Recharging the Excitement by Talking Shop About Writing

It is rare that we constantly sustain the excitement of what we do. We writers can love the writing process, but after, say, you hit 50,000 words, sometimes the work is more like work than magic.

The same thing applies to the publishing side of things. When we’ve finished a manuscript, now comes the more mundane aspects of our jobs: editing, copy editing, proofing, cover design, and uploading files for publication and distribution. After you’ve done it enough times, it becomes routine. A little rote. You know you need to do it, but you might look forward to it the least.

That is until you get to talk to someone who is a little behind you on the journey.

This week, I had lunch with a former day job co-worker. I hadn’t seen him since February 2020, pre-Covid. We had conversed off and on via emails and texts. We’re both writers and we talked about our day jobs and the kinds of things we do. But then the conversation shifted to the fun writing. Fiction writing.

He was keen to learn the ins and outs and processes I use to write, edit, publish, distribute, and market my books. I have internalized all this information and actively keep learning new ways to streamline processes.

I’ll admit something: I was a little tired on Thursday morning, so I kept downing green tea all morning at the office and made a point not to order a heavy lunch that would have made me sleepy. Seeing my friend was a nice jolt to the system, but the more powerful jolt was talking shop.

Literally, I could feel myself becoming more and more energized about the tools, the processes, and all the resources I used to get where I am today. I was able to talk about going to “Indie Publishing School” with podcasts. I pointed out authors like Joanna Penn, who are farther along the path than I am that he should study. Also veterans like Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch who have completely changed the way they get their stories to readers. I talked tools like Vellum and Draft2Digital.

It was so exciting.

I’m currently in the stages of readying my next book for publication next month so I’m in the thick of doing the mundane things. But you know what I told him? I said that I actually enjoy all the steps that takes a story from my brain to readers. It really is magic.

I was so jazzed that the rest of the day, I didn’t really need any more green tea. What I wanted was to get home and get back to fixing up my book.

It was good to have an unexpected recharge just by talking shop.

Y’all ever experience that?