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Why writing is hard

December 4, 2008 by Ally Carter Leave a Comment

Perhaps the most frequent writing advice I ever give is simple: this business isn’t for wusses.

Sure, I could go into details about the incredibly tight margins in the publishing industry… Or how traditional review sources are drying up… Or how the bad economy is affecting the industry as a whole (several insiders have dubbed yesterday “Black Wednesday” because of the news of layoffs at several big New York houses).

Publishing is HARD. But for those of you just staring out (and I know from emails and blog comments that there are A LOT of you) that’s not what you need to be worrying about. Just writing is hard enough, so for my money, you should really put your effort on that–on doing THAT well–because, in truth, the writing is the only thing in this crazy, crazy business that you will always control.

Case in point: the title-less book I’m working on now.

I’ve been through two drafts. It’s in decent shape. Seriously, it is. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It has a main character who has a goal and a whole series of obstacles standing in her way. It’s 275 pages long.

It’s a “finished” book by a lot of new writer standards. (And I know this because that’s what your English teachers tell me when you guys are out of the room!)

But finished isn’t good enough, I’m afraid. Not by a long shot.

Writing at a professional level means looking at your book–as a whole–and asking hard questions and then fixing the places where you don’t like the answers. It means examining every single character and making sure they’re consistent and interesting and unique. It means spending an insane amount of time trying to say with seven words what you’ve been saying with 12.

It’s easy to finish when your book is finished, gang.

What’s hard–what’s necessary–is finishing when your book is good.

And now I’ve got to go do just that!

-Ally

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