Love your writing, love life…

by | Oct 15, 2013 | Books, Writing

There’s a general strategy that indie authors are applying this year:

1. Write fiction.
2. Make it a series or serial.
3. Write more quickly than you are now.
4. Use bookbub.
5. Do a perma-free.

And that’s cool…if it works for you. But what if it doesn’t? I’ve recently relearned to touch type, planned a series, got my marketing plan, tested a formatting workflow, started writing it at a blistering pace and then found emotionally I’m not connecting with it. Yes, it could be the characters, or the setting, maybe I’ve over-planned this time, maybe it’s the ‘lergy the kids have given me, or maybe I really want to write non-fiction. That’s where I made my living as a writer for many years in TV, brands and journalism after all.

Maybe I’m reacting to the whole churnalism feel of the new publishing world. When I used to retrain TV production companies to stop thinking in terms of glorious one-offs and think in terms of 26-52 episodic runs TV lost it’s appeal, same with top-and-tailing press releases and calling it journalism.

So I’m putting a stop to it. I’m going back to writing what I love, going back to living a life of adventure (and balancing that with being a good dad and accidental scientist), life is for living damn it, not just treading water on auto-pilot.

If you need your social proof, JA Konrath’s rules for writing and making millions include this little nugget:

1. Love what you’re doing. This is a brutally tough business, and if you aren’t in love with writing save yourself a lot of heartache and go do something else. 

Nuff said, I love living and writing. See you on the flipside with some more real world goodness, bad assness and all-round authenticity.

No more hiding behind the keyboard, maybe it's the South Pole next time

 

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