Still Writing After All These Years

I don’t look the part now, but in my youth, I was a competitive swimmer. The thin body is long gone; technique is faded into the haze. The only things that remain with me from that experience are some fond memories and three ideas imprinted on my heart and mind.

The first of these is that I have yet to do my best. Swimmers race against one another and the clock. They also race against themselves, forever trying to shave another fraction of a second and set a new best time. As a writer, I must compete with millions of other writers for readers. True as that may be, the real motivation for writing the next book and the next book is to tell a better story than the last.

During a podcast interview years ago, I was asked about my book, Blood Moon. It was the first sequel to Bayou Moon. I told the hosts that I thought the book was a dismal failure. I think I even used the word “crap”. They were quick to offer an opposing argument. Both of them had read the book and loved it. One even pointed out that, in his opinion, Blood Moon had the better reviews.

Blood Moon was raised in my esteem, but my opinion about where it ranked in my personal “best” remained unaltered. I have come to see that how I decide good, better, and best probably has little to do with the quality of the writing and much to do with the experience of writing. Some books are fun to write, others are excruciating. Bayou Moon was “fun” to write, Blood Moon not so much.

That’s okay with me. I learned that not every swim resulted in a faster time, but every one was worth the effort and contributed to becoming better and faster. Though it is my goal, not every book needs to be better than the last as long as I learn something from writing it. I have a hard time judging if my writing has improved. So, that’s one place I rely on the opinion of others. That said, praise is not the gold standard. The reaction of readers is weightier. After my third book in the Moon series, readers were treating Ed Landry as if he were real. That told me that I was on the right track.

The last of the three is the most encouraging. I always had the strength left to climb out of the pool unaided. I never truly exhausted all my strength. There was always something left. So, it is with writing. There’s always another book left to write.

Jack LaFountain