by the public. You try to start a new story, but in the back of your head you keep thing about your old hero. "She would have never let him say that about her", "If only he had been there to help". After finishing my novel Mila (A Three-Part Story), I kept accidentally putting Mila's name in place of my new book character because I'd been with her for so long. Sad right? 

As you can see, writing has it's cons, but who cares? Writing is awesome! Keep at it fellow wordsmiths!