Writing is Hard | WIP Writing Update | June 2020 | (The Beginning… & the End)

First truth. I have started hundreds of stories.

Second truth. I haven’t finished a single one of them.

I know, it’s terrible. I say I’m a writer but I can’t finish a story? Ha ha, I know. Writing and I since the beginning have had a love hate relationship and that’s what I’m trying to explore and dissect through this new series I’m starting here on my blog. This way I can understand my process better to learn and grow with it. Every month I plan on sharing my writing journey with you all. If you care to listen, then welcome, but if it doesn’t float your boat, no worries. My poetry and flash fiction will be along sure enough.

I guess I should start at the beginning, if it really was the beginning….maybe you could call it that but I don’t know… it felt a lot like the end to me.

Both my parents were educators. My mother, a teacher, and my father, a principal. That being said, learning and reading were encoded in my DNA from birth and forevermore. I was lucky enough to have a house full of all the books I could ask for, and I asked for them. Whenever the Book Fair came to school or we got the Scholastic flyer advertising all the different types of paperbacks we could order… I was all over it. Through work my dad had come across some blank books that he had just had lying around in his office. He had no use for them so he gave them to me.

I think I was seven. When your seven Chips Ahoy cookies and cartoons are your life. Or at least they were mine. The days were sunny, school was fun back then and Pokemon was my world. When my dad gave me those books I wasted no time scribbling my own self insert Pokemon journey between the pages (complete with drawings!)

I hadn’t even heard of fan fiction at that point, but that didn’t stop me. Clearly. I wrote my story, all terribly misspelled and horribly configured. But I loved that story. I didn’t want to be a writer then. Besides being a Pokemon Master, I think I wanted to be a spy. Some part of me today still wants to be a spy (and a Pokemon Master). Though I think being a spy would stress me out wayyyy too much. All that lying and being put in dangerous situations constantly and pretending to be someone I’m not. Yeah, it would exhaust me… but the allure still appeals.

That picture book was the beginning. But looking back on it now, it really was the end of the world for me. From that moment on my ideal profession, my interests, my hobbies would sway from one extreme to another. The world just has so many beautiful things in it to appreciate! I would try and do so many things, things that were me, things that weren’t and things that still might become me. Through all of that trying, learning, and experiencing though…. writing stayed a constant in my life. Now, at age 24, I know there is no other path for me. Becoming a published author is my dream. I’ve gotten to know myself a lot better since I was seven, and I’ve realized more of what I want from this life.

Third truth. I was born a writer.

Fourth truth. At the end of it all I’ll die a writer.

No matter what. The definition of success is different for everyone. I’ll consider myself a success if I can finish a first draft this year, so that’s where I’m starting.

The Lowell Saga is my current WIP. This story has been spinning in my mind since 2017 and it has never let me go. I’ve written 11,003 words for that story in the three years since, but as of this year I haven’t written any so I’m starting my word count at 0. The idea in my head is fantasy, and I won’t lie it is messy and complicated with characters I love so much but am scared of not conveying the right way through words so my future readers will love them as much as I do. Right now I’m world building and though it is taking me a while I am doing a thorough job of it and I’m content with that for now. From there I’ll work on plotting, outlining and then finally sitting down to write. The hardest part of all.

So if you are here for my story, then I say thanks. I hope I don’t disappoint you or myself. Hopefully writing about writing will help me stay writing. Then finish that damn draft.

Till next time,

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