Who'd be a writer, eh?

It's getting a bit dire, isn't it - no blog post for two weeks. The trouble is, it's been so "nose to the grindstone" that I have blow-all to say for myself. However, lest we consider me lost for words... Oh perish the thought!

So, I will say this - if any of you who are not writers ask me if you should become a writer - seeking to be published - I will say "NO!!! Run for the hills and take up knitting instead!"

Seriously, I think if I'd known what was involved in trying to become a published author, I'd never have started. But it's from the innocence of not knowing that writers are indeed born. We have a dream, we feel a book within us that we feel must be shared and off we go. JK Rowling's billions may beckon us, as may the prospect of fame. Yes, well... Of such things are dreams made.

Here's the truth - it's a long hard slog and JKR was a phenomenon, not a usual occurence.
To become a published writer - and heaven knows, I'm not there yet - yet being the operative word - you need to have:
an awful lot of tenacity,
the ability to persevere, to rewrite and rewrite again,
the hide of a rhinocerous,
the patience of a saint,
the pushiness of a... well a pushmepullyou-thing,
and a determination that goes beyond the bounds of what is rational for Joe and Josephine Soap.

I'm quite convinced, at this stage, that becoming a rocket scientist is easier than becoming a published author.

But here's the thing - if this is what you want to do, if this is what you have to do - then you do it. You write, you edit, you rewrite, you ask for critiques from fellow writers, you support your fellow writers (okay, if you like you could go off and lurk in a lonely garret with a mangy mouse and some green cheese), but you work at it, you learn, you grow, you rewrite some more, you network, you enquire, you attend conferences and read books on writing and then you rewrite again. You may put aside one manuscript unfinished and start another. You may finish three manuscripts and realise they're all rubbish and move onto the fourth. But this is part of the journey and you just keep going, and going, and going.

And that, let me tell you, is just the start...

Those writers who are published or about to be published will tell you that getting the publishing deal doesn't mean it stops there - no, that's just the end of the beginning and still a long way from any sort of end.

So now, hands up all those who want to be writers? Hey?! Where'd you all go?!

I'm working on developing a thick hide...