It always makes me stop and think, “Huh, I’ve been doing that all along and didn’t even realize it.” A perfect example in this blog is the fact that I do tell everyone what my day job is and I don’t point out that I’m an author first. Even though the major passion is in my writing and I’d love to be able to focus all my time on writing in the future.

Thanks again for another post that makes me sit back and analyze what I am doing. I love it.

I just finished reading your book, for the first time. I have seen the light! Shut down my web site, scrapped everything and all plans. Thanks for turning my life upside down, or right side up I should say. No more questions floating through the head and it feels great. The journey begins and you are my guide. To say thanks falls so short of the gratitude that I feel for your help.

Warmest Regards,

Tom Woods
Author
TRUE GOLF

Thank you for your blog, and interestingly enough… it actually described most of the processes I am already following as a writer. You are completely right, family members go nuts because you’re “too busy” to spend time with them and they just can’t understand why.

I work a full-time job, as well as balance my time with writing, research, marketing, networking, social media, etc. Being a writer for me is not about trying to get rich quick, or quitting my day job… but about the passion to tell a story and to get that out there for people to read and immerse themselves into.

In regards to movies, I actually do most of my reading online (I know, my entire paper book collection is death staring me right now) and watch a lot of movies with my wife. We discuss them, talk about the twists, amazing/good/bad/shocking/god awful storyline, characters, emotions, etc.

When I write, I actually picture the entire “scene” running in my mind as if I was watching a movie, and I do my best to describe what I see in the words of my books.

You are very right about not knowing what to expect as I had a lot to learn when I published my first book.

The learning never stops.

I see a lot of writers online who finished their first draft and are rushing to self publish it by the cheapest possible method and call it “complete”. I think there is just so much wrong with that.

As a writer, I spend most of my time revising my work, improving it, giving it to beta readers for feedback, eventually to a professional proofreader, and this is before it ever sees the shimmering light of publishing day down the tunnel.

Completing the manuscript is great, but it’s not even half the battle if you want to produce something worthy of being called “published”

Looking forward to more of your articles, and further discussions.