Okay, I'll admit it. I've been a bit of a douchebag the past year with my writing. I published Part 1 of Euphoria in March, but I haven't been working on the Part 2 for quite some time. Keep in mind that Part 2 is actually already written--it just simply needs to be edited. Extensively edited. Would you believe it if I told you the runes, as of now, aren't even in the first draft of Part 2? Well, believe it. And I already regret my word choice of "simply". There's absolutely nothing simple about it.
Writing is hard. That much is unquestionable. To seriously commit to writing a book, it takes time, and a vast amount of energy and ambition. Somewhere along the way, between finishing the first draft of Euphoria (both parts), and beginning to edit it, I lost my fervor and that delicious spark of ambition. Too many problems from the real world, like increasingly strenuous schoolwork and bills, pulled the blinders over my eyes, and I stopped writing for awhile altogether. Right as I was pushing myself to write every single day, as I once did, I discovered self-publishing with Amazon and released Part 1 of Euphoria.
However, that seemed to draw me away from writing too. I was more concerned with finding reviewers, marketing the book online and everything else. And then some of the reviews came out, and although a few of the more critical ones still gave the book four or three stars, they disliked certain aspects of the book--the most horrifying of which was that some of them didn't like my main vampire character, Remaunt. Even after the achievement of publishing my work and having real people from around the world read it, I still was morose. I felt like it was hopeless to come out with a sequel because it wouldn't make it very far anyway and it would be self=published. The entire summer I didn't work much on Part 2 at all.
It was a few weeks ago that I realized the error in my way of thinking. A particularly good review came out from Bonnie over at Hands and Home blog, over in wonderful Canada-land (my best friend and editor hails from Canada herself, so I have a special affection for all things Canadian). In her review, she celebrated many of Remaunt's character traits, and said she looked forward to reading the second part. Hers wasn't the first review to say such things, but it WAS the first review that ripped those blinders off my eyes so I could see what a fool I was being.
I have fans. Legitimate fans. They may be incredibly small in number, but I do. I thought back to all the other really positive reviews I had read, and from how many people had said they were eagerly awaiting the second installment. I know for a fact I've heard it from at least ten; one awesome girl even found me on facebook to tell me how much she'd loved it. Another girl posted a discussion on the Amazon Product page asking when Part 2 would be released and said she rarely reviews books but that mine was an exception because she liked it so much. And I thought to myself, "Ten is more than enough."
I realized that it doesn't matter if you have ten fans, a hundred fans, or ten thousand fans. I can't waste life moping around, thinking, "If only I was a NY Times bestselling author and had thousands of people celebrating my work I would be more motivated to continue." If people are interested in your work, whether it be writing, music, or whatever else, and they want more of it, and if it's something that makes YOU happy, you have an obligation to give it to them. Writing does make me happy. Reading reviews makes me happy. Making other people happy, with my book, makes me happy as well. And people are waiting for Part 2. And THAT means I have a responsibility to get Part 2 out there, if not for myself, for my fans.
In the past three weeks I've been writing more than ever. I already finished the edit of a chapter that I had been on/off editing for the past YEAR. I'm well on my way into the next one. It's going to take time, but with my reignited fervor and determination to deliver to my miniscule fan base I should have it done in early 2012. My current goal is to complete it before the publication date of Part 1, which was March 5th, 2011.
My plans don't end there. I intend to put out a full print version, including both parts 1 and 2, to be available on Amazon as well. In addition to that, once the product is finished, I still intend on trying to get a literary agent for the project and see it professionally published. If the positive reviews have told me anything, it's that there is still an audience for this genre and that Euphoria is a refreshing change of pace from all of the popular vampire novels that already exist. With luck, maybe we could even see it on bookshelves in a few years. (Dare to dream!)
So, if you're a fan of Euphoria, I want to thank you. For your support, your readership, everything. I'm doing this for you guys. <3
Jourdan, I am so happy to hear that you are back to work on part 2! I feel honored to know that in whatever small part my review helped you to get out of your writing funk and encourage you back to work. You are right, it doesn't matter how many fans you have the fact is that you have fans. And also remember how few people really take the
ReplyDeletetime to sit down and write, then post, a review. I have always considered myself to be an avid reader and only started publicly writing reviews in the last year. Based on what I read and how I felt about Euphoria, I think that you probably have more fans than you realize.
I don’t pretend to know what it is like to be a writer but I can imagine it is exhausting – investing so much of yourself into your work and then putting it out there and just waiting. Good for you for realizing that there is an audience for your work and believing in yourself enough to continue on this path. I sometimes prefer self-published authors because the passion is always there, and sometimes that passion can be lost on the best selling lists – you know what I mean?
Bonnie @ HandsAndHome
Jourdan, I am glad to hear that you are continuing your awesome work on Euphoria. I admire you because not only are you a fabulous writer but you've actually put your work out there. There are A LOT of writers out there who are too afraid to even self-publish their work! I know how hard it is to write especially when life gets in the way...it really slows you down. I know because i've been trying to write my story for what seems like forever now. You're one of my favorite new authors right now because 1) you actually made one of the biggest steps which is just putting your work out there and 2) Your writing & story is brilliant. I know there will always be people out there who either love/hate your work but like you said, even if you only have 10 fans right now that's a big deal. When you get picked up by a publisher i'm willing to bet that those first 10 fans will probably mean a lot more than the thousands you'll have later. ;) As for Remaunt, I think he's divine & a refreshing character. All I can say is I REALLY hope you continue!
ReplyDeleteYour devoted fan,
Vanessa