Confessions of an OCD Writer

Confessionsof an OCD Writerby Mike Duran

In the summer of 2010, I began experiencing some weird medical problems. I am not a hypochondriac and, on average, see the doctor about once or twice a year. That changed in 2010. I began experiencing severe dizzy spells. Debilitating, occasionally. Sometime after that, it was compounded by tingling and numbness in my hands and feet. Eventually, my entire body. The icing was a visit to Urgent Care one afternoon where I was promptly given a sedative and exhorted to pay attention to my health.

What followed were batteries of tests: bloodwork, MRI, brain scan, etc.  During the process, I’ve seen a neurologist, audiologist, and a dietitian. Along with my regular doctor.  After these tests had rolled in, accompanied by significant head-scratching on the part of the professionals, my doctor asked:

Mr. Duran, is there anything that has changed this year in your life? Your diet? Your work? Your living arrangements? Your schedule? Your routine? Anything that may have triggered this?

And then it hit me.

I said, Doc, I am a writer. I have been contracted for two books, one which I am currently attempting to finish. I work 40 hours a week outside my home. I wake up at 3-4 AM every morning and blog or write until I leave for work at 5:30 AM. When I get home at 5 PM, I check emails, mumble at my wife, and attempt to resume writing. You might also want to know that I am obsessive compulsive, an insomniac, a perfectionist, and I feel guilty when I relax.

He leaned back from his computer and squinted. Mr. Duran, stress does strange things to people.

Stress.

It’s been a humbling admission for me. I’ve always fancied myself as the tough guy who could soldier through all kinds of adversity, pain, and difficulty. They didn’t nickname me Bull Durham on our softball team for nothing. So who would’ve guessed that it was writing that would break me.

Little did I know when I answered the “call to write” that part of the plan would be to help me confront … myself. Like Dr. Jekyll, I was forced to confront a “dark side,” a side of me that obsesses over doing things right, that nitpicks details, that lies awake at night futilely attempting to dot every “i,” cross every ‘t,” and tie up every loose end.

This admission—the admission that my obsessive/compulsive tendencies were killing me—was not that great for my writing. It forced me to slow down. It forced me to think about something other than stories and characters and plots. It made me manage something more important—my health. In the “age of indie,” where authors are repeatedly instructed to crank out novels and expand their back catalog, slowing down is, sadly, viewed with suspicion. But that’s exactly what I needed to do.

It’s led to several admissions and lifestyle adjustments designed to help me stay out of Urgent Care. It’s about juggling two careers without dying. It’s about realizing I have a life outside of writing, and that my literary canon is will never exceed my being. It’s about smelling the roses before I’m pushing up daisies.

It’s led to several significant changes that have helped me cope with my kneejerk instinct to over-analyze:

  • I gave myself permission to not regularly blog
  • I gave myself permission to not answer email in a timely fashion
  • I gave myself permission to write something half-ass
  • I gave myself permission to lounge on the couch and watch TV instead of write
  • I gave myself permission to read whatever I want and not just the stuff in my genre
  • I gave myself permission to turn down some writing and promotional opportunities
  • I gave myself permission to embarrass myself and be brutally honest whenever I need to (like I have here)

Yes, writing this “confession” has taken time away from writing my novel or blogging. Yes, some people may read this and think less of me and my professional advice. Which is fine.

Take that, Mr. Hyde!

 

11078075_1482267868700841_7310025605731169301_oAuthor Bio:

MIKE DURAN is a novelist, blogger, and speaker, whose short stories, essays, and commentary have appeared in Relief Journal, Relevant Online, Novel Rocket, Rue Morgue, Zombies magazine, and other print and digital outlets.

He is the author of THE GHOST BOX (Blue Crescent Press, 2014), the first in an urban fantasy series, the supernatural thriller THE RESURRECTION (Realms, 2011), an e-book fantasy novella entitled WINTERLAND, THE TELLING (Realms May 2012), and a short story anthology SUBTERRANEA (Blue Crescent Press, 2013).

Mike is an ordained minister and lives with his wife and four grown children, grandchildren, and assorted beasties, in Southern California. You can learn more about Mike Duran, his writing projects, favorite music, cultural commentary, and arcane interests, at www.mikeduran.com.

Why I’m Glad it Took 11 Years to Get my First Novel Published (by A.J. Cattapan)

 

I started my writing journey about eleven years ago when I enrolled in a class on writing for children and teens. Although I’d harbored secret desires of being a novelist since the sixth grade, my initial ambitions were pretty humble: just get published in a children’s magazine. It took nearly six years before I saw my first short story in print.

Around that time, my ambitions (and my courage) grew and I took a class in writing novels for children and teens, but it took another five years before I held my first book in my hands. You might think I would’ve gotten discouraged and given up somewhere along the way. Well, you’d be half right. I did get discouraged, but I didn’t give up. In fact, now that my debut novel is out and has become an Amazon bestseller for Christian teen fiction on social issues, I’m actually really glad it took me a long time to get published.

Why?

Because without all those years of preparation, there’s no way I would’ve been ready to tackle a book launch or even signing a book contract for that matter.

You see, I’ve recently been asked to mentor a few aspiring writers, and what I’ve learned is that many of them just want to sell their book (which they are sure is not just an Amazon bestseller but a New York Times bestseller, too!) and thus hit it big quick. When they tell me about their attempts to get published, I hear about all the mistakes they’re making.

I ask, “Have you joined any writing groups?”

