I’m an author. That phrase makes me smile. If you look for me online, you’ll find me described as a copywriter as well as an author. Or to put it another way, I get to do something I love (writing) for a career. How good is that?
Being an author isn’t always easy and there’s been a ton load of learning along the way, but I wouldn’t swap this path for any other. So I thought I’d share with you what I love most about being an author.
Sharing my stories and their worlds with my readers
When I was a child, I would act out plays and stories with my mismatched collection of dolls and teddy bears. Eventually, that turned into writing those stories down. As a pupil at school, I took great delight in sharing my stories in English classes. I mean, what’s not to like? I got free advice on what to improve and I had the chance to show the tales, characters, and worlds of my imagination to a willing audience.
When I finally left education, suddenly I didn’t have an outlet for sharing my stories anymore. I could show my parents, but they had a busy life. My friends were more interested in night outs and finding love. My then boyfriend thought writing stories was a waste of time.
Locally, there were a handful of writing classes but more often than not I found them a vehicle for the teacher’s taste in writing, rather than a place to share and talk about the stories we wanted to write.
As time went on, the internet widened our view of the world, social media was born, and online forums popped up on all kinds of topics. I gradually found online places where I could share my writing. I even had a few short stories published in magazines – both paper and online – over the years. I wanted to write novels though, and finding a home for those stories was a challenge. It was also a path that generally led to rejection. It felt like I was writing those stories only for myself and while I enjoyed that process, I wanted more.
Skip several years to now and thanks to the wonderful people at Burning Chair Publishing, my stories have found a home. I get to share my novels with an audience of readers who – according to the book reviews and kind words you leave on social media – enjoy reading my stories as much as I loved writing them.
Seeing my books on bookshelves (including my own)
I doubt there’s an author in the world who hasn’t felt a little joyful skip of the heart when they see their beloved novel on a bookshelf, even if that bookshelf is their own.
My novels haven’t made it into a physical bookstore yet, but seeing and holding actual copies of my books is a wonderful experience. It makes me feel like a ‘proper’ author, whatever that is. I think that’s why unboxing videos are so popular with authors and readers alike. And yes, there are copies of my novels on my own bookshelves.
I have even more reasons to read other people’s books
I’ve always been an avid reader but as an author, it’s important that I keep an eye on other novels in my genre (fantasy and sci fi) and broaden my literary horizons by reading other genres too. There’s so much to learn from other authors and how they tell their own stories, plus of course, I immensely enjoy reading. Hence why I have a precariously towering to-be-read pile.
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There are plenty more things that I love about being an author but these are my top three. With Haven Wakes and Magic Bound already out in the big wide world, working on the third novel in the series is just one more reason to feel incredibly lucky and grateful to be an author.