I didn’t always know I wanted to be a writer, much less an authoress. At first, the closest I approached to actual stories was coming up with sequels to fiction I enjoyed reading or watching and I didn’t write them down much.
After sequels, I moved on to spin-offs. Again, not much writing; just ideas in my head that became stories, which didn’t find a home on paper.
Eventually, I found that, as I mulled over the stories in my brain, I would loose parts and have to re-imagine, many times preferring the first version. A few times I liked the change, but, either way, it seemed a little silly to risk the loss of a good idea even if the story would only be for my own enjoyment.
It was only natural that, at first, the writing part … ahem… left a bit to be desired. There were chunks missing because, if I was imagining for the fun of it, I would imagine the most interesting part and leave out the slow bits. Let’s face it, the slow spots give the reader a place to catch their breath during a story. These slow spots are just not as much fun to write as the parts that already draw you in with a gentle extended hand, or the more exhilarating fist-grabbing-your-shirt-front-to-pull-you-in pieces. I have since become aware there are some people with the consideration that there is no such thing as writer’s block, only boredom. With my aforementioned experience, you might think I agree. Yes and no, but that debate, which I can argue both sides of, would best be tackled in an entry all, or nearly all, to itself.
There were some bits of writing I was almost pleased with and some I was not exactly displeased with. Then, there were some that I was well aware had fallen short of tolerable writing. Of course, now I realize that, though I had enjoyed many books by a range of excellent authors with a variety of styles when I was growing up, many of those being by authors from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, I was still far from capable of accurately judging my earliest attempts to put my ideas to words. After all, I was too near the matter. So long as the words sparked the memory of what I had already imagined, how well written the words were was of little import. I did not need to use the words to paint the pictures on the blank canvas of the page. I only needed words to illuminate an already existing painting. Still, I did become disappointed with my writing at times.
As I let some of the old, partial stories, with bits here and there, rest, and as I wrote more bits and pieces of other stories, then reviewed the oldest bits, I began to realize just how sloppy and ineffective my writing really was.
As time went on, with old bits abandoned as ideas and some as nothing of use except as a trip back in time until sometime later when I could change it into new writing, it began to look more like something that, with work, could be writing others might want to read. Of course, this depended on my ability to get enough bits together to make a book.
That was the time the idea of being an author began to tingle in the back of my mind and weave it’s way through like a wisp of cloud here one moment, then, stretching and fading till you can’t see it any more to show up again later, possibly having gained bulk to make it more obvious.
I didn’t think my writing was anywhere near good enough… and it wasn’t, but the idea kept teasing me and I began to think seriously about it. I began reading books, not just with the eye and mind of a reader who wanted to be entertained, but also as a potential authoress. I began looking at which authors appealed to me and what I considered good writing. I still wouldn’t be able to tell you what those desirable qualities were/ are exactly, but as I read carefully, the works of authors I liked, and as I read books on writing, my own writing began to improve.
Now, here I am writing for others to read. Now, I have what seems to be bigger problems. What about when you are interested in what you’re writing and you just can’t seem to think what to write next? What about publishing? (Self publishing or traditional publishing, which publisher, and if self publishing; how to go about the steps of doing that, marketing, handling money issues of making the book and selling the book.) There are so many questions. Time and research, I hope, will reveal the answers.