Five for Friday

My good friends at the Paper Hangover are starting a new segment called five for Friday and this week they are asking the question:

What are Five things I wish I knew before I started writing...

1) Writing doesn’t have to be a completely isolating experience. Some of my best friends I meant online.  Meeting them in real life isn’t creepy at all, unless they want to kill you and harvest your organs.  But that’s only happened, like once to me, besides I didn’t need that liver and now I’m a pound lighter.

2) Forming letters into words- easy.  Forming words into sentences, hard.  Forming sentences other people want to read- outrageously hard. Forming sentences other people want to read with out extra words- IMPOSSIBLE.

3) The Internet is a bigger distracter than real life.

4)  As much as you love your book, no one else REALLY wants to hear about it.  They might ask you “so what’s your book about?” but they will only care when you have a hardcover to hand to them--- If they look really bored its a sign you need to work on your elevator pitch.

5) Writing a book is hard, and when you think your done, you’re NOT.  You go through crazy mood swings where you think one moment this is the greatest book ever written and the next it’s the worst dreck that has ever appeared on a computer screen.  (And you’ve spend years reading fanfiction)   You might NEVER hit the point where you are completely satisfied with your work, but  eventually the desire to show someone else out weighs your ego.