A forced march

Ques­tion: How long does it take before you like what you are writing?

Answer: it can take a long time. 

Pro­fes­sion­al writ­ers write for many rea­sons. Not the least of them is to make a liv­ing. There is a famous writ­ing sto­ry about Charles Dick­ens. His pub­li­ca­tion, House­hold Words, had been run­ning a ser­i­al, which was doing poor­ly. Feel­ing oblig­ed to jump in to revive the for­tunes of his pub­li­ca­tion, he wrote Great Expec­ta­tions. Might we all be so full of genius. 

The point is, some­times, in pur­suit of mort­gage pay­ments, and the like, the pro­fes­sion­al writer comes up with an idea (and it may well be a ter­rif­ic idea), pitch­es it to a pub­lish­er, and is accept­ed. Then all he/she has to do is write it. 

In my expe­ri­ence, when you write in that fash­ion, it is like a forced march. That is to say, you know you must get some­where, you want to get some­where, you are will­ing to get there, but the jour­ney can be hard, even tor­tur­ous. That said, if you work on your text long enough, hard enough (and if you have an edi­tor patient enough)—you can get to the point where your work comes to life. I think it hap­pens when you leave your basic plot idea and con­nect in an emo­tion­al way with your characters. 

I’ve been on that lone­ly march. Oh, hap­py day, when it becomes a walk with peo­ple you know, and care, about.