‘You should totally write a book’-prompts

Posted byZoewiezoePosted inDaily DittiesTags:, , , , , ,

‘Why don’t you just write a book?’ They’ll ask me, when they find out I blog. And like writing. And write, a lot.

‘Well, Wanda. You go for a ten minute run every Monday. Why don’t you just go run a marathon eh? No? Right.’ I’ll reply.
‘And your kid is taking swimming lessons, isn’t he? When’s he due for the Olympics?‘
(Although…I won’t actually reply reply obviously. I’ll do it in my head 3 hours later, because I never think of these witty replies on the spot. But I would, if I’d think of them sooner!)

Maybe I find the question so excruciatingly painful because I can’t. Write a book, that is. Not that I haven’t tried. Not that I wouldn’t want to. It’s just that I can’t. Not a good one, anyway. Not anything anyone would want to read.
It’s the same thing with hitting homeruns in a softball match. ‘Why’d you hit it straight to the third baseman?‘ they’ll ask after I get back to the bench after a fucked up hit. And I just wanna facepalm my face and go ‘Gee. I dunno. I thought that would be THE way to get to run a homerun lap. Isn’t that how it works?‘

The thing about writing books though:
It’s hard as balls.
Have you ever noticed how many pages those bastards have?
It’s a lot. Like. At least a 160 to 200 of ’em if you’re doing a halfway decent job.
And do you know how much story you can fit into a 160 pages?
It’s a lot. Like. A full-blown epic love-quest with additional side-missions and everything.

They say that when you write – you have to write from the heart. Stay close to yourself. Find your voice and stick with it. That doesn’t just go for blogging, but for books as well. And as a big fan of the Young Adult Fantasy genre….that means I’m fucked. Because those books I’d want to write contain beautifully strong heroines. Strangely beautiful men with a lot of complicated issues and the polar opposite badboy persona that always has the girl twisted up into a complex love triangle. And in these books – love always wins out.

I got a tattoo when I was 18. It says ‘Amor omnia vincit‘ as the uncureable romantic that I thought I was back then. Love conquers all in Latin. It’s bannered over a rose wrapped around a dagger to symbolize the love winning out over the battle. And it’s complete and utter bullshit. These days I know that love, however beautiful, powerful and world-changingly amazing…doesn’t always conquer everything. Sometimes, however much you’ll want to, love isn’t enough. And though it still makes for a tattoo I don’t regret, it’s no longer a truth I believe in, but a reminder of how people can change.

So when I start to write a book – it’ll come to the point that you start building up a character (which, in and of itself is something I have no passion for) that the reader will love. That they will get a t-shirt for that screams TEAM EDWARD and that they will fight to see protected throughout that book. A character they can connect with. Grow to love. Get attached to.
But I cannot write about the personalities that would deserve this type of passionate response. Or about the love that would intertwine the lives of my characters throughout the book. Because I don’t know it. I don’t recognize it. I can’t describe it. I can write storylines and intriges. Fantastical creatures and amazingly complex scenic descriptions. But I can’t bring a character to life, because I, as a person myself, fall flat in this category. I have no interest in the inner workings of people and they ways to portray them and thus….cannot write a book.

But hey. You can’t run a marathon either. And I’m pretty sure none of your kids are going to be Olympic swimmers. Plus, writing a blog has a whole lot more interaction than putting a book out into the world. So I’m good where I am. Bothering you people with the goings-on in my brain.

38 thoughts on “‘You should totally write a book’-prompts”

  1. You’re absolutely right. It is SO hard to write a book, I don’t have the patience nor the wherewithal to deal with creating interesting characters, devising their environment and then keeping a figurative distance depending on whether or not I’ll have to write out how they Die!! 😂

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  2. For ‘starters’: I can totally relate to your point of view. Writing a book is like climbing the Himalayas, I think.

    And what misery would be poured uoon us, your audience, if you stopped writing these phenomenal blogs on a daily basis and instead put all your energy and skills in writing that book-(marathon-thingy).

    Still .. you’ve got all the talent you need and a unique voice.

    So .. at second thought: Maybe you shouldn’t try to create a fictional Edward, Myra or Guinevere-persona, but stay a little bit closer to yourself? I bet there’s tons of inspiration and real-life experiences, ponderings and the like to entertain us for 200 pages or more 😉

    And therefore … a (serious) question: Have you ever considered to model a (less fictional) book-character more like a part of you that your audience can instantly relate to (you)? Like you experience in reaction to your daily blogs?

    You have told us on more than one occassion you perceive yourself to be an open book. You give us ample opportunity to ‘rad between the lines’ and I think many of us like what you reveal to us. So … writing (about) this ‘open book’ might not be a bad idea after all? I would definitely (take the time to) read ‘YOU’ 😊

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  3. I for one enjoy being bothered/entertained by the goings-on in your brain. For the record, I would read anything you write, including a book. Here’s an idea, a book on sarcastic comments to make when you get back to the dugout after hitting directly to the third baseman.

