The Cold Hard Truth on the Process of Writing

Disclaimer

This book is less on the craft of writing, and more on the process of writing. If you're looking for how to write emotions, how to set the scene, how to write a fight scene, how to write romance, etc. this book is not for you.

I believe that creative writing is a deeply personal experience. I believe that an author's creative solution to a readers problem is not something that can be easily put into words, advised upon, or even told what the correct solution should be by an outside party. All the reader can do, all your writing partners can do, all your critique partners can do, is tell you that there is a problem and this is what they think it is. The real magic is the author's unique solution to those problems.

Much of the advice presented in this book has been learned over the course of 25 years plus as a creative writer. At this point, I regularly make ranked lists on various sites with very little effort which I attribute completely to my loyal readership. But that momentum took time to build.

My day job is as a brand consultant for small businesses, namely creative Indie writers. I help them discover their target market and communicate, not only through the written word but through strong visuals, professional design and packaging, and consolidate what they're saying with what they're doing. There's a lot of teaching, handholding, and critiquing their progress.

I guess you could say I've gotten tired of the excuses and have tailored my review process to weed out the weak. You know the ones I'm talking about; those time vampires who dream about being the next big thing, but who aren't willing to put the work into it.

On sites like Wattpad, which I will refer to as free platforms, the reasons we write are personal and varied. Many just want to write, put the story out to the world, and genuinely don't care that their creative works are or aren't being read. It's unlikely that those people are reading this book.

This book is meant for those people sitting in forums complaining about why they aren't being read, why they're constantly being trolled (seems as though the word troll has evolved to mean anyone who does not love their work, or has an opinion that does not coincide with the writer's perspective). I'm here to offer a swift kick in the rear to the complainers.

For the rest of you who are genuinely interested in improving your process or experimenting with new techniques that may improve your writing, this book is definitely for you in a tough love capacity.