{"id":357,"date":"2009-07-12T11:16:14","date_gmt":"2009-07-12T18:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=357"},"modified":"2025-11-08T09:28:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T16:28:33","slug":"the-suck-part-of-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=357","title":{"rendered":"The suck part of writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isn’t growth fun…NOT.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Believe it or not as I grow as a writer it seems to spill over into everything.\u00a0 I can’t draft ANYthing anymore without rereading and editing it at least once.\u00a0 And I absolutely must use every spell check program because I’m used to my Word doing it half automatically for me.\u00a0 I keep forgetting to capitalize stuff, ’cause Word will if I forget.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes work takes twice as long because I have to go back over every email and read to make sure my meaning for each sentence is clear.\u00a0 Hell, it’s just an EMAIL!\u00a0 You can’t get more clear than, “We are prepaid, send me your money.”\u00a0 or my current favorite, “No we don’t take checks from Japan, because even if it says ‘in US Funds’ how the hell would I know!”\u00a0\u00a0 Although really\u00a0I never curse to clients until after I’ve hung up or sent the email.\u00a0\u00a0 Thank goodness I work alone!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

So now I’m looking at everything I write and rereading it and correcting it and its just slowin’ me down, big-time.\u00a0 Sheesh, prepping 6 blogs over the weekend sometimes takes half a day!\u00a0 Don’t get me started on my personal correspondence which is turning more and more into a “dear diary” situation!\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And my reading, sigh.\u00a0 My favorite pastime has been changed for me.\u00a0 When I read an author sometimes I get very discouraged that my writing isn’t anything as good as theirs.\u00a0 How can I possibly create characters and plots as interesting?\u00a0 Is there too much sex in my books?\u00a0 Does it regulate me to the back shelves and anonymity?\u00a0 Sometimes I feel like a struggling actress worried that her porn career, while it pays great and she loves it, wasn’t the way to go to get her career into major motion pictures.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And sometimes I can hear my voice change in my writing after I’ve read another author.\u00a0 So I\u00a0stay away from some of my favorite authors because I don’t want that influence.\u00a0 This is kind of a bummer, because I’m a plot-hound.\u00a0 I want to know what’s going on in the relationships of my characters.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet, ever the optimist I’m hopeful this is just a transitory thing.\u00a0 Hell, other authors read other books and don’t seem to have a problem.\u00a0 Maybe I’m just being slightly influenced because I’m ‘finding’ my voice.\u00a0 (Cross your fingers!)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

What I find amusing, as I read different authors in the current trend of vampires, is how I analyze another authors’ style.\u00a0 I never used to do that when I read a book.\u00a0 It was either, I like it or\u00a0 I didn’t like it.\u00a0 Just like the way we used to watch movies when we were in our early twenties.\u00a0 I was amazed as time passed and I watched a lot of movies that I could sometimes tell the writing was good but the acting sucked.\u00a0 Or you knew the actors were good and the lines seemed good, so that had to be the director.\u00a0 And sometimes you walked out of the theater knowing that was the best casting director ever or absolutely the worst…that’s when you know the actor, though good, wasn’t right for that part.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Reading has become something like that for me.\u00a0 I love a Laurel Hamilton but sometimes her description goes on and on.\u00a0 Criminy her last book spent a page describing the Vegas strip.\u00a0 Like we don’t already know what that looks like!\u00a0 I’ve taken to skipping paragraphs, every authors nightmare.\u00a0 But maybe I do that because she’s on her 16th book in the series and she’s repeating stuff I’ve read 15 times before.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0\u00a0 Someone kick me if I do that as an author.\u00a0 Screw the idea that each book should stand alone.\u00a0 If it says number 15 in a series, go the hell out and read the first one…you dolt.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The point being that now as I read I read with half an eye to learning.\u00a0 Before it was just escape and pleasure.\u00a0 Now it’s different.\u00a0\u00a0 Still a bit of an escape and still a pleasure but now I have my own thoughts on the authors style or ‘voice’ and how that’s what makes the book so unique.\u00a0 Just another vampire book, yes.\u00a0 Interesting twist with a unique plot and characters, yes.\u00a0\u00a0 But it’s the authors voice that makes it, thirdly, unique and the voice that will resonate with the fans and sell the books.\u00a0 I’m just starting to realize THAT part of the writing process.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And I wonder about my voice…there are so many sides to me and my books\/characters reflect that.\u00a0 Cat (the 1st books character) is sultry and powerful in her sexuality.\u00a0 The 2nd book about her adds her personal competence to that as she works through meshing these two separated parts of her life together.\u00a0 The 3rd (and yes there will be a third, I’ve got a scene or two written in my head) will have her dealing with national publicity while trying to sort out her own love life.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet the main character on the multiverse series is much more of a pessimist.\u00a0 I think there will be more humor in it, more romance, more action and less sex.\u00a0 And I think my ‘voice’ will be very different.\u00a0\u00a0 How will the fans react?\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, you my readers & friends will have to tell me honestly.\u00a0 Because you are my first sounding board.\u00a0 You guys were the first to tell me, “Hey…I like it!”\u00a0 or “Hey it was good but got boring.”\u00a0 (And Gina I know just where and thank you!!)\u00a0 And you guys told me exactly which parts were best, so now that I’m cutting it practically in half, I know which parts of my writing is the strong & good part so I can look at the other parts and see where it needs fixing or slashing.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

So as I develop my ‘palate’ as a writer, you guys get to come along for the ride.\u00a0\u00a0 At least I don’t ask you to swirl, sip and spit!\u00a0 (Although in my books swirling and sipping are to be expected…you should always swallow, never spit!)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isn’t growth fun…NOT.\u00a0 Believe it or not as I grow as a writer it seems to spill over into everything.\u00a0 I can’t draft ANYthing anymore without rereading and editing it at least once.\u00a0 And I absolutely must use every spell … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5169,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/5169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}