Yeah, right! LOL

Welcome to my response to this week’s author blog hop!
QUESTION: Becoming an author, being a new author, and aspiring to be one is a confusing time.  What is the most “difficult” hurdle you’ve encountered on your journey to fame and fortune.  *laughing at fortune.* How did you resolve the problem and what do you recommend to avoid it? Or are you still in need of help? Perhaps someone here can assist you!
Question provided by the delightful affiliate author Ginger Simpson.

—————

How to play: Your host: Sassy Brit of Alternative-Read.com invites all writers (published and unpublished) to:

1. Grab the above AUTHOR BLOG HOP logo

2. Write your blog post in answer to the weekly “writing related” question and publish on your own blog

3. Go back to the CURRENT blog hop  and leave your link in the Linky Tools (or comments if you have trouble)

4. Hop from blog to blog meeting and greeting the other participants on the list.

HINT #1: It’s helpful to leave your link in comments you leave on other blogs if you are also participating in the blog hop for quick and easy reciprocal comments.

HINT #2: The questions are uploaded to the Blog Hop Guidelines page in advance, so you can plan and write your answer ahead of time and publish your blog post on Thursday.

—————-
My most difficult hurdle I’ve encountered has to be finishing my debut book under a very tight deadline – and I mean tight.

This may sound weird to some, but I don’t think I really believed I was going to be published. So I wrote the book, Black Ice at my leisure. Then my publisher said he’d booked the print run, so I agreed it would be ready. Well it had to be, not making the print run would have lost the publisher money and made me look terrible as a writer who wants to be taken seriously.

The most horrifying part of this whole situation was the book (Black Ice) was still in bits and I knew I had major scenes still to write. In 15 days. (Can’t quite remember the exact number, but it wasn’t much).

What could I do? I took stock of the situation and worked out what had to be done and created a system for actually knuckling down and getting on with it, until Black Ice was eventually all put together and finished AND sent to the publisher on time.

The author Holly Lisle helped me tremendously. I’m a huge fan and used her tips and some of her coursework to help me get through this.

How did I do it? I put a number for each day I had left to write leaving a few at the end for me to edit on note cards then stuck them all up in order on the wall in one column and when each day passed I moved that card across into the ‘done’ column on the wall. I’ve even got a photo of this somewhere. 🙂

Roughly days 15 to 8 where writing and fitting it all together and days 7 to 1 – deadline day – was a mixture of writing and edits. I was like a buzz full of coffee and late nights, but I was also determined to get it done and full of energy and happy to see that my work was finally going to be published.

I could also see the days counting down and the long line I had of days to work shortening, whilst at the same time the ‘done’ line was growing nicely, both were very encouraging and a big motivator to get my bum moving. Well, apart from the fact I’d be letting my publisher down if i didn’t get the ms to him in time. Nothing like a tight deadline to get you moving and make you pull your silly white schoolgirl socks up! LOL

What happened to you? What was your most biggest and worst hurdle and what did you do about it? Do you still need some help or advice?  Maybe the authors and writers on this blog hop can help.