Things A Writer Will Never Know

[mwaltersbeck]

People will not read your book because you are awesome. People will not read your book because you are clever. People will not read your book for any reason that you can probably devise in your super smart, latte-enhanced brain right now. They will read it if, and only if, there's something in it for them. Or they won't. And guess what? That's okay, too. Write another book. And another one. Write something that makes you ridiculously, sickeningly happy. Write something that dances off the page for you. Something that is so good, you don't even care what that ONE AGENT with the killer smile and gently tousled hair thinks about it. Yeah. Write THAT book.

Don't think about the vampires.

Just sit down and write the story you need to tell. Then revise it. And revise it. And hire somebody to tell you how to make it better. Then revise it. Then send it to that agent with the gently tousled hair and let him or her tell you how to revise it again. Then let the agent sell it. Because now it's ready and you don't even care. Because you're sitting in front of your computer writing something that makes you blissfully, sickeningly happy.

And somewhere close, or very far away, someone else will read what you have written and be inspired by your stories and they will laugh and they will cry and they will do something they have never done before and you will never, ever know it. And that is the beauty of what a writer is supposed to do.

To inspire and delight. Other people. For reasons we will never know.

[Ryan]

And somewhere close, or very far away, someone else will read what you have written and be inspired by your stories and they will laugh and they will cry and they will do something they have never done before and you will never, ever know it. And that is the beauty of what a writer is supposed to do.

Nice line.
With the internet, you DO know when someone likes your stuff and it feels damn good.