Hey, guys!

So, while working on the 2020 New Year, New Goals post, I realized something. I don’t think I’ve ever really talked about my writing journey here before. And since I want to integrate more writing into GraceBought this year, I figured I’d go out on a limb, be brave, and share my writing story with you. 

Okay, well, here goes!

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I’ve loved reading since I was a little girl and I have samples of writing that go back to first grade. Yes, I’m a bit of a packrat, but it comes in handy sometimes! And I’ve worked hard on overcoming that in some ways, too. But, back to writing, I do actually have some of my first little “stories” from when I was a little girl. And my grandparents tell of when I would tell stories orally even before that. Since before I could remember, I’ve been a storyteller. Writing has always been in my heart.

About 13 years ago, I began writing my first novel. (I actually started two, but quickly realized I needed to trash one–and thank goodness for that!) It started out as this scene that I vividly remembered from a dream one morning. I woke up, grabbed something to write on and jotted it down. It seemed like a simple start, but the story just spiraled from there, jumping off the page and setting my mind a-spinning. I’ve invested so much time and energy, research and resources into that first story. I’ll treasure it always. (Fun fact, the scene that started it all was in the middle of the book, so I had to go back and write the beginning chunk afterwards. I spent many years making a resolution to connect the two pieces.)

In high school, I wrote a novel-length fanfiction piece as well as several novella-length fanfiction pieces–all while continuing to work on that first original novel. I joined Fanfiction.net and Fictionpress.org (two sites I personally enjoy and recommend). I’m not as active today as I was, but I always consider going back and starting it up again because I loved it so much. Another fun fact, I actually met two of my closest friends through fanfiction, and to this day they are my best friends.

Anyway, by that time, I’d developed the plot outlines for four more books in the series of that first novel. But when it came time to go to college, my writing sort of sat on the back burner for a while. I mean, I took a creative writing class each semester of my freshman year, and continued working on my writing through those as well as learned some new things which was fun. But in my sophomore year, I switched majors into a program that I was behind two years on. So, writing all but ceased as I worked my tail off to play catchup. I carried my black cloth Walmart bag with me to every dorm, though, with all my pens and notebooks, and hand-drawn maps and character charts and such. I was determined never to leave that novel behind. It meant too much to me.

Just before I graduated, I actually did an interview with the English professor I’d had as a freshman and told her I’d felt so dried up and that I’d missed writing. A few days prior to that, it all came to a head and spilled out. Years of pushing writing off finally burst out of me one night in the last few months of college and I ended up writing a few thousand words for a storyline sitting in my green story idea journal. It was freeing and reminded me just how much I loved stories and missed writing.

When I graduated, two and a half years ago, I pulled that first novel back out, the one I had bottled up in the black Walmart bag I took with me like Linus’s blanket. It was 2/3 complete and I was starving for writing at that point. I spent a year living with my grandparents and doing office work while I searched for a job in my degree field. But during that time, I realized I’d worked on that first novel for over a decade, off and on. Sure, I’d done short stories and collected ideas in my journal for future use. I’d even continued with my poetry from middle and high school some. But though I’d thought about other novels, I’d never outlined or given them near the attention I had my first one. 

Well, my sister proposed that perhaps I was kind of burned out on that first novel and maybe I needed to take a break from it and go back to it later. I’m too doggedly determined to finish the blasted thing to ever quit on it, but I thought what she had made some sense. So, I decided to take a break from it and see what else I could do, another short story perhaps?

It was then that I stumbled across Kingdom Pen–right as they were dying out and closing down, go figure. But that led me to a new site that was just starting out, Story Embers. And I’ve been a part of Story Embers from the very beginning of its birth. Story Embers was the first place I’d ever thought to think of writing as a craft, something I could study, learn about, and pursue just like any other skill or passion. It was the first time and place it ever occured to me to grow as a writer, to actively become a better writer through something other than just passion and practice. (Not that those are to be discarded so easily either.)

Story Embers led me to the Young Writer’s Workshop (YDubs) and for the last two and a half years, I’ve been in a whole new world of learning and growth. I’ve been surrounded by a culture of writers and it’s been completely life-changing in my writing journey. 

After setting aside that first novel, I started working on this mermaid quest idea and I worked a great deal on it for a while before this Cinderella retelling dug its heels in and demanded attention. At first I worried about being a project hopper, but I refuse to let go of CRR or the mermaid quest. I’ve put too much into both. It occured to me that the Cinderella retelling might be the story I needed to tell now. It’s the one that fits my growing pains and it’s the one that my heart is pouring out over right now. It’s about something deeper than a girl wanting to go to the ball, about something more than a girl who put up with her stepfamily…it’s about something I relate to on an all too personal level and I think that is why I need to see this one through first. 

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So, I have a ton of practice under my belt. I’ve co-written three and a half novels. I’ve written one nearly 100,000 word fanfiction and almost another 200,000 words in other shorter pieces and poetry–and that’s just the bits I’ve posted online. I’m nearly 70,000 words into my current WIP and certainly not slowing down any time soon.

All this while navigating some pretty intense life changes–graduating college, applying for and accepting different jobs, moving five times in the last five years, twice across state lines, and so forth. And, though I’ve come through some crazy transitions in the last three years (and I’ve still got a few more to go, I forsee in this year even), I finally feel like I’ve come to the point as a writer where I understand the true place writing holds in my life. And I’m pretty darn excited for what the future holds.

Well, there it is. The long story. XD That’s my writing journey, so far anyway. Now you know. 🙂