The Focus of a Writer - Guest Blog

Guest blogging today, over at IndieAuthorGroup.com:

Many of my life successes I attribute to my ability to focus.  I’ve written before (http://theotherstephenkingonwriting.blogspot.com/2012/08/two-lessons-about-goal-setting.html) about the focus on a physical fitness goal that earned me admission to West Point, for example.  Focus earned me graduation from there with dual majors, and focus later helped me finish all the way to a PhD.  Focus in my day job has carried me through a great many hurdles that seemed impossible at first.

As an indie writer, the need to focus is still present, but it’s different.

I didn’t realize that at first.  Heck, I didn’t realize at first that I’d end up being an indie writer.  As I’ve heard most do, I saw writing the first book as the real hurdle; after I finished that, I’d sell it for hundreds of thousands of dollars to a big publishing house, and they’d take care of everything else, forever after.

Now, don’t tell me you didn’t also, at one time or another, bear such a fantasy….

Thus it was that I finished my first book, revised it, had it edited, secured eighty rejections before finding a small publisher who’d take it on, and then realized I needed to get another book done.  I furiously started revising the draft of the second novel, and then, as so many other writers have described, the glass slipper of the publishing offer shattered.

Since then I’ve gotten four books out there, and the fifth is due to be released on March 15, 2014.  Along the way I’ve learned a fair bit about a writer’s focus.

To read the rest, go visit my friends over at IndieAuthorGroup.com.

- TOSK