Inspiration or Perspiration?

    I've had a lot of nice comments about my writing but most of the people who read my books have an unrealistic idea of what goes into writing a book and even less what is involved in publishing of it. Let me state first of all that writing is not done in a flash of inspiration. That flash of inspiration is only the birth of an idea. Turning it into a book can be a long, drawn-out process. 

   My most recently published book, The Flow of the Big Spring, is a prime example. It was five years from the day I agreed to try write it until the book was released to the public. I was working on the writing about three years and the rest of the time it was in the publishing process. The layout was complicated because there were so many parts to fit into the proper spaces---text, footnotes, photos, captions, and sidebars. The person who did the layout said it was like putting a puzzle together.

   After I finished that book I said I am retiring and will only write short stories and articles from now on---unless something really good comes along. Maybe I shouldn't have added that qualifier. Something good did come along. It would just be a small book with a story of something that happened in the 1700s. The history and size is what triggered my interest in trying write it.

   I was sailing along with the first draft and nearing the end when I discovered I had made a huge mistake in the timeline and correcting it meant starting over. I trashed it and started again from a different point in the story. Yesterday I decided that one isn't working either. I'm too stubborn to quit so next week I will start again for the third time. I may strike out but I hope this time I will hit a home run.

  All this to say, writing is not something you do on a Sunday afternoon while you sit under a shade tree. Inspiration does not write a story; it takes perspiration and determination.