I just finished writing another book you may never read!
This last month, I sat down and wrote a book about me struggling with my depression. It’s a fictionalized autobiography. In other words, me and my emotions are real, but the people around me are not. I didn’t want to villainize anyone or cause hardships.
So… I guess it’s not an autobiography. At all. It’s just about a writer who has depression.
Anyway.
Every once in a while, I write a book simply for me. I do revise and polish it. But will anyone else’s eyes ever see it? Doubtful.
Why is that?
Well, right now I write mostly for middle school audiences. I’ve got some YA coming down the way and some books for younger audiences, too. But this book on depression that talks very bluntly about it? I suppose you could say it’s YA appropriate, but that’s certainly not the target audience.
After all, I wrote it for me. I’m the target audience, and I ain’t a young adult no more.
Why waste the time with a book that likely will never see print? Why pour in the effort and the sweat and blood? After all, I have literal series of books in my queue to be written. This just makes them wait longer!
I already said. I wrote it for me. I needed to get this out. Right now I’m struggling with depression (ah, the perennial problem!), and this is one way I can deal with it. By pinning the depression down in digital ink, I can look at it and see it for what it is: lies.
Will it get published eventually? Maybe. I’ll have my wife look at it when she has the time, and I’ll trust her opinion. This may end up like the Christian R-rated horror novel I wrote some years ago, though. Set aside, since there likely isn’t much of an audience.
But this month, it’s back to the regular writing goals. I’ve got a novel to get to work on.
So… time to get writing!
Jonathon Mast: Author 