Jae, Singular, in Need of Plural

Being a full time writer has its advantages. 

I can work in my pajamas. 

I can eat when I want, go for a walk when I want, sleep when I want. 

But don't be fooled by this alleged freedom. There's always a trade-off in life. For me, the concessions are:

*a social life that flounders and dies if I don't keep after it, 

*a sometimes overwhelming loneliness, 

*a constant struggle to have enough money to do the things i really want to do, 

*a pervasive sense of unease when i put my work out there, but often don't know how it's being received. I am therefore grateful for the feedback I do get from my loyal readers. It's like manna.
*and I've found that potential romantic interests are intimidated by the fact that I've written 14 books, and decide they don't want to be involved with a writer, because of the stigma that writers are somehow depressed or insane.

Early on in this writing career of mine, when I was dealing with only one or two books, it was a snap. But now that I have written 14 books, I feel I am not only performing the job of 5 people, but taking on their workloads as well.  I have fallen behind on some things.

For instance, I finally have 10 of my books on Amazon, but four more that need a final proof and approval from me to join them--Strictly Academic, Crossing Paths,  Wear a Helmet, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being UNBEARABLE...

Then I've got to give some attention to marketing and posting articles on different sites to drum up traffic to my own sites. And there's the 5 or 6 or 7 other books I am working on, in various degrees of completion and attention.

Also Known As DNA, the sequel to Armchair Detective, is coming along nicely, now that I solved the POV issue and used both first-person and third-person to tell the story. I have about 274 pages on that one. Then I have to do an unknown number of line edits and other specific edits i do which requires me to go from start to finish each time. How many other people read the same book 50 times?

SIDEBAR: (okay MIDDLEBAR):: I think there's a major misconception about writers, in that the reading public imagines them typing and typing and then finally reaching the end, doing some revision and rewriting, and viola! They have written a book. I can't speak for other authors, but that's about as likely for me as drowning in the Caspian Sea while being sodomized by dolphins. (I apologize right now to all dolphins. I truly believe you are loving creatures who would never violate me in such a way, unless i asked.) My process involves quite a lot of reading the book front to back, because otherwise, you lose the flow and miss important things. More on my process later in another blog. But just suffice to say, writing a book is laborious and requires great dedication,if it's to be done correctly.

So, AKA-DNA will also need beefing up and several more passes of my attention, before sending the manuscript for printing the proof copy, which i will edit, and so will my Primary Proofer, Tanya Penny Gotcher. Then the revisions and corrections will be sent in again, and in another week or two, go live on Amazon.  I'm glad I'm sitting down--just talking about that makes me tired.

And then I have to decide which book is next. Maybe Somewhere Else...or Is It Just Me? (collaborative with Tanya)...or Another Justice....or Falling Through the Cracks...or Quintessence....or maybe FINALLY deciding how I'm going to handle my magnum opus, Supernatural Hypocrisy. That 600 page behemoth has to be tamed somehow.

I genuinely wish I could clone myself. I'd get SO MUCH done. And what could be better than the enjoyment of writing 5 or 6 books at once? I mean, using clones. I'm already writing 5 or 6 books at once, just little old singular me. Just Jae, singular, in need of Plural. And to make matters worse, I'm considering (again) starting a small press of my own. I have been doing all that anyway.

Jae, Singular, in Need of Plural