Getting My Book Out There #2

Step 1: Write (read) 

Step 2: Save it for later

Here’s what I did once I finished writing the epilogue. 

I did a quick spell-check in Word to catch some of the most obvious mistakes and then I didn’t read it again. The story was finished and I didn’t want to ruin that feeling of achievement. I had finished a book and it felt great. Starting to dissect my own writing in search for ways to improve the story would’ve killed my euphoria, so I didn’t do such a thing.  I still read and enjoyed the comments I received on my story, but I didn’t really do anything with the story itself. 

After a few weeks, I realized that the comments I received actually made me want to read my own story. I wanted to know what the story was like when you read it as a ‘reader’ instead of the ‘writer’ but this turned out to be more difficult than expected. To me, it was surprisingly hard to let myself get sucked into the story without noticing small mistakes here and there, to want to make small changes to the way I worded things. I attempted this several times, but in the end I knew it wasn’t going to work. So, until I came up with a solution, I would save my story for later and get back to it when it wasn’t as fresh in my mind anymore. 

Getting My Book Out There #1

Step 1: Write

The first step was, is and always will be writing a story. For me, this started with a dream that I couldn’t get off my mind. It had shaken me so badly that I had to share it with people; one thing led to another, and that same dream turned into a full-length story.

As I wrote Absolute Contamination, I also shared it on Wattpad, and I think that the comments I received with each chapter I uploaded really gave me that extra bit of motivation to keep writing. Writing is something you should do for yourself, but it’s undeniably true that it’s extra motivating when other people read and comment, and thus ‘live’ the story together with you. Just talking about your characters, the events that take place, etc… can inspire you to write. Not only did I want to write Absolute Contamination for myself, but I also wanted to share Keara’s journey with the readers. I wanted her to be able to tell her story, the whole story, no matter how painful it was. This was the most important to me and I am glad I was able to finish Keara’s story.