The Uphill Grind

The past few weeks have been a blur of activity on the writing front. As I hunker down and hash out the details in TLOK 4, I have found myself constantly going back to my earlier novels to make certain that the details within are carried forward.


Now, considering I have written each of these, you would think it wouldn't be this hard. Just like the rules of quantum mechanics, every decision had another possible outcome. Unfortunately for me, my brain will often confuse which outcome I chose, and I have to be certain that I am still writing in the current Auviarran universe.


Now, the down side. Reading your own work. A human being can grow quite a bit in a year, and even more so in three. Looking back at all three of my prior novels, I have noticed that I have lost some of the tone of the first book, and I am not exceptionally proud of some of my passages. To that end, I took three days to go over what I had already written and fix it. I think a lot of authors go through the stress of "It's not good enough," and I have even met a few who have told me that their "Super Awesome Story" will have to wait until they write a few books first and get enough experience to tell the story they want to tell. Naturally, these specific people have published ZERO novels to date, because of the fear of that first step.


Do I regret putting Kimberly's story out in the world? Hell no. Do I regret some of the writing crimes I have spotted in my books? Yes and no. I think that, naturally, human beings want their work to be flawless. For instance, in book three, the space between two words was accidentally eliminated. That was most likely an error born of formatting, but I am the one who approved the proof, so that one is on me. That time I didn't Show, but Told instead? Yeah, wish I hadn't done that. Did I under describe some places or people? Yep.


Each of these mistakes is a lesson. Refusing to learn from these mistakes is the mark of a bad writer, as is refusing to learn from the mistakes of others. As I write my next novel, I am making notes to myself about my own mistakes, and am trying to be more vigilant. I am working to bring back some of the tone of my earlier works as I continue to learn and explore the ins and outs. This is still what I hope to do someday, full time, and until I get to that point, I will keep working that Uphill Grind.