I love to write and focused a great deal of time, frustration and love into the stories I've written. Yes, it does mean extremely long hours and the first draft isn't the official version, ever. Revisions, improvements, critiques and more writing goes into all the stories I write. I don't set out to be "better than" the self-published author before me. When I sit down to write, I clack the keyboard like a non-stop guitar solo. My writing, by far, isn't perfect and wouldn't expect to be. Long hours at a computer means losing sleep. There's always going to be that certain 'plot' that has to be written in MS Word. There will always be days when nothing gets done. Then there are days when the writer gets 'writer's block'. It comes and it goes like the change in weather. Plots are tricky. Characters (and yes, authors love their good guys) and the bad guys are the ones you love to hate.
But it doesn't end at 82,000 words, speaking of myself. I've slaved away at a story that was pretty much left in bits and pieces with a huge chunk of time and space missing and that was over seven years ago I began writing, at first, for 'the fun of it'. Then one day, something serious took hold. I had a knack for words and writing, in general. I may not be the best at my chosen craft, but I see it as "nothing needs to be perfect. If the world was full of perfected writers, authors and self-published individuals, the world would be a boring place."
And so I piddled with this other story and left the characters somewhere in the dust of the past and two spaces later, they reappear in futuristic times. No hint, cliff hanger or anything special happens during the time frame otherwise. I had to go back and tackle that. Also, this story was written in MS Word on WIndows ME edition, which not only appeared strange, but also increased my workload to re-insert quotes before every spoken line. Indentation and all that jazz just happens later now that I'm nearing a conclusion in my story, that might be a novelette or novel depending on how far I want to take my story line. The story is by far not ready for self-publishing, but hope to get it slapped up on Smashwords and Kindle Direct Publishing after I tackle the editing and revision phases, then it's onto the formatting phase and picking and designing a book cover to go with the story. The long hours it takes a writer to write will vary.
But it doesn't end at 82,000 words, speaking of myself. I've slaved away at a story that was pretty much left in bits and pieces with a huge chunk of time and space missing and that was over seven years ago I began writing, at first, for 'the fun of it'. Then one day, something serious took hold. I had a knack for words and writing, in general. I may not be the best at my chosen craft, but I see it as "nothing needs to be perfect. If the world was full of perfected writers, authors and self-published individuals, the world would be a boring place."
And so I piddled with this other story and left the characters somewhere in the dust of the past and two spaces later, they reappear in futuristic times. No hint, cliff hanger or anything special happens during the time frame otherwise. I had to go back and tackle that. Also, this story was written in MS Word on WIndows ME edition, which not only appeared strange, but also increased my workload to re-insert quotes before every spoken line. Indentation and all that jazz just happens later now that I'm nearing a conclusion in my story, that might be a novelette or novel depending on how far I want to take my story line. The story is by far not ready for self-publishing, but hope to get it slapped up on Smashwords and Kindle Direct Publishing after I tackle the editing and revision phases, then it's onto the formatting phase and picking and designing a book cover to go with the story. The long hours it takes a writer to write will vary.