Overview

Lisa is back and talking about time constraints. As a mother, she had limited time to write because of all her other duties and responsibilities. Even if you aren't a writer, we all face time constraints and it affects how much time we can write.

Book

https://www.amazon.com/Shivah-Lisa-Solod/dp/1938841727?crid=MNSPG4HNQI6N&keywords=shivah+lisa+solod&qid=1662570619&sprefix=shivah+lisa+solod%2Caps%2C225&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=53a4807c8ca2cca8a9185c46603a13d0&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il

YouTube

Transcript

so let's talk some author stuff. So you've written a couple books. So what are some things that you are doing different now that you've learned from when you first started?

Lisa: I think every time you start something new, it should be better. And if it's not, you should stop. I think every time, like for instance, when I wrote my first novel, it was terrible and I knew it was terrible and I knew it wasn't gonna do anything with it. I just needed to show that I could write something longer to myself that I could write something longer than a 15 page short story.

I published a lot of short stories back in the day, and I loved that medium, but I was like, can I sustain an ITOR for 200 plus pages? So I set myself a task to do that, and I did it and it was awful, but it was done and it was big or then a short story. And then I threw it away and I was okay with that.

And then I started another book and this one was much, much better. And that got me my first agent. And it also was shortlisted for a big price. Now it didn't sell, so shit happens. But then I. Worked on another book. And I just think you, you, if you don't learn about craft and about pace and about beauty and about what works every time you start writing something, you shouldn't be writing, you should mean that's fine.

Nobody needs to be a writer. But to think that you are somebody the other day on writing, Twitter said what should I do with my should I edit my book that I just finished? Or should I give it to somebody else? I said, first of all, you need to put it away for a month, just put it away.

And then you need to pick it up in a month and you need to edit yourself and maybe rewrite the whole thing. And then you need to put it away again. And then you need to do that one or two more times, and then you need to pay somebody to edit it. If you're gonna try and publish yourself. But if not still, maybe get beta readers or something.

To think that people are just going to dash off a book and that's it. It doesn't need any editing. It doesn't need rewriting. It doesn't need somebody to say what's going on here. Do you, are you sure you wanna do this? It's preposterous to me, right? But so you need to see writing as a process.

You need to see it not as like I'm gonna write a bestseller and be famous, but I'm good to write the best book I can and then I'm gonna make it better and then I'm gonna make it better and then I'm gonna make it better. And then it's gonna be the best book it can. I thought this book was done and it was accepted.

And then when I worked with editor at the press, I thought, damn, wow. The changes were not huge at all, but every question he asked me needed to be answered and it, it became then a very good book, nice, which I needed somebody else to help me with. And as a former editor, I got it. You have to be open to that, but you, if you're not, then

Stephen: yeah, it working with an editor is definitely a learning process.

And I've learned a lot about my writing and better writing doing so, but you have to be open to it. I know some authors that wrote that literally spent like four and a half years writing the first novel and finished it and was done, ready to publish. No, and I was even told by somebody, no, I'm not gonna send it to an editor cuz I don't think they'd understand what I'm trying to do.

If an editor's not going to understand,