Wait...what? A BOOK?!

So I finished something called A BOOK. 

And I'm a little bit happy. 

(only a little bit happy, I swear)

To get through this, I basically told myself that I ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY had to finish it or I would DIE OF SHAME. Which worked. Kind of. 

Tips on How to Write a Book:

1. Forget how crappy it is. 

Don't be a perfectionist. Concentrate on finishing it first, THEN fix it later. Try to swallow the OH MY GOD I HAVE TO FIX IT RIGHT NOW instinct. Write down what you have to fix on a sheet of paper. Once your done writing, take out the paper and start editing (which I did not do originally and for which now I pay the price). 

2. Give it to other people. I repeat. Give it to other people. 

You need other people's advice to make your work better. So give your book to a wide range of people. I suggest having AT LEAST five people read your writing so you can make it as good as possible. 

3. Relax. Life is good. 

If you are not a published author who is on a schedule to write your next book, don't feel like you have to write every single day. If you're just having a long day and you want to relax, do it. If you can wait for a moment, your book can too. 

Happy writing! 

I Can't...Right?

                                     
I think every novel writer goes through it. It's a time when you just can't write...you don't have nearly 2% as much inspiration and hope and excitement as you did before. You keep putting your writing off; you write less often; your writing quality goes down.

And that's okay. Give yourself a break.
But not forever.

When I was in this lull of writing, I had a conversation with a friend, who was reading my developing novel. And she didn't tell me how much she liked it, or even how to improve it. She told me what it was about. She explained to me the plot, the characters, the style of writing, what kind of book it was.

It wasn't like she was talking to me, the author of the book. It was like she was talking to someone who had never read the book before, let alone wrote it.

And she explained the book to me in a way I'd never thought of the book before. All of a sudden, it was a completely different book, it was a completely different manuscript, it was a completely different project. It wasn't my book, it was someone else's book. And now it was my opportunity to work on it.

And I was excited to start something new. You know why? I had a head start: what I'd already written.

(this pictures is by INeedChemicalX on DeviantArt)

Some Writing Quotes to Write By (or simply be interested in)

It really is magic when a writer pours herself into her writing. It seems to make the writing more relatable, more human. Sounds easy, right? After all, don't we humans love to talk about ourselves? No, not easy. Not easy at all. It's a wonder how hard it is to bring life to writing: 

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. 

-Ernest Hemingway

One of my favorite authors is Neil Gaiman, who wrote American Gods, Coraline, Anansi Boys, and The Graveyard Book. As a full time author, he knows how much of a pain writing a book can be. But he also knows the magic that strikes while writing a novel (well, by halfway through writing a book, the magic evaporates a little bit): 

This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard. 

-Neil Gaiman

When writing a novel, that's pretty much entirely what life turns into: 'House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day'. 

-Neil Gaiman

I don't know whether I should be proud of this, or slightly afraid:

So what? All writers are lunatics!

–Cornelia Funke, Inkspell 

Some quotes from Ray Bradbury, the master of science fiction and and one of my idols. (I love how he can take his feelings, turn them into words, and make his writings some of the most powerful novels on the planet). 

Some hear voices when no one is there. Some are called mad and locked in a room where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called 'writers', and they do pretty much the same thing.
    -Ray Bradbury

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."

    –Ray Bradbury