Writing a Book on Writing a Book - Michelle Davidson (the first e reader .txt) 📗

I’m writing a book on writing a book.

So I want to be a writer like Stephen King and Octavia Butler rolled into one. I want my words to carry you into the world I’ve created and have you live there for a while. I want you to laugh, cry , and get angry and really feel something for my characters the way I do when I read books by other authors.

I have to honestly say Stephen King started my writing bug. I read THE GUNSLINGER and fell in love. When I was finished I rushed out to get the second book THE DRAWING OF THE THREE and it was a wrap. I was hooked. I went into his world and walked and talked to those characters well into my 20s. I should mention that I started reading the book in grade nine which would have made me around thirteen or fourteen. He finished the last book when I was well into my 20s.

Can I write like that? Can I keep someone’s attention for that long? Can I keep someone interested even if it’s just one person, can I keep them involved for almost ten years? I feel like I have a few strikes against me. One, I don’t want to have to worry about paragraphs and comas and run on sentences, you get my meaning I wanna just write. But I understand that that would be one big mess so I’m already freaking out because my grammar is not the best. Two, timing sometimes I don’t have the time. After I get home from work I feed the kids, check homework, give baths. After their bedtime it’s my time which usually includes, a shower ,a joint and me falling asleep watching a movie. That’s not exactly going to sell any best sellers.

I used to be a lot better with time management. I would always make time but lately it just not there. Maybe it has to do a little with confidence in my work. I have gotten a little discouraged. I was working on something that I was really proud of and my computer just shut down on me. I can’t get it to do anything. No warning, flashing lights just a black screen. That’s all my notes and three other stories I was working on. You can say I’m not very excited about starting all over again. I had done a lot of research and I was kind of proud of myself , I felt like I had something good. And it’s all gone.

So why the sudden change? Why do I want to give it a try again after all these years of second guessing myself. Time. I’m currently unemployed and have nothing but time. My kids are a little older so there not in my face 24/7. And age. I’m at the point in my life where I want to do what I want to do. And writing is what I want to do. I recently read a book about writing, and it said you had to define what success means to you. To some it could mean becoming an Author like Stephen King or Nora Roberts with movie deals and all. To others it could mean having your book on the shelves of Barnes and Noble. Now for me , right now success would mean for me to finish writing my story and actually sending it out to different publishing houses. That would be success for me.

Some would say that’s it. Fuck that, I want it all, I want the book and the movie deal. And that’s great. Eventually I might want that to but for right now I just want to finish one book. I’ve started so many and have completed none. That’s why it would be a success for me. And then to take it to the next level by sending it out for others to read and critique OMG. Even when I get the rejection letters which I know I will get. If Octavia Butler could write about getting rejected numerous times and I think she was amazing, who am I? Just another writer trying to tell a story and hopefully some people will like it.

Another point the book made was to be a hack. Which means don’t just stick to one genre. Some writers became successful from writing mysteries when the really want to be successful in sci-fi So try your hand at different things. I want to bring people into my crazy world of fantasy but I also like erotica. Hey, don’t judge me some people like porn , I like reading erotica. I would like to try my hands at that as well. It’s not that easy. You might think , please it’s just sex. But when I wrote my first erotica short story I found it a little challenging. It’s one thing to talk about sex or read it but writing it, you have to describe everything. And remember the person reading has to feel something to or else why read it. You have to make readers fall in love with the characters or they won’t even get to the scene.

I guess the point is to just keep writing. And I’m ready. I’m ready for all the challenges and rejections that come with this. Even when I have to backspace a hundred times because I keep forgetting the damn semi colon. And thank god for spell check. Shit I just found a reason for loving Octavia and Stephen all over again. They didn’t have the luxuries that we do now. Imagine if they had this technology back then, they would probably have sold two times the books they already have.

I just have to say one more thing. I guess you figured that Stephen King and Octavia Butler are my favorite authors but there is one more person that I failed to mention. Frank Herbert , I don’t know how many times I have read the Dune series. And I mean all the books even the ones his son wrote. Which I also loved. It just didn’t seem fair to keep mention Stephen and Octavia and not mention Frank.

See ya soon!

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Text: Michelle Davidson
Publication Date: 07-21-2013

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
For Akeedu & Negus