Day 118

Easy reading/Hard writing

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I often wondered when reading other authors’ works if it was as hard for them to write the story as it is for me.

I mean it’s not that hard to get that initial first draft down on paper, what is hard is honing that messy, often shapeless story into the finished product, which often is an easy read for the reader.

I used to devour a book in a night, sometimes a day or two, but the reading never reflected the blood, sweat and tears the author put into it.

And I doubt the reader gets that.

Everything takes time to create.  A car, a house, a factory, an apartment block.  You can cut corners, and the object will fall to pieces or fail in some other manner.

If you cut corners when polishing a story, making it easy for the reader to devour, when it is not, no one will buy your books.

So, creating that polished book is no easy task.  It’s not simply a matter of getting the words on paper and sending them off to the publisher.

It doesn’t work that way.

I’m sure after writing that first draft, and when you pick it up some months later to start the editing process, that first read will be like climbing a sheer mountain without climbing gear.

It certainly will not read the way a reader expects it to.  In fact, you will probably not recognise what it is you wrote, or if you did, you don’t remember writing it that way.

That’s why you have beta readers.

That’s why you have an editor.

Just hope they realise perfection takes time.