To write or not to write. That is the question that many people think is too difficult a question to ask when it comes to being an author.

I was recently asked if I would speak to a class of high schoolers about what is involved in writing a book. My first knee jerk reaction was to ponder the ridiculous notion of me speaking in front of actual people. I mean, actual living breathing people with opinions and attention spans measured in milliseconds. Not to mention the questions. After I got over that thought and spent some time thinking about it, I decided that I could possibly occupy a few minute talking about what it takes to write a book.

People, when I tell them that I am a writer, all act remarkably awed by the concept as if it is some incredibly difficult thing to accomplish. I immediately suspect that either they do know how difficult it is to write a book or they have no idea and are assuming it is a difficult thing to write a book. I, on the other hand, approached writing a book with the most deluded of opinions, thinking that I would merely pick it up as a hobby, a pleasant diversion when the tedium of life became too much to deal with and there were no more new scifi tv shows to watch. How wrong could I be?

Well, let me tell you. First of all, a book is next to worthless if it doesn't have a seed of originality. These little pieces of originality are hard to come by in a world where people are busy being original. There are different ways to go about that. One way is to scrape and scrounge until something new and shiny pops up. Another way is to amalgamate a number of not so original ideas until not even the original authors would recognize it enough to call it plagiarism. The last method is easiest unless you know how to lucid dream. That is a trick I learned near the beginning. Lucid dreaming is where the dreamer dreams. The difference is that the dreamer can exercise a degree of control over their dream and can often remember the main points in the dream. Nightmares are especially useful and an author can't beat the unexpected twists and turns that happen in dreams. The absolutely ridiculous things that make sense until one thinks about it and discards it before picking it back up and asking the great and powerful 'what if?' Once that happens, the tale ceases to be predictable.

After getting the spark that sets the tale in motion, well, after that comes the hard part. Making a spark or a seed into a storm or a mighty tree. That takes hours and hours and hours of heart wrenching, soul searching, utterly exhausting work. There is so much to do. There is the storyline to worry about. You know, the standard arc that starts with a catalyst, builds up to a climax and ends with a resolution to the climax. Then there is the story arc over the book, the series, the chapter, and the character, plus all the ones that I am probably missing. Miss one of these story arcs and you won't be able to sleep at night or some sharp eyed reader will spot it and leave a review that won't let you sleep at night. Insomnia all around.

OCD is to be commended when it comes to the details. There are the big details like the story arcs, world building if you don't recycle our own world, and the final but not insignificant detail about making the story fit. Not just stretching to fill a book, but knowing when it can't be stretched any further or when it can't be shrunk enough to be contained between two book covers. There are few things I dislike more in a book than a wonderful story that is too short and could have been longer or one that is merely stringing along until it gets to the target word count. There are the lesser details about making sure that you call you characters by their right names, or remember what color their eyes are. Mannerisms, speech patterns, habits, preferences, inter character relationships all need to be diligently tracked. Science, magic, history, all the layers that add depth to a story or a character have to be handled carefully and not to excess. When something should be eased into the story or dropped in unexpectedly is another question that is often bungled. When to build on something or to let pass. How to foreshadow something future enough that is makes sense at the right time is a fine art. What words are being overused and what good synonyms are is a skill, unless of course you have a handy thesaurus. You get the point. There is a mountain of details.

After the story gets written, then there is the rewriting, followed by the rewriting, then the editing, then the rewriting, then the beta reading, then the rewriting, and finally the publishing--something that in itself is a large decision. Many people think authors are then able to sit back and reap the benefits of their royalty check. They have the time to go on and write the next book and the book that was just published will miraculously take care of itself. This is no more a fact than the belief that an infant is capable of the same feat when set loose on the busy sidewalk of a major metropolis.

The first royalty check comes in on amazon some three months later. That check is likely to be a pittance if the author doesn't diligently promote their book. I read countless blogs and subscribed to enough newsletters to clutter an inbox of even Gmail's epic proportions. My google now feed lists the frequently published 'top ten tricks' for boosting sales. I read malarkey about promoting on facebook and starting exponential growth by word of mouth. You know, the get ten people to read the book and recommend it to ten more people. Ten, one hundred, a thousand, ten thousand in four generations. All very fine numbers to look at, but not so realistic in reality. I had my book promoted on thirty ebook facebook pages without a noticeable boost in sales. I had five the day before and six that day and four the following day. To be honest, I considered taking an online degree in advertising and marketing in order to find any success. One of the best things I have found for boosting sales is publishing another book. However, doing so is a struggle of equal proportion to the first book and is not an easy solution.

Getting reviews in another difficult thing. People dislike sharing their opinion on public forums unless they are sufficiently WOWed by the material. Less than one in a hundred of my sales have come back to leave reviews. I dutifully followed the advice that recommended exhorting the readers to leave reviews at the end of the book. Worse yet is the people who leave reviews and really should find other ways of occupying themselves. I have a couple reviews left by people who couldn't see beyond a couple typos they discovered. Newsflash, this world is abundantly populated by imperfect humans who haven't all gotten doctorates in english literature. I recently sent a nice email informing the author of the #1 best seller in the fantasy category that his book had a typo. I did not go and leave a one star review about it. Enough ranting about a pet peeve. There is little that is more encouraging to an author than a heartfelt positive review. I received an email wherein the writer informed me that he hadn't enjoyed a book so much since reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I personally loved that series and got all warm and fuzzy inside at the thought of my feeble literary efforts being compared to the fourteen epic book series I had spent many enjoyable hours devouring.

I earlier compared publishing a book to letting an infant out into the world. The feeling of accomplishment that an author feels when their book is appreciated makes all the hard work, sweat, tears (I will admit it), and time worth it. I love writing and will continue to write even if no one reads my works. Even so, I feel like a proud parent sitting at college graduation as my offspring receives a diploma with high honors when I see a nice review left by a kind soul that enjoyed the time they spent wandering my imagination. Writing isn't a hobby meant for everyone, but if you think you have it in you to write, by all means. It can be the most enjoyable and rewarding of alternate full time jobs. Just don't quit your regular job first.