You Gotta Love Life…

Just kidding! That title is complete sarcasm. Let me start off by saying that I did not have a good day. At all. The only positives are that I had subway and my sunburn has turned into a nice tan. A farmer’s tan, but still a tan. At least that leaves me looking a little less like a vampire and a little more like a normal human being, right? Right.

Back to the negative stuff. Any of you guys ever dealt with someone making obligations and then not fulfilling them, so you had to step in and do their work for them? That’s my day in a nutshell, but it didn’t just happen once. No, it happened several times, and mainly by the same person. I have a really good work ethic. I can be lazy about starting something, but once I get into it, I work hard and the result is great. That being said, I kind of expect everyone else to be the same way.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a very small percentage of hard workers near me. That’s probably the most frustrating thing about my situation. I worked hard today (and I’ll continue to do so the rest of the week), but I had a little fun. It’s just that I was doing all the work while everyone else sat around and socialized instead of just finishing things up so they could go home. Grr. That’s my biggest pet peeve.

Whew! Anyway, now that I’ve let out an itty bitty rant for ya, I’ll get to what I wanted to end this post with: unfortunately, since this entire week is mondo-super-extremely-exceedingly-excessively-immensely busy for me, I probably won’t do much posting until Sunday. Maybe even Monday, since by the end of the week I’ll be so exhausted and frustrated that anything I post won’t be worth reading.

And so, I have a challenge for anyone who reads this and anything else I post! Using the contact form on my page or via comments below, give me ideas for future blog posts. It can be whatever, and I’ll try my hardest to write on it. Give me topics, ideas, questions about me or something else… whatever! I’ve got a page of ideas to write from already, but those are getting a bit boring, and I’d rather write off of a suggestion.

Anywho, I’ve gotta be up nice and early for yet another stressful day!

People Are Superficial

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I completely agree with that statement. That saying especially applies in my life to book covers, since I’m both an avid reader and an aspiring writer.

Book covers can mean the difference between having your book picked up by a curious reader and being passed by unnoticed. The truth of the matter is, people are extremely superficial. Just think about it. Celebrities are generally above-average in looks; magazines and TV shows feature homes, gardens, and places that are exceptionally beautiful; the prettiest people tend to win awards in pageants and other contests. That’s just how life works. People like things that are aesthetically pleasing. Now, apply this to book covers.

Take a look at some book covers I found while searching the internet, and see if you can figure out which ones would most likely be grabbed off a bookshelf.

Why Aren’t They Reading?

I ask myself this question almost every day as I log onto my Wattpad account. “Why aren’t they reading?” Isn’t my work good enough? Isn’t it interesting enough? Haven’t I worked hard enough promoting it?

When someone takes the time to read a chapter of my book, all they ever tell me is how good it is and how much they enjoyed it. Rarely have I received a  comment that degraded my book or even suggested things I need to change, save for a minuscule editing error that I missed. So, unless all of those people have been lying to me, I know I’m a decent writer with a decent book in the works.

And even though I tell myself all the time that I can do it, that I can push past those doubts and just write, I can’t help but question why more people aren’t reading my work. Good things naturally rise to the top. So if mine is good, why hasn’t it reached the top yet?

I read other books that are in number one and number two spots, and I can’t help but think that I’ve done a better job in my own book. My grammar is better, my spelling is better, and my plot is more original and well planned. I’m probably biased, but that’s how I feel when I scroll through those books. Yeah, they’re decent. And obviously, a lot of people like them. But they aren’t great. Some aren’t even good, if we’re being honest.

I just can’t help but doubt my abilities when I see that my book only has a couple hundred reads and it’s not within the hundred rankings for its designated genres. I know I shouldn’t doubt myself, that I should press on and finish the book, but it’s so hard to do when I’m constantly being remind that people who work half as hard as me can get millions of reads and thousands of votes on their stories. It just makes me wonder if maybe I’m not good enough to be a writer.

Anyway, I’m sure this is totally normal as a writer. But it’s difficult. Sometimes I want to give in and write the most cliche story I can think of and jam-pack it with terrible grammar just to see the response I’d get. How ironic would it be if that story floated straight to the top of the rankings? I’m not going to give in to that temptation, though. I’ll stick to my writing style. One day, my work will prevail, and I will be the author selling hundreds of books every day.

One day.

Too bad that day isn’t today. Guess that’s life.

Anybody else feel this way?

xx Ashley

Currently Listening To:

The beautiful sound of the computer keyboard tapping out my thoughts.

I Want To Slap These People

Whoever made these deserves to be slapped. Repeatedly. With a softball bat.

Copulation: 1. sexual intercourse; 2. a joining together or coupling

So, let me get this straight... this person wants copulation to occur on their copy machine? As long as the involved parties don’t weigh too much, of course. How difficult is it to learn the difference between ‘copulation’ and ‘cooperation’? Because there’s a difference.