Week 3: Reading, Writing, or Living?
For me as an author, I have to ask myself—what is one without the other?
Here we are again with our third topic for our 52-Week Blog Challenge from Marketing for Romance Writers org—#MFRWauthor.
Reading:
Reading became important to me at an early age and has carried over into adulthood. I love reading.
I don’t know when I began reading because I don’t remember a time I didn’t. It’s the same with writing. Having a pen or pencil in my hand came as natural as putting food into my mouth.
Can a writer not be a reader?
I’ve heard a handful of authors say they never read. This isn’t the same as a writer saying they don’t take time to read—like me lately, which leads me into writing. At the moment, I write more than I read books, but I miss reading.
Writing:
At a young age, I knew I wanted my name on books.
It took many, many years to see my name published on a book. As a child, I had created my own books with construction paper for the cover and lined paper for the interior complete with bad drawings—probably stick-figure characters.
I hold on to things I’ve written, but I don’t have my early self-made books. Strangely, I do have teen poems packed away in hiding. It’s enough for me to know writing began early. I had no choice, for I had to get words on paper, which sometimes meant adding stories to enhance comic books! So, writing is like breathing.
Living:
Today, writing is my life.
Don’t forget, it takes more than writing a book to be an author.
Writing related work can consume your life if you let it. Everyone in your life won’t understand this. A high percentage of a writer’s life is more than sitting down and banging out words unless you have the money to pay for assistance to help with the non-writing part.
One day, I hope to cut back from around 85% of my time spent on writing and related jobs to around 40% (Gasp!), but I want it to be my choice. I’d love to enjoy a fuller life and tackle the fun adventures on my Bucket List. Oh, and get back to reading for pleasure and photography, my hobby.
Find the other authors in this blog hop at this LINK. Cheers!
I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog challenge posts. I’m sorry for being so lax in getting to yours, and posts by other bloggers I follow, too. I’m coming close to finishing a draft for a book coming out late this year, then I can get back to finishing another one. Not to mention I’m having covers rebranded for one full series. Choosing images takes me a lot of time. All this while trying to have somewhat of a life outside of writing.
New Year Tips:
- Are you messing up your checks by writing 2018 in error? To prevent from doing this, I always write the new year in the first ten or so checks because I know I’ll mess up until I get used to writing “2019.”
- Remember to update your copyright year on your websites.
While (still) waiting for edits to come back on Bull Rider Series #3, and don’t get me going on this, I’ve been working on the fifth book in the Double Dutch Ranch Series. My publishing schedule has been delayed on 
Mary J. McCoy-Dressel 
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