Comments on: The Writing Process…It Ain’t No Unicorn Hug

By: Rennie St. James

Rennie St. James — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 19:05:06 +0000

I am very glad you took the longer path as I’ve found incredible wisdom and support in your blogs…which I’ve only just discovered! I can definitely support that it’s a process, and it’s one I’ve just started learning.

Thanks for the continued support and information!

By: Leta McCurry

Leta McCurry — Wed, 31 May 2017 22:06:08 +0000

15 years? Hmmmm… I’m 83. Published first book at 81, second last year. Working on third and plotting a fourth. I guess I better hustle.

By: Kristen Lamb

Kristen Lamb — Tue, 30 May 2017 18:29:29 +0000

In reply to Lucinda E Clarke. This is why I do everything to teach you to work smarter not HARDER. And if you read Rise of the Machines? I talk about Autumn and Winter Writers, those who are starting later in life and I lay out all the advantages YOU guys have that the young folk do not. So you can do it! You are already way ahead of the game with so many years writing and being beholden to deadlines. And yes fiction IS a whole other ballgame. *fist bump* I was in the same spot. Great at copy, tech writing, non-fiction and essays but fiction? *bursts into flames*. It's why I spend a lot of blogs and classes teaching it because I might as well have ben trying to learn Sanskrit. I do recommend my upcoming class Plotting for Dummies or just peruse the archives. LOADS of free help.

By: Lucinda E Clarke

Lucinda E Clarke — Tue, 30 May 2017 16:47:13 +0000

Congratulations on your new book, nothing quite like the thrill of holding that first copy. OK so I earned my living for over 30 years by writing for every other sort of media other than books – radio, TV, magazines, mayoral speeches, brochures, educational books, plays, company reports, you name it I wrote for it. So, in retirement I decided to try my hand at writing memoirs and novels (I was free at last! No clients to pander, I was my own boss). But full length books? A whole different ball game – it was like going back to kingergarten. Problem is, while building a platform, the social media roundabout etc etc etc I don’t have all that many years to spare to hit the big time. 🙁

By: Terri Benson

Terri Benson — Wed, 24 May 2017 16:37:44 +0000

My first “book” took 25 years to finish. And it’s been hiding under the bed since then. My first “real” book took 4 months to write and 18 months to be published. The difference was several years of craft, conferences, workshops, critique, and books on the same. Knowing what I didn’t know. I’m still working on the next books, and the first one recently crawled out from under the bed to say hello and ask if it could finally come out and play. Writing is hard. Anyone who says differently probably isn’t a writer, or at least not one who gets paid for it. Thanks for your informative, and always fun, blogs.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Wed, 24 May 2017 04:23:04 +0000

Thanks so much for this post Kristen. I have been writing for a long time too and my first book is almost complete. There are many half written ones in my desk drawer!! But you give me hope that I will get there. And I know my writing has improved so much in that time.

By: Melissa E. Beckwith

Melissa E. Beckwith — Tue, 23 May 2017 00:50:26 +0000

Congratulations on your book launch!! 🙂

By: Patti Rae

Patti Rae — Mon, 22 May 2017 14:47:44 +0000

Once again, Thanks Kristen for sharing your path and struggles on becoming published. I especially appreciate your mentioning that we have to love the process, or we might as well go find something else to do. Apparently I love it enough to stick it out, because I started my novel sixteen years ago, and it has now turned into a series of 5 books. Between following the advice of people like you, and my wonderful, yet brutal editor who is always pushing me, I am starting to actually enjoy the process. Every time I learn something new in this industry, it takes some of the mystery out of it, and therefore the fear as well. Thanks for keeping it real.

By: Writing 5/22/17 – Where Genres Collide

Writing 5/22/17 – Where Genres Collide — Mon, 22 May 2017 11:04:29 +0000

[…] https://authorkristenlamb.com/2017/05/the-writing-process-it-aint-no-unicorn-hug/ Writing is hard. But the story is worth it, to me. […]

By: Cindy Mahoney /Claire O'Sullivan

Cindy Mahoney /Claire O'Sullivan — Sun, 21 May 2017 16:34:54 +0000

In reply to Celia Lewis.

Celia

it’s never too late! You are already ahead of the game with five novels–four maybe under the bed but they are simmering, bursting at the seams to get out there. Your characters are thinking on how to thwart you! They plan, plot and refuse to do what’s right. You get to be the marionette of them, ha! Don’t give up. I too am getting up there. No. Really. And I am just on my second novel. If just one gets out there, that would be awesome, however scribbling feeds that insatiable need to write and do what I was meant to do, what I am driven to do, and answers that question: why I was knit in my mother’s womb with this purpose-whether it makes it in any fashion, or not.