{"id":764,"date":"2016-09-07T10:10:34","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T17:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amberbird.com\/blog\/?p=764"},"modified":"2016-09-28T19:35:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T02:35:39","slug":"first-time-is-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amberbird.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/07\/first-time-is-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"First Time Is Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

There came a point where I decided I was no longer a writer and would not have a book published.<\/p>\n

Some stuff was going on in my head and with my chemistry and I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doing anything creative other than my makeup. (And even that was mostly just doing things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done before\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Yeah, not my most vibrant era\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6)<\/p>\n

When that stuff got sorted, I poured out a mass of rough material for possible books, a few poems, and began a torrent of lyrics that has me with lyrics for over 250 songs now. Yeah!<\/p>\n

Then came the next point where I decided I was no longer a writer (well, except for lyrics\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and then blogs\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6) and would not have a book published.<\/p>\n

I had started a band and realised that I LOVED making music (it let me combine writing and performing and it was MUSIC) and that I only had time for one creative endeavour until such time as I ceased to have to work a day job or until I somehow became a person who could live on way less sleep than I actually need. I chose music. (I 99% don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t regret it.)<\/p>\n

When the way that things work with my day job shifted so that I started having long periods where I was between projects\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Okay, to be honest, I just spent all that extra time and energy on music-related things. Because music was doing things for me that writing hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t (and probably at least partly because I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put in the effort on writing).<\/p>\n

And, listen, a lot of people consider themselves aspiring writers and never get around to writing. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to write a book, they dream of writing a book, but they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. There are plenty of reasons for that, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure that a few were in play in my situation. Plus, I had stopped thinking of myself as a writer\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/p>\n

Trying hard to make it up to Buckaroo these days…<\/em><\/p>\n

Then, my buddy Ernie Cline basically gave me a deadline. And not a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153far in the future\u00e2\u20ac\u009d deadline, but a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153write a book in a month\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sort of deadline. (I suspect he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realise the situation and had generously given me the benefit of the doubt, had assumed I was working on it all along like I should have been.) A book that would be good enough that he wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t regret spending the time on me. And here are a few things I learned by finally writing my first novel and following it through to the end:<\/p>\n