Kal koi mujhko yaad kare, kyun koi mujhko yaad kare,
Mashroof zamana mere life kyun waqt apna barbaad kare
Story of every artist. People say a piece of art is like having your baby. Your creation. You love your baby so much that you don’t want to believe it has any flaws. It is so precious to you. Everybody should find it cute. You know how hard you have worked on it!
A writer is no different from any other artist. But the current writing industry currently makes you doubt your baby. Doubt yourself. There are high chances of you believing your work is the least wanted. So why go through it?
What makes authors take the plunge?
Past few months I had been working on “my book”. The same book I thought I must publish in 2019.
These are real files on my computer:
- Fiction book
- Non-fiction book
- Final 2019
- Indian woman healing book
- This time I will do it pakka
- 2020 Final autobiography
- Short stories final draft version 8
Other than the above weird collection of short stories and blogs, I was also working on two novels – one full fledged fiction thriller. Another one was a children’s book. My mind was a mess. So was my writing folder. Finally, I decided to focus and publish the fictional short stories first. Then work on the rest.
I have done so much of research recently, that I can write a blog on how to publish a book!
But that would come later.
First I want to write about the things that keep somebody from publishing a book:
- It is very difficult to complete a book
Most of us manage to write good things in parts. But to make it flow right with a good beginning, good middle and good end is hard to achieve. Also, should you know the ending before you write? I have always gone with the flow. Short stories is therefore a popular choice for new author.
2. Who should read and give you feedback?
Once you have finally completed a book, the next thing you do is you ask your friends to give feedback. Now, everybody has a different opinion. Whose opinion should you consider? Just when you thought that you have finally completed the book, you will get more confused with different views and may end up chucking half of it!
3. New draft. New editing
Now you have a book that looks very different from your first draft. Edit it. Grammar. Spelling. Punctuation. Then you get some more ideas and change the plot. Kill a couple of characters. Edit again. Add a romantic angle. Edit again. You edit till the last minute!
4. Fear of failing
I think this is the single most thing that deters people from publishing. We are so full of ourselves. We want to be liked. Praised. Nobody likes to be criticized. Nobody likes to get judged. Nobody likes to not be good.
We get judged everyday. By people we know. People we don’t know. People we work with. People we are related to.
Why add an additional, totally avoidable reason for someone to tell you – Hey! I don’t like what you did!!
What if my book does not sell!
What if people don’t like it!
What if people laugh at me!!
What if people think I am dumb!
What if I fail miserably!
This is the number one fear to overcome. Technical problems, laziness, lack of time, financials constraints have a way of working themselves out.
It feels good to have overcome that fear.
So, cheers for all of us who dare to follow our passion. I request everyone to do what they like. The outcome does not matter. Just start somewhere!! Your passion is important for you. And you matter:
With that thought, formally introducing my book on my blog for the first time! Sharing the link:
Please do read. Please do read. Eagerly looking forward to your feedback! 😊. Share your views. You could reach out to me directly. Tell me what worked for you. Tell me what did not work for you.
Now do me a favour. And do that one thing you had to for yourself that you have been pushing for a long time.