Nick Lawton asked Kyle West:

What would you say was your greatest stumbling block during the entire writing process? Characters? The science? Plotting everything out?

Kyle West Daily life and excuses. Writing a book takes a lot of time and it's easy to convince yourself it isn't worth it, especially when starting out. Writing a book is the classic definition of a long term goal that has no immediate payoff. Worse, once you're done with the book itself, there are still editing steps and handling the logistics of getting it to market. All of those things combined probably keep people from writing a book more than anything.

The actual mechanics of writing (characters, plot, research) is actually the easy part. It takes a lot of practice, years of it, to get good enough to where people don't want to put your book down. After you learn to write an entertaining book, you have to deal with the really hard part - getting people to notice it! I got lucky, but I also worked hard to get there. Thanks for your question, Nick, and sorry it took four years to answer it, though my answer is by no means comprehensive! I'm not on here often enough

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