Taking a Shower is the Writing and Publishing Process

Don’t believe me? Let’s see.

Before you take a shower, what do you do? I personally start up the water to my preferred temperature and get undressed. This is essentially the outlining and brainstorming process of the writing. You are taking out the unnecessary bits and getting down to what matters in the story.

Once you enter the shower, the water is running down your naked body. You are prepping for the moment when you begin to scrub out the dirt and stress of the outside world. The running of the water on your body is basically the first draft of the writing process. You are getting a feel of the story just like you are getting a feel for the shower.

The scrubbing away the dirt and then rinsing is you working on the various other drafts. You are scrubbing away the dirt to make something better and cleaner. Just as you do when you working on the second or third draft. The scrubbing is just like editing.

And then you dry off and your product is ready to see the world.

But where does the publishing come in? Aside from dressing up the new manuscript with a clean cover (or in the case of the shower, it’s you getting dressed), the publishing process almost always begins as you are writing. You are finding out where you want to market the story or who the audience is.

The publishing world shifts and changes almost daily. What is popular in the beginning might not be popular once you finish the book. You are essentially working out the tiny details, changing things accordingly just like you sometimes need to change the temperature in the shower.

And even after the shower and after getting dressed, your day hasn’t ended. That is the same as the publishing world. You have this finished product, but its life with you doesn’t end there. It’s not until you need another shower.

So yeah, taking a shower is the same as the writing and publishing process. Not sure how you feel about it, but giving it an identity like a mundane task kind of pushes out the worries for me. Because, no matter how dirty I get, I can just take another shower.