"I'm never doing this again," I tell a friend after uploading all seven drafts of Alisa's new book to my KDP dashboard. "Seriously, if I ever come up with a new idea for another book, stop me immediately." He laughs and says he can't do that, unfortunately. He thinks I'm too talented to stop.
I wanted to have this book printed before the Authors' Festival so I could take it with me. What started as a fun side project quickly turned into a rush job to get everything finished on time. But now it's online, and I desparately needed a refreshing walk with the wind in my hair, blowing the stress out of my head. I was done with making books for now. It was taking up too much of my time.
I put on my shoes, put in my earbuds, and started walking. The stress of the past few weeks melted away in the meager autumn sun and was blown out of my head by the cool breeze. As my mind began to clear, all sorts of thoughts started racing through my head. That’s what happens when you let your mind wonder. I was thinking of the new book on Impressionists I'd bought, the book I'd finished, the classes I'd taken, and then it happened…
…a new idea for a next book. I absolutely loved the idea. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and immediately started writing while I was still walking around the park. I shouldn't forget this marvelous storyline. I quickly typed the outline into my phone and slipped it back into my pocket.
I already got excited about this new story and the illustratrions I could make. But then it hit me, here I go again. My creative brain just doesn’t want to stop creating. However, realising the amount of work it will give me again, I wondered if it was worth the effort. I started analyzing why the whole process was so intensive and concluded that the reason lay in doing everything myself.
I write the book, create the illustrations, doing the design, trying to do as much editing as possible myself, and then there’s of course the English translation. Ultimately, there will be three Dutch versions and four English versions. People might call me a jack of all trades, but I'm simply good at every step. It's just a lot to do everything on my own. Yet, I also find every step incredibly rewarding. Writing the story? I love writing. Creating the images? I love illustrating. And the design? Ultimately, that is just putting all the pieces together and creating a print-ready file.
That next book will definitely come, just not quite yet. And when I do plan it, I'll give myself more time and less of a rush. But honestly, I've said that about every book. For now, I invite you to check out my latest book, available now on Amazon.