Things I Wish I Didn't Have to Do as a Writer


I love writing, truly I do. But there are still things I just wish I didn't have to do. Today, I'll let you in on some of them.

1. Editing. I love writing, but editing is another story. First of all, I really don't know all the rules of writing. I regularly bypass the rules for what sounds right, and grammar? Forget about it! I'm the queen of Ebonics, double-negatives, and whatever else they try to unlearn you in school. But not only do I hate the technical aspects of editing, I despise having to delete things. That "I said what I said" attitude definitely doesn't serve me well in writing. Similar to when I have to delete some of my kids photos, it just doesn't feel right--even if it's not the best picture. Bottom line, editing sucks!

2. Writing Sex Scenes. Talk about awkward...I absolutely HATE writing sex scenes! However, seeing that romance is my genre of choice, I don't see myself getting around it anytime soon. I always feel so dumb whenever I have to write them. Every sentence seems more inarticulate than the last. And my mom is one of my biggest supporters, so it's always in the back of my mind that she'll read it 😝 I'm always at a loss, searching for words and feeling wildly inauthentic. To me, the sexiest encounters are intellectual - a stimulating conversation, a kind gesture, even a seductive glance. I could go my entire life without ever writing another sex scenes. 

3.  Rereads. I suppose this could go under editing, but this is a whole other monster within itself. Rereads suck! I remember reading my first story back so many times that I was literally tired of the characters. As many times as I, my editor, and the publisher looked over that book you would think it would be immaculate. But it's not. There will always be human error, and I suppose you have to reread to minimize it, but it takes so much out of you only for you to find things wrong as soon as it goes public 😣

4. Learn Marketing. This is where I am now. You can produce a well-written story, do your due-diligence when it comes to editing, and get strong reviews, but if you don't know how to properly market your book, you're in trouble. In order to get where I want to be, I'll (without a doubt) have to learn marketing or drop a lot of cash utilizing someone who does. I am NOT looking forward to it. I just wanna write my books and go, but that would be lovely and simple and nothing in my life is ever simple, so that's that.

I suppose this goes to show that you can love something without loving its entirety. With that being said, the good outweighs the bad so I'll keep plugging along. But if any one of these things decided to fall off the face of the earth, I wouldn't be mad. I wouldn't be mad at all. 😏

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