Elaine White's Life in Books

Being a writer is tougher in reality than it seems in fantasy. You see all those memes about what your mother, friends, society thinks a writer does. None of them really show the truth of a writer’s life. So, here are the most awkward truths about writing.

You always have to eat or go to the bathroom when you’re:

• on a roll
• writing an intense love scene
• writing the most emotional scene of a story

You don’t enjoy editing nearly as much as you enjoy writing.

You spend more time looking for the ‘perfect’ cover image than you do writing the book. The key is to not wait for the ‘perfect’ cover, but take the ‘best’ of what you find.

When you go to bed at night, you don’t:

• sleep
• dream of anything except story lines
• actually get any benefit (see reasons 1 and 2)

When you’re sitting alone in a mall/cafe/restaurant/social place, you:

• people watch, looking for good character traits
• note names, conversations, phrases for use in your next book
• notice hair/eye colour combinations, real/fake features and clichés
• try to determine who is the: geek, romantic, jock, action hero, cheerleader

You always get your best ideas:

• on the loo
• when out shopping
• when you don’t have paper, a pen or both
• during the early hours of the morning, when you get blinded by the light you have to put on to find a pen and paper.
• whilst eating
• in the bath

You will spend more time advertising your book on social media, than you will talking to your friends on social media.

You will undoubtedly spend more time on the internet than you plan to, checking messages, advertising, and talking to other writers. It will quickly become your go-to method of procrastination.