A Misnomer

The term 'writer' is a misnomer for writing involves more than just putting words down on paper. Yes, actually writing something - be it a novel or a short story - is important, but the amount of time you spend writing is small compared to the other things you have to do. Before writing a piece, research may be necessary and that can take hours, if not days and weeks of work. Then you have your notes to write up and sift through. When your first draft has been completed, it has to be read, re-read and worked on until it is perfect. Eventually, when you have your article, novel or story ready, it must be checked one final time, formatted correctly and sent off to the publisher or agent you had in mind when you wrote it. This sounds simple, but can be very complicated as each publication has different guidelines. And all of this work is for only one story, I'm not counting the publications, books, newsletters and websites that have to be read and trawled through simply to keep informed of the market and abreast with current trends. So when I said my aim for 2008 was to spend 4 hours a day writing, I meant actually WRITING. I didn't realise how hard it would be to accomplish because I forgot that I would have to spend double that time on the other business of being a writer.