The Small Satisfactions of Writing by Aaron Michael Ritchey

Okay, I love to complain.  No, I’m really, really good at complaining.  Let me give you an example.  I go into a bookstore, and I see all the books, and I know I’ll never be up on the bestseller’s list and every book I write will eventually end up at the local Goodwill, heavily discounted.  Every minute I write I’m wasting my time.

See, I can complain.  Give me perfection, and I will find the blemish.  Give me plain, old vanilla life, and I will despair.

And yet, more and more, I’m finding satisfaction in normal, everyday life and normal, everyday writing.  No, really.  I’m tired of complaining.  I’ve done enough.  I’m going to practice gratitude and satisfaction.  Why not?  It’s far more pleasant.

Writing and finishing books is deeply satisfying, and yeah, chances are I won’t ever be as popular as One Direction, the popular band.  While I probably won’t ever be a teen sensation, that doesn’t make what I do less satisfying.

But I love the idea of being a teen sensation.  Have you heard of Aaron Michael Ritchey?  Of course, he’s a teen sensation!  Like Stephenie Meyer.

The only difference between me and Stephenie Meyer is scale.  We both write.  We both finish books.  I just got published with a small press.  She gets published with the big boys.  She’s wildly popular and I write in obscurity.  But the act of writing is the same for both of us.

And in some ways, the more obscure I am, the more freedom I have.  When I was unpublished, I could write whatever I wanted and I wasn’t saddled with the marketing and work of selling.  Now, since I’m with a small press, I don’t have the pressures that Stephenie Meyer has.  Can you imagine trying to follow-up Twilight?  Can you imagine continuing to write when huge sections of the population think you are a crap?

I don’t have all that.  I write my books.  I am satisfied, and yet, I yearn for more because I’m human and humans love to yearn.  Yearn and burn, baby.

But the secret to this whole thing?  Love the day you are in.  Love the book you are writing.  Find satisfaction in the little stuff.  Because in the end, it will all be over soon enough.  For me.  For Stephenie Meyer.  For you.

Why complain on this short trip to the grave?  Might as well be content on the trip.

About the Writer:  YA Paranormal author Aaron Michael Ritchey has penned a dozen manuscripts in his 20 years as a writer.  When he isn’t slapping around his muse, Aaron cycles to look fabulous, works in medical technologies, and keeps his family in silks and furs.  His first novel, The Never Prayer, hit the streets on 

March 29, 2012.