James Owen just pointed me in the direction of his post from a few days ago, A Career as a Novelist–In Layman’s Terms, a metaphor which those of you who are still in the throes of writing your first book will sympathize with–and those of you with published books will probably have experience with in the way James does. I read it in quick passing and was nodding the whole way through, and in taking a second look I thought perhaps others might nod as much as me. And if you aren’t nodding from prior knowledge, let this be a lesson: writing is work. Getting that writing contracted to be published is more work. And then, you have an editor that you work with
(muahahaha), and then there’s the work of marketing. It’s almost like, I dunno, a real job.

And of course, thinking of the whole process in terms of The Fellowship of the Ring makes it even more interesting. 🙂

Also related, over at , Seanan McGuire discusses the timeline of a book–which involves a lot of work, and a lot of waiting. Great reading.