They say, “No, I was waiting until I got my first paycheck from the publisher.” (Mind you, they don’t have an agent or publisher yet.)

“No, don’t wait,” I respond, “Join now! You need to show the agents and publishers that you take your craft seriously, and you can learn so much from them. Do you have any kind of writing platform? Website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest followers?”

“Nope, none of those.”

“Not even a personal Facebook account?”

“No.”

“Have you been to any writing conferences?”

“No. Why would I go there?”

“Have you learned the proper way to write a query letter?”

“Oh, I just mailed them my entire manuscript. And if they reject it, they’d better return it because I paid lawyers to help me get it copyrighted already.”

Yikes! And this is why I’m so glad it took me eleven years to get a novel published. It gave me time to learn not just the craft of writing but the business as well. While I never made any of the mistakes listed above, it did take me a lot of time to get my website in order (in fact, I played around with a couple different blog ideas first) and to build up my social media platform.

God had a plan for my writing career. He knew I needed time to be ready to handle the demands and stress of marketing a book. He knew I’d need to meet and learn from many different authors who would help guide me along the way. Honestly, if it hadn’t taken about eleven years for me, I don’t think Angelhood would have made it on the Amazon bestseller list the day it released. I wouldn’t have had the marketing and networking skills to pull that off.

If you’re not yet published and feeling frustrated, please know that most of us have been there. It’s a very rare author who doesn’t spend at least a few years learning their craft and the business. If you haven’t made that book deal yet, take heart. It means you’ve got time to network, build that email list and social media platform, and improve your craft. Then when the big day finally arrives, you’ll be ready to tackle it like a pro!

 

IMG_8231Author bio:

A.J. Cattapan is an author, speaker, and middle school English teacher living in the Chicago area. Her published works include the young adult novel Angelhood, a guardian angel story in the tradition of It’s a Wonderful Life. She’s also been a Chicken Soup for the Soul contributor and had numerous short stories and articles published in magazines for teens and children, including Highlights, Pockets, and Hopscotch for Girls. She will also be featured in a recipe and corresponding story anthology due out later this year.

 

Angelhood2 500x750Book blurb:

Seventeen-year-old theater geek Nanette believes her life is headed toward stardom on Broadway. But when her dream theater college rejects her and her best friend dies in a terrible accident, Nanette decides the world would be better off without her. Unfortunately, the afterlife offers something less than a heavenly situation. Trapped between alternating periods of utter darkness and light, Nanette is stuck following a high school freshman around. Soon, she learns she’s a guardian angel, and the only way she can earn her wings is to keep her young charge, Vera, from committing the same sin she did—taking her own life.

Unfortunately, Nanette is missing more than just her wings. She has no tangible body or voice, either. Frustrated by her inability to reach out to Vera and haunted by memories of her old life, Nanette wants to give up, but then she sees what happens when another Guardian at the high school turns his back on his charge. The shock is enough to supercharge Nanette’s determination. If she’s going to find peace in the afterlife, she’s going to have to discover what living is really all about.

Links below:

Social Media Links:

Website: www.ajcattapan.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/acattapan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJCattapan

Instagram: https://instagram.com/a.j.cattapan/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ajcattapan/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24553425-angelhood

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+AJCattapan

Amazon Author Page: www.amazon.com/author/ajcattapan

 

Purchase Links for Angelhood:

Paperback: http://tinyurl.com/nam26ek

Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/nvaphgk

Nook: http://tinyurl.com/q973qz8

iBook: http://tinyurl.com/qya98ya

All ebook versions are currently only $1.99!

 

What’s Your Story?

file0002003501002All writers have 1 thing in common. It doesn’t matter if they are writing fiction or nonfiction, books or articles, brochures or blog posts–they all have 1 thing in common.

Every writer is trying to tell a story. 

From long before mankind knew how to write, they were telling stories. Stories to teach, stories to entertain, stories to make the world feel a little bit smaller–or a whole lot bigger. Stories are the way humans relate to one another.

Story-telling has changed over the years. Families and friends used to pass down stories by word-of-mouth, from generation to generation. Then cultures began to develop ways of writing these stories down from cave paintings to hieroglyphics and eventually on to the modern written language.

Storytellers began to share those stories with people beyond those closest to them. The art began to change. Stories were written on scrolls and then large bound books. Scribes painstakingly copied page after page of stories.

With the invention of the printing press (between 1440-1450), stories garnered an even bigger audience as books were made more readily available. And still, technology continued to change, making it easier for stories to be shared with those around the world.

In recent years, we’ve gone from enjoying the feel of a hardback book in our hands, turning pages as we greedily consume each story to the age of digital books. An entire library that fits in the palms of our hands.

Storytelling has changed over the years, but our spirit has not. Mankind still has the desire (whether they would admit it or not) to hear stories, to learn from stories, to be touched by the life of another. And, as writers, it is our job to meet that need.

booksCN_0270Writers craft stories that reach to the heart. While they hold the power to manipulate and cause change with the power of words, they take that responsibility seriously, instead challenging humanity to be the best that it can be, even in the face of the atrocities it is also capable of committing. Writers show the good, the bad, and the ugly–but they also provide hope and promise.

A writer who doesn’t understand the point of storytelling or who doesn’t understand their own reasons for telling a story will not reach the hearts of readers. They’re work may rise with the marketing avenues available to them, but it will also fall away quickly, forgotten.

Be the writer that changes hearts. Be the writer that challenges humanity. Be the writer that elevates storytelling to an art form.

What’s your story?