Accepting the First Book You Wrote isn’t as Epic as it Was in Your Head
What to do after spending months writing a book that sucks
I gave up halfway through the 3rd rewrite. It didn’t matter how many times I rewrote it, there was something fundamentally wrong with the story. This was my first book, and it needs to be undeniably good.
It started as a collection of stories I’d already published online. I allotted myself a week to put it together and edit it. That was 4 months ago.
The problem is I have no idea how to write a book. I can write a 2,000 word story like nobody’s business, but books aren’t just long Medium stories.
The other problem is that I know what a good story is. The individual stories in my book are good. As a book it’s disjointed and unsatisfying.
Partyweapon is my memoir from the time I was a drug dealer in my late teens into my 20’s in Los Angeles. The story is true. Everything in the book really happened. I’m naming names, and it’s names people know.
In my head Partyweapon was drug humor. In its current state it’s category defying. It’s a little bit of everything, which is bad.
