Humble pie

So the book is completed and ready for sale in print form, Kindle to arrive in a few weeks hopefully.

However, I would like to take a few moments to speak about the road I had to follow in order to get here. This was no easy journey that much was for certain.

For one, I definitely now have huge respect to anyone else who writes a novel and fine tunes it for publication. Whether you’re traditionally published or going self-published I know now more than ever, that this is not an easy profession to take on. WRITING/EDITING is like get hit in the face with brass knuckles, several thousand times.

Don’t get misconstrued. I love it. I love creating when I get into the groove. What I’m saying is that I fully understand now more than anything is despite the fun it can bring, WRITING IS A JOB. As thus you must be PROFESSIONAL and treat it as thus. Don’t half ass it.

I sure as hell didn’t. From the initial draft, I was working on this, fine tuning it for almost a year on and off. And I didn’t do it all alone. I had some big help from my dad who has my deepest thanks for reading my book way more times than I think he would have like to help me trim the fat and make it sound better.

Another piece of humble pie I ate, that every writer has to at some point, is that I wasn’t the superstar my ego would like me to believe. In going through stuff, my dad pointed out A LOT of things that didn’t feel realistic, didn’t sound right etc. And though we clashed, though sometimes I got defensive, though it delayed the book more times than I like to think about, guess what? 98% of the time he was right. That is why the book is in part dedicated to him. I couldn’t have done this without him, and that’s for real.

So what I would like you take from the above is to remember that your work can always be better. You can always tweak it better, and if somebody mentions a big problem with something, more often than not they have a good reason for it. Listen to literary criticism no matter how hard it can be sometimes. You will thank yourself and them later.

Finally, this whole experience made me take a good look at myself and what I accomplished. Do I believe I did a great job and make a decent book? Yes. Is this a Farewell to Arms great? Fuck no. I’m not at Hemingway’s level and not trying to be him, or anyone else. I want to be the best writer I can be. And that’s probably the biggest lesson to learn; that I will always experience new things, I will not stop learning and when it comes to writing I can AND will improve. Sky’s the limit now.

Until next time, fly high and fly well.