Why Write?
A few days ago I was asked why I wrote BRIDGER. Why I wanted to go through the process of trying to become published. I hadn’t even thought about it before the question came up.
It just happened.
The characters came out of nowhere, and I wrote their story down. I had no previous experience, and nothing to qualify me to write it. I just did.
My original beta readers. They'll kill me when they see this.
Then, I gave it to friends to read, because I figured someone else might as well be put through the torture of reading my nonsense if I sat at the computer THAT long to write it…
…but they liked it.
My friends told me it was fun. I didn’t believe them. So I gave it to random people. Yes, I did indeed corner a sixteen-year-old on a four hour flight and beg her to read my manuscript. At the end of the flight she asked for me to send her the rest.
At that point, I knew I wanted to try to be published. I loved watching my friends
It got much, MUCH worse.
(and random plane girl, who will forever be near and dear to my heart) squeal and yell and throw my MS at certain points. Okay, so it was a SERIOUS pain to pick up all those pages my best friend tossed unceremoniously on the side of my bed as she read through my loose MS. But hey, I’d do it again. She enjoyed the read. :)
The reactions to my MS encourage me to write. Good, bad, ugly. They encourage me.
Then, yesterday I held an ARC (Advanced Reader’s Copy) for the first time in my life.
I got shivers.
It wasn’t even mine, but oh – em – gee. I could feel the excitement of holding something that was going to be out in your local Barnes & Noble and Borders come June. It was amazing.
Why, you ask?
Because an author just like me sat on their computer and typed away, then hacked away, then retyped and revised until their eyeballs were about to pop out. Then, when the product was as good as she felt it could be, she probably had to hack at it again. But through the process, a book was born. And I was holding it in my hands.
EEEEEEEEK!
Super excited about the 1st draft of BRIDGER.
Really? If I got THAT excited about holding someone else’s baby about to go to print, I’m pretty sure I’m going to pee my pants for my own. It excited me even more to create the best book I can possibly create. The end result of holding my own ARC? Then my own, really printed novel? Oh Lord. There’s gonna be a serious party thrown. :)
That’s what excites and encourages me – what encourages you to write?
My first thought when I got to the part about your friends throwing the MS was, oh thank God you paginated.
I write because I get irritable when I don’t. I have a condition called hamster-wheel brain and so I’m constantly spinning stuff in my head, it’s more fun when I make it up than if I just fret over my life, you know?
I’m encouraged to keep writing when others like it, and yah, the thrill of eventual success (I believe I’ll have novels published someday, I just don’t know when), but more so every word I write encourages me to write another. I just like seeing them line up for me.
The stranger feedback is a great idea! Especially when you have a captive audience. I’ll be looking at my fellow airplane passengers differently next time I fly…
Indeed – I use every captive audience as much as possible.
They’re not going anywhere, right? Might as well use ‘em haha. Let me know how it goes!
I started to write on the advise of a friend. I was freshly back from a war and very aggressive. He said I should write my thoughts down. I did this, then it developed into a whole story. That was the first one. I just have not stopped since. Up to number 4 now.
The only thing that encourages me to write is if I create characters out of thin air, breathe life into them, and do not finish the story they were born to tell; they will plot my death, literally. So I write out of fear.