How a frustrated writer turned into a published author
I have been depressed and unsatisfied with what I have been writing for last eight years. I have been writing content for different websites, products, and services. The reason of my displeasure and frustration is that I also pretend to be a fiction and non-fiction prose writer. And I am unable to translate my success, consistency, fluency, and command into my “creative” of writing. To get what I mean by that, see this:
- 2 Official blog posts (500–1200 per post)
- 2 Articles (800–1500 per article)
- 2 Guest blog (800–1000 per post)
- 4 App reviews (200–350 per review)
- 2 Social stories (250–500 per story)
- 8 Social media posts (10–100 per post)
Imagine all that content in a week and count the word size. I was quite productive and my boss really appreciated me for that. However, when it comes to creative writing, I only managed to finish a short story (approximately 1500 words) in a couple of months’ time, and I wasn’t even having a “writer’s block.”
On one hand, I was creating so much with really fantastic quality, while on the other hand, I was unable to translate that momentum into my creative writing. It was bad, it was depressing and it was frustrating.
At first, I thought, writing about technology and other difficult industries is draining my creative energy. But I was wrong, after six months of leaving my job, I was still sitting with an unfinished story.
I tried creating social pressure, by revealing my goals and objectives to my friends and family through Facebook. It failed. I took a “quit procrastination program,” it didn’t work.
Later on, I found a small post about writing a 1000 words a day, I laughed and shrugged the idea initially, because I was writing more than that during my day job. However, when I applied it to my creative writing. It worked like magic. A short sample of my first few days are as under:
“Why I am even trying this? Imagine, I am a bull and you are a cat. A rather good looking cat. Curiosity can kill the cat.”
As you can see, it is garbage. For the first few days, I wrote really strange pieces, I believe if I show it to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, it would reveal a lot about me. Later on, my focus turned towards my epic journey to the Nanga Parbat’s base camp. I started writing about my experiences and adventures during that trip.
Somehow it started a machine inside me, by the end of first month of “writing 1000 words a day,” I was almost at the brink of finishing my book. Although, travel writing is easier than fiction, because it is less complicated to write what has happened than creating what and how something will happen. Yet, I was really happy.
It took me 2 years to write a short story, which is not a good story by any standards. And here I am with two books about a single journey of fifteen days. I am yet to write as prolifically as I want, but I am a proud author of two travel books, one is in English, and the other is in Urdu, my native language. You can find the English book at the following link: http://www.amazon.com/From-Karachi-Nanga-Parbat-mountain-ebook/dp/B015BS3UMU
I find it rather amusing that I started the English book as a mere translation, but in the end it turned out to be a story with a totally different story-telling style. Perhaps, because translation is a very difficult job. You cannot replace words from one language with another language and wish that it will miraculously relay the same effect. From my personal experiences, expertise and skills, translation is far more difficult job than creative writing.
Translation is a far more difficult job than creative writing
Both books are available on Kindle, which is a tremendous platform for new authors like me. Thanks to Kindle’s Direct Publishing, I have published my work and I hope that people may read it, which in return can give me a lot of confidence to write again.
I am yet to complete my first novel or a collection of short stories, but as I have learned the trick now, I believe that I can achieve that too.
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