Took a month off to travel with the family, but now I'm back.  I started this blog to share my experiences with writing, so I will share what I can.

Many people want to write a book, but it requires sweat and persistence, more than most people are willing to give.  For my part, this has been a project ten years in the making.  I gave up watching television, movies, and sometimes sleep.  I started by learning the basics:  I read self-help books on how to establish setting, point of view, write dialogue, develop characters, and create a plot.

I learned early on that writing requires being able to take criticism.  Completing my first draft took years and then I had to endure endless rewrites – first imposed by myself and then by professionals who were never satisfied.  Even my brother critiqued me.  He didn’t like my plot structure.  He said that I arrived at the destination too quickly, that it was more about the journey than the destination.  I didn’t like what he said since the most exciting part for me at the time was the destination - the location of Atlantis. In the end I realized that he was correct, the large majority of the story is about the journey – much like life.

While an author can do much of the work, it takes other contributors to create a marketable product.  I was strongly admonished to never skimp on editing or creating a book cover, which meant money out of my pocket.  Being able to write a good story is not enough.  A successful author must make many business decisions. A major decision for me was whether to self-publish or submit the book to a publisher or book agent who would handle the business side of publishing in return for a percentage of the profits.  I dabbled with major publishing houses and queried agents but I didn’t generate much interest.  In this day and age, I received the strong impression that they were looking for authors with established reputations.  So in the end I decided to self-publish, establish a sales record, and then try the professionals again at a later time.  Doing things myself, I had to make a myriad of business decisions.  I had to obtain editing, an ebook cover, a paperbook cover, marketing banners for social media, and a website.  Added to that was formatting both versions, marketing to get the product into the hands of the consumer, and many other issues involved with self-publishing.

I am grateful for the experience. It has taught me a tremendous amount about myself and that a lot of our experience is as much about the journey as it is the final destination – whether writing, reading, or life.  If you are thinking about writing – do it – It’s all worth it.