As a writer, you learn over time to do more than one thing. If you write anything with a setting you've never been to or a historical backdrop, you learn to do your research. Nobody wants you to turn in unedited work, so you learn to edit. If you want your writing to be interesting, you improve your vocabulary. You have peers that you befriend and kibitz with that you can learn things from. You have to understand how and where to market your work. You might even dip a few toes into the publishing realm. Along the way, folks might invite you into review groups, convention panels, podcasts, or anthologies/novel series with multiple authors. So you add to and develop your skill set as you go along, increasing your circle of friends and business contacts while also hopefully growing a fan base. The more exposure you get, the easier it is for potential readers to find your material. So while you are trying to sell books, you're also marketing yourself as an author.
I am mindful of this with every post I make public online. While I am friendly and at times will express opinions, I keep in mind that I am also there to promote my books to all who are interested in reading them. So I tend to stay away from controversial topics and sweeping statements, though if asked I will certainly express my beliefs honestly and for the most part politely. I don't climb on too many soapboxes and I am careful what I say and to whom. I share some details of my life outside of writing, because not everyone is interested in just that and I think it's important to let other know that I'm not just a one-trick pony. I have friends and family online who just want to chat and catch up with whatever else I'm involved in. I'm mindful as well that I also represent the publishers who have allowed me to sell books through their business, and I am grateful for that opportunity. So I am careful of not only what I say, but what language I use when I say it. They don't need any negative publicity that something I spouted off about might bring them. Writing is my career that I have worked very hard at, and being published and read is a privilege. I have to handle myself in a professional way. I strive to do the best I can at being someone others are proud to know and work with.
Right now I am wearing my editor's cap. Over the holidays I am taking a short break from writing to carefully go over a very good friend's manuscript for an action/adventure thriller. To be asked to do this is a testament to being trusted with someone else's brainchild, and I take that honor very seriously. I don't do it often for others these days because I'm awfully busy writing and promoting my own work, but I take it very seriously when I do. Besides the usual copyedit stuff with grammar, spelling, typos, etc., I watch for redundancies, sentence structure and paragraph flow, awkward phrases and passages, and things I just can't decipher. Is the story complete and does it have a logical procession from opening to conclusion? Was there something in there that I know was wrong or that threw me out of the story? So it's a fine tooth comb readover with comments as well as editing. I don't charge for doing this so I can't do it for everyone or I'd have no time for my own writing. But this is a person I trust with my own manuscripts, someone I've worked with before and we know each other's style well. It's not easy to get a manuscript back and have it all marked up with changes and suggestions. So you need to have complete confidence that this person has your best interests at heart and that she or he knows what they're doing. This is another reason why I network with other writers. Nobody understands what we do like people already in the business.
When I'm done with this manuscript, it will get emailed back to the author with a cover message, and then he will go through it looking at the things I changed, suggested, or left notes about. It's up to him after that if he wants to make and keep those changes or not. I'm not the editor for his publisher so he can totally ignore what I did and just go on to the next stage. And yes, it will still be edited by the publishing house it was intended for. What he won't get there due to understandable time contraints is a lot of feedback, although all the conscientious publishers will send you a galley draft to have a final look at and make necessary changes before it gets published. Most likely once I am done with this manuscript, my writer hat will go back on for a while, until another project comes up. I can't give any details, but I happen to know that I and one other writer friend have a special project coming up at the turn of the year. We are going to collaborate on finishing up a partial manuscript by one of our peers who passed away earlier this year. So that will require reading, editing, and then ghostwriting the rest of the tale in the name of our deceased friend. Ghosting something unfinished is not easy, because you need to be able to decipher where the story was headed, and also pick up the style of the original author. It's an honor to be asked to do that, and so we both want to do a good job. It will take some time and attention to detail, and that's a whole different hat from creating your own fiction. Again, this is one of those things you get to do when you've been around the writing world long enough. While I'm working on that project I will also be writing my own stuff, likely on alternate days.
I enjoy what I do, and don't mind having all those hats to wear. Mixing up what I need to work on during the week keeps me from getting stale or bored with a project, and it helps in those times when the words just don't flow. That's what leads to the situation people call 'writer's block', where you need some time off from what you're working on to get past the frustration. Kind of like falling off one horse and getting back up on another one so that you don't lose your confidence in riding. This may not work for everyone, but it has for me, and I still manage to get things done in a timely fashion. A good part of that is the dedication I have to making writing, along with all the side projects that crop up, a regular part of my life. It takes some self-discipline and a willingness to shuffle things around so that the writing time is there. Fortunately for me at this age and stage of my life I am now an empty-nested in an all-adult household who doesn't work outside the home. Being partially disabled, I can't do a whole lot else. Sitting at my computer and typing is easier on my body so that's what I do. It gives me something to get out of bed for each day. Along the way, I've accumulated a bunch of hats as well. So I get to be someone different now and then.
Hope your writing or whatever it is you find joy in is going well, and that you've read something here that inspires. That's why I'm sharing my world with you, after all.
Be well,
~Nancy
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