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The more novels I write, the more I learn about myself as a writer. My process has become more fine-tuned, I recognize when I’m going to get frustrated and start to question why I ever wanted to write in the first place (right about the 30k word mark), and I’m slowly weeding out my crutch words. But there’s one thing that is always new, and that’s the intricate dance of how I get to know my characters.
I have big news! I’m in a YA romance anthology that comes out at the end of this month!! Aside from the trashy stories I wrote in middle school, I’d never written a proper short story, and I’m very happy with how it turned out. There are EIGHT other stories in the anthology, and best of all — the anthology will be free!
I’ve been writing novels for about eleven years, and if I had to go back and change anything, I wish I would’ve started sooner. I first started writing as a kid, mostly short stories and poems, but I stopped when I got to college and started studying graphic design. Every time I read about a person in their 20s who’s already written half a dozen novels I kick myself for giving up on my passion.
I’ve written eight novels and the idea for all but one of them started with me thinking, “Ooh, what if there’s this girl who….” (the first is about a boy so I thought, “what if there’s this boy…”). I take that spark of an idea, let it germinate in my mind for days or weeks, then form a story around that initial idea.
As of about 7pm last night, the first draft of my next book is with my first reader. Yes, that first reader is my mom, but she’s an excellent proofreader and catches inconsistencies. Of which I fear there are a lot.
When I first get an idea for a new novel, my mind is in overdrive. Ideas come to me rapid-fire and I take notes haphazardly in an effort to get it all down, either in notebooks, stickies, or my phone’s note app. Then I transfer those scribblings into a word document and organize them into character development, backstory, and the story itself.
The other night my husband and I went out to dinner, as married people do, except we pretended we were on a first date. We asked questions that, after almost five years of marriage, you should already know—what’s your favorite food, what do you like to do when you’re not working, where would you love …
Any writer will tell you that writing isn’t the hard part*—it’s starting. There’s always one more load of laundry to change, one more meal to prep, one more notification to respond to. Getting your butt in the proverbial chair can sometimes take longer than the actual writing session. Which is why I was nervous when I finished one first draft and shifted gears to publish my upcoming book.
Lately we’ve been talking about adding more shelves to my closet, which has led to me imagining my dream reading space. So if you’ll indulge me…
In my last post I talked about pushing yourself and reaching for the big goals, the ones you think about when you’re falling asleep but are afraid to admit out loud. Now I want to talk about balancing that with the rest of your life.
I’ve talked before about the sacrifices you have to make if you truly want to achieve your goals, but another way of looking at it is balance. If you want to write a novel, but you also have a day job and a family and you coach your son’s soccer team, you may have to cut out something else to find that time.