My Saga Continues with the Woos of being Self-Published

It's a new day and the end of a long work week has finally arrived.  I have a busy weekend ahead of me and not enough hours to get everything I need to do done.

Continuing where I left off, I proudly show off my email to a few friends and family members.  I'm feeling proud and confident that I can actually make this dream work.  That's all well and good until you realize you have to finish the book.  Sitting at the computer I start to type.  After a few sentences I decide to check email, play a little music or a game; you know, just a short break.  I notice the floor could use a good sweeping so I do that.  Now the kids and their kids come over.  I can't possibly get any work done with company in the house.

I finally had to admit to myself I had writers block.  The dreaded condition you get when the hype has come down and your ideas have hit a dead-end.  If I had been under contract with a publishing company, I definitely would be sweating bullets trying to get words to paper or letters on the computer screen, but since I'm self-publishing, I can take all the time I want! 

With this new lease on life, I pack up my manuscript and put it away for another day.  I had to get away from it to refresh my eyes and look for new ideas.  I would suggest anyone working on a book for the first time actually put it down for about a week, if you can, and let your brain rest.  My break lasted for a few days and I decided I needed maybe a week.  The holidays were coming up and I needed to shop, clean and cook.

I had stretched this little break to a month before I received a phone call from my author representative asking if everything was okay.  I told her I needed a break to take care of a few things but I was still working on the book. Satisfied with my answer, I told her I would contact her if I needed anything.  Now my mother/editor started calling me asking what was going on with the book.  She hadn't received any new material from me to review.

Stress meter has started to tick.  This is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby for me not a job with stress involved.   But I get it.  I had recruited these people to help me and I dropped the ball.  Back to the computer I go.  Instead of picking up where I left off, I start from the beginning and rewrite most of the first few chapters.  I finally get to the middle of the book where the suspense starts to build.  The direction I was going with the suspense required me to do a little research...stress meter tick..tick. 

I'm not a police detective nor do I know any, so my research had to be as close to realistic as possible.  You can't always trust what you get off the Internet, so that meant going on a few government websites to find information and possibly calling these people to verify what I found.  In today's tense world, calling the FBI and asking about bombs could be a big mistake.  As a word of warning, if you do this, MAKE SURE YOU IDENTIFY YOURSELF AS AN AUTHOR AND YOU ARE WRITING A BOOK!  They still might not believe you but you have a better chance of getting the right answers from the right source instead of the Internet.  Stress meter tick...tick...tick.

The doubt has returned and again I push myself to continue.  The suspense is taking on a life of its own and I find myself liking the criminal element of the book more so than the romance.  Romance is easy if your characters are compatible with each other.

To be continued.....