Visions of a Dark Horizon

By Chad Anctil

I’ve been writing for a long time, let’s say thirty years, give or take.  Novels, short stories, flash fiction, non-fiction.  I’ve been published, I’ve self published, I’ve been featured in anthologies, made the cover of magazines, I’ve even been translated into Spanish once.  I have been professionally edited, I’ve self edited, I’ve had my wife and one of my best friends do my proofreading and editing.  All this is to say – I do a lot of writing, and I love writing.  LOVE it.  The act of creating a narrative, of building living, breathing characters out of whole cloth, the art of telling a tale that people will dive into and fall in love with, it’s one of those things that I truly live for.  

Often on social media writing groups, especially twitter, I see the frequent discussion that asks ‘what’s the hardest part of writing for you?’ and I see it go in all kinds of directions – coming up with an idea, finding inspiration, finding time to write, editing… the list goes on, but you get the idea.  It’s true that writing can be challenging; it takes time, it takes focus, and it takes dedication.  So what is my answer when they ask what I think the hardest part of writing is?  

None of the above.  For me, personally, the hardest part of writing is actually getting people to read what I write, and from what I see talking to other writers, that’s a pretty universal challenge unless your name happens to be ‘King’ or ‘Martin’ or ‘Rowling’.  

I did not start out trying to – or even wanting to – get published.  When I first started putting pen to paper and fingers to keyboard I never imagined anyone would ‘buy’ my writing – I just had stories I wanted to tell and writing was a way to tell them.   I created my website to post stories for people to read – again, no plans on selling anything, I just like telling stories. I self-published my second novel primarily because I wanted my mom to read it, that’s it – I did zero promotion, I used a free CreateSpace account before they got bought by Amazon (and I think CreateSpace is now KDP?  No idea, I can’t remember my login anyway) and bought copies for friends and family but not much more than that. 

It was only after I had finished writing three novels in my urban fantasy series that friends who were reading that series (in Google Docs!) convinced me to try to get it published, because the small group of friends who were reading it really loved the series and they wanted me to keep it going.  They think it’s something special, and I was fortunate enough to find a publisher who agrees, so I guess we’ll find out later this year when book 1 comes out how special it is.  I am proud of that series and I’m really hopeful that the characters and the world I’ve built over the past 6+ years finds an audience.  

And that brings me back to the hardest part of writing – finding an audience, getting people to read what you write.  I’ve had an observation about that.  My wife is an amazing artist with her own studio.  She works in fiber arts, mixed media, watercolors, sculpture, etc…, and she is incredible. I am in awe of the art that she creates, but I also see the dramatic difference between fine arts and being an author.  She could spend anywhere from an afternoon to a week creating one of her masterpieces, and she’ll show it to me and I will be in awe.  I will look at the colors and the shapes and the textures, and it will convey a place or a time or an emotion, it will make me FEEL something as I stand there looking at it, and that’s it – that’s the interaction.  I look at it and it tells me its story, it makes me feel something, and the relationship between the art and the observer is complete.  Compare that with writing.  I get a story idea, I outline it, I write it, I rewrite it, I edit it, I get my wife to proofread and edit it… it could take a weekend or a week or more for just a short story.  For a novel it will take months, maybe more, before I feel it’s ready for someone to read.  It’s a lot of work bringing stories to life; it’s work that I love doing, but it’s still a lot of work.  

Of course no matter how I distribute a story once it’s done – free to read on my website, short story in an anthology, a novel, a magazine article, whatever – asking someone to read what I wrote is also asking for a commitment of their time, anywhere from a half hour to a weekend to a week, depending on what I’ve written – It’s not like looking at a painting or a sculpture for a few minutes and taking it in.  That’s why I think this is one of the biggest challenges for an author, getting people to commit to giving you their time to read your carefully crafted words.  There are only so many hours in a day, after all, and convincing someone to give your story some of those hours may be asking a lot.  

I’m talking about the whole process, too – querying, publishing, self-publishing, working with an agent or an editor, advertising, getting your book out on Amazon or whatever…  Those are all means of getting your book in front of people and many parts of that – most parts of that – are stressful and annoying and no fun.  They have nothing to do with writing, but they also have everything to do with writing if you want your stories to be read, because if people don’t know your story exists how can they read it?  If people don’t know what your story is about, why would they start reading it? Getting your story in front of as many people as possible is just as important as writing it in the first place – assuming your goal is for people to read it.  I believe that’s a fair assumption.  

So where does that leave us?  The same place we started, I suppose.  Writing is hard, but I love it.  Getting people to read what I write, that’s way harder than writing, and it’s the part I am just not fond of. There’s no magic wand to get people to read the stories you write;  I give stories away for free right here on my website, I don’t ask for money or subscriptions or anything, and I try to promote and advertise them almost to the point of being obnoxious on occasion, and still it’s hard to get people to read them, and even harder to get people to leave a review or even a little ‘hey, good story man’ in the comments.  Lately though, I feel like I’m slowly growing a following, I’m seeing readership slowly creep up, so I’m still hopeful.  I still keep writing, I still keep telling stories, because that’s just what I love to do and I’ve got no reason to stop.  

So that’s my advice – finding your audience is just as hard, if not significantly harder, than writing your novel, your short story, your book of poetry or whatever.  I’m sure some writers spend more time promoting their work than they do writing it, that’s just a sad necessity, especially in indie books.  But when you do connect to that audience, even if it’s just a handful of people who are really into the worlds and characters you’re creating, embrace that, appreciate them, and keep on writing.