Twenty-Seven Writerly Surprises from James W. Ziskin

Tell us one thing that you didn't anticipate about the writer's life, which surprised you once you became a writer. 

I decided to be a bad boy this week and answer this question with twenty-seven things that surprised me instead of just one.

In no particular order, here they are:

I was surprised by…

1. How vicious some readers are when reviewing books.
2. How hard it is to sell books.
3. How generous and welcoming most writers are.
4. How great it feels to find your book in the wild.
5. How quickly I change the subject when someone compliments my book. (Never thought I’d do that.)
6. How getting published didn’t make my life a perfect dream.
7. How long it takes for your book to come out.
8. How quickly your book disappears from the shelves after it comes out.
9. How quickly you’re forgotten when you don’t have a book or story out each year.
10. How exhilarating writers conferences are.
11. How tiring writers conferences are.
12. How much I hate wearing ties.
13. How good it feels to think of myself as a writer.
14. How fun/sad it is to say, “I sell TENS of books!”
15. How lucky I am to have an agent.
16. How people never thought to hoist me on their shoulders and parade me around the room when each of my books came out.
17. How inaccurate royalty statements are and how unwilling I am to try to sort them out.
18. How only a handful of readers noticed that a pug named Little Leon magically appears in every one of my Ellie Stone novels.
19. How good AI is at writing vaguely worded reviews/summaries that could apply to almost any work of fiction or non-fiction, but people are impressed just the same—even though it’s not saying anything specific or of substance—simply because everything is spelled and punctuated correctly and it “sounds” smart. 
    
    
    
20. How bad AI is at writing fiction.
21. How hopeful I am for the future of humanoid writers.
22. How hard it is to spell “parsley.” 
23. How many writers hate prologues.
24. How many writers hate semicolons.
25. How many writers hate nazis (yay!).
26. How anyone could have thought my books and stories were worth publishing.
27. How lucky I am that someone did.

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