Minding the Gap

I needed to learn so many new things when shifting from a purely writing-for-myself recreational writer, to a maybe-someone-will-read-this author. Formatting is a huge subject, much too long for this post, though I'm happy to talk about it and my own journey through it (a journey ongoing.) Marketing is another, and something I'm not great at right now, though I have an excuse handy. The biggest teaching I've had thus far is the value of the back catalog. "The best marketing for your first book is your second book" goes Internet wisdom, and I agree.

I took a break--a long break--between One Last Quest and @TheRealJoyG, a gap year that was more like a dozen gap years, with as many manuscripts drafted and "trunked." Coming back into self-publishing/indie publishing after so many years away was like moving back to a former hometown: the skyline has changed, the geography is familiar, the people are all strangers. And yet it felt like a homecoming. And it felt like starting fresh. Those dozen years were what I charitably think of as "craft development" years, and nothing that I put out during that time was perhaps as polished as what I'm putting out now... but I still regret that gap.

Being forced to a deadline, especially one of our small-group readings, motivates me to dig in and be a Reviser and a Critic, instead of just letting the draft languish in the trunk like compost. I need the drive, the urgency, and truthfully, the concern about the audience experience to spend time to get the writing to a good place. And here, in the time of creativity-on-demand-just-a-button-push-away, I regret not spending more time picturing an audience, honing the drafts, and trying to further my own self-education. With Trouble out the door, I'm indeed seeing more activity and even some sales (thank you!) and I feel it's got @TheRealJoyG behind it as backup. It's not a one-and-done writing vocation, but the first steps after a long time away.

I hope to keep filling in that gap, polishing up the various WIPs I have going, revisiting the trunk with a critical eye to see what's salvage and what's scrap. Are there gems buried in the bin, or are these the literary equivalent of old student papers, showing the growth process on the way to a result? I suspect my memory is unkind towards them, that they are not bad, but also that my skills are in a different place now, and it may not be a salvage operation on these old drafts. They're not gap-filler ready, but just the shape of something outlining a potential writer-to-be.

I don't regret keeping them around, not at all. They're the foundations upon which I'm building now. But I do regret not treating them better when they had their time at the desk. There might have been more lessons they could have imparted, and closed the gap in my own knowledge and skills that much sooner.

🧩🏳️‍🌈