‘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.
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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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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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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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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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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‘It’s hard as balls.’ , hahaha I felt that. I think when we should do difficult things only when we choose to so we enjoy the process as well.
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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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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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😂Yep that’s the way to go with writing 📖! How am I supposed to create “Team Edward” T shirt kind of character
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Ok. Weirded out now. Those were the Latin words I got tattooed into my arm at 18 for my first tattoo (around a Celtic cross, but I doubt the weirdness goes that far).
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ARE YOU MY LONG LOST TWIN SPIRIT SISTER ANIMAL?
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Wait. You have a Celtic cross too? Fuuuuu….
Hey, long lost twin spirit sister!
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Ha ha well said👏🏼
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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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Loved reading your post.
https://swarnaz.com/
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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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Exactly!
You can’t possibly be original anymore these days…so why bother 🤪🤷♀️
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Brilliant post – sentiments we can all share.
And ‘hard as balls’ – I love that!! 😂🖤
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Haha – can’t go wrong with balls!
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Absolutely not 😉🖤
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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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Really enjoyed reading this, something always falls flat when trying to write something longer than a few pages, let alone 200+!
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The struggle is real. I have three unfinished stories. It seems everything has already been written about. It’s difficult to come up with a never-been-read before storyline.
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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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No need to apologize, I enjoyed reading it.
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I’m glad you did 😁
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🤗
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Keep bothering us, we like how your mind works.
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This!! SO accurate! I have tried to write so many books, I have one with 15000 words and i still cant do it because its hard and its exhausting!
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It takes the fun out of writing that way, right!?! 🤣🤭
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I realte to this so much. How am I supposed to write a book thoose things have 200 plus pages 🤦♀️
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Welcome to the club!
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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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Hmmm – the one brick at a time approach sounds sensible, were it not for the fact that I’ve already proven to have two left hands when it comes to building-related things 😉
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Well ….it is a little more complicated too – the bricks have to be rearranged a lot, some of them thrown out – but the more you do it, the better you get at it
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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, ❤❤❤❤
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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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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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