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  4. Years ago, when I had 300,000 words and a rough draft of a narrative, I wound up having to play a trick on myself to answer the question “why should I write a book’. I knew deep down that I could write a decent book, but probably not one good enough that thousands would go out and buy it. And so what was the point? The point was, or so I convinced myself, was that my job was not to write a book as well as ‘Steinbeck’ or ‘Stegner’ or ‘Irving’. My job was to write the very best book I was capable of writing at that time. So I did. ‘Silicon Valley to Southern Africa’ was self-published and well-received. But did not sell. Once, at a Barnes & Noble book signing event at Christmas, I sat at my little table all alone, while some dick that published a book about ‘Bigfoot’ had a line going around the building. Bigfoot!! Who knew she was real? But eventually I learned to laugh about it. Writing a book is an accomplishment. A hard one, that no one will ever be able to take away from you.

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    1. Congratulations on the book, well done. I have experience with writing a thesis and I am going to that again ( I don’t know how I feel about this). I am from South Africa, I am just glad your book has Southern Africa in the title.

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  6. I remember being amazed when a story opened up and developed uhexpectedly, and I really went nuts exploring and embellishing it, ’til it became awesome… epic…
    like a whole half- dozen pages.

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  7. True When small i studied
    Butterflies too to see what
    Effect Their Wings have on
    Flying on Land too matching
    Those Wings in Flight of
    Flame True
    i Don’t
    Dance
    At
    The Required
    8th Grade Level
    To Stay Stagnant
    And Grounded to
    Earth Butterflies
    Fly Free Fly
    Away
    i Always
    Return Like
    A Dragonfly on Perch
    If You KNoW WHeRE
    YoU’RE Going First
    Life Will ALWaYS
    Be Dull And
    Boring
    Elton John
    Knows the Way
    Back Home
    Without
    Time
    Too
    Butterflies
    With Wings
    Fly Free Fly
    Away Again
    Hey
    Let’s
    Write A Song
    Together No
    Problem
    I’ll
    Be
    Back to
    Write the Next
    Verse Butterflies
    Fly Free in Effect
    They Let other
    Folks Wonder
    What Comes
    Next why
    i Like
    Your
    Style
    Of Writing
    God Knows
    Please never
    Write to
    One
    Target Audience
    And Only Write
    A Book Butterflies
    Don’t Fit in Lines
    Pages Or
    Covers
    Of only Books
    True Butterflies
    In Effect Are God
    Okay that knocks
    The Meaning
    Of Life
    Out
    Of The
    Park i Ain’t
    Just A Soft
    Ball Player
    On the
    First Baptist
    Church Team Either..🚪

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  11. I have to say I’m with you on this one. I’ve tried and nothing I write sounds real or something I’d be actually interested in reading myself. Hats off to people who can write whole books. Especially fiction. Creating characters that are multidimensional and believable is not easy.

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  13. My friends tell me the same thing everytime I send them a link to my blog. If only it were THAT easy to write a book!
    I’ve always wanted to write a book but I want to write a story line that is different from anything written before – which is very difficult considering so many books have been written about so much already. Like you really need a stroke of creative genius to come up with a story line that’s nothing like the world has seen before.

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  15. I hear you – I always think of writing a book or something but can’t get any further than a short story. It’s so hard to write and write and on a subject or story and keep it interesting and not looking like absolute shit. I don’t know how the big authors do it – consistently too.

    I get as far as a limerick, sonnet, poem, short piece or mini-story and run out of creativity, patience and steam!

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  17. I both agree and disagree. I completely get where you’re coming from. It can pretty much gets on your nerve when people just spit things out without considering how it feels for the other person.
    And I agree with your examples, just because you can swim doesn’t mean you’ll be an OL champion. Same with writing. Having a manuscript doesn’t mean you’ll be the next bestseller, at worse publisher won’t even give your book a glance. Even if the story is great a lot of luck play a lot too.
    I think that’s why “starving artist” exist for this reason. I know a lot of writer who got a day job. I don’t live off my writing too. I’ll starve if I depend on it.
    So far my longest published book is 172 pages (contemporary romance) but I’ve written YA fantasy stories up to 80k and it wasn’t an easy feat. I was burnt by the time I was done with the draft not to mention editing (over and over) because first draft isn’t a perfect it never is, it’s mentally exhausting and at times lonely, there are times when I feel like I just want to pull all my hair out because of frustration. Until now that story is still being revised (3 years later) but I love writing so I’ll keep going this path.
    Sorry for the long comment. I got inspired 😂

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  21. Jean Paul Sartre once said anyone can write a book, but few have the patience to do it. From my own experience, I know that when you’re just thinking about it, it looks like trying to build the Empire State bldg with your bare hands. But if you lay down a brick, then a second one, then a third…….

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  22. How about you write all your blog posts into a book, the title of which could be, yes I blog, now thats a book i would definitely buy and read , oh zoe love really is the answer to everything, never give up on your dreams, i believe in you, I love you, so chuck all your blogs in one book, call it yes I blog, and I will buy it, ❤❤❤❤

    Like

    Reply

  23. I did the NaNoWriMo project one year (November is Novel Writing Month) just to write a book. It was a good experience to write 50,000 words in a month, to spend every day just writing. It was not about editing, just getting the words on the page. When people tell me I should write a book, I tell them I already have. When they ask where it is, I tell them it is still in draft form, and I am ok with that.

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    1. Nanowrimo does have that effect!
      I always loved the writing matches and interaction but once I made it to 50k (I got a badge three or 4 years I think) it was always pure garbage. It helps but it also..well…doesn’t 🤪

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