How This Happened

When I moved to Austin, TX in 2012 I visited the library before buying groceries. True story.

I read a lot, mostly YA fiction. Once or twice I’d thought I could make a novel-length story of my own, but dismissed the idea. In March of 2013 I decided I could do it. I was good at writing, so if I combined that talent with a drive to keep working and learning and invested time writing my tush off… I would get published some day.

My mind needed a place to roam and frolic. I needed somewhere far away from my full-time housewife/Mommy of two children under the age of two job. My uber-fabulous, wonderful, brilliant and supportive husband encouraged me. Possibly his motivation grew from my literal loss of mental faculties and daily tendency to devolve into an angry creature children fear. Eventually  I learned I not only wanted this other way to spend my time, I needed it. And that made it okay.

So it began.

I watched Brandon Sanderson’s creative writing lectures onWriteAboutDragons, read dozens of writing craft how-to books, visited hundreds of blogs, found the podcastWritingExcuses, visited author panels, researched publisher’s market and how to snag agents, etc.

I plotted my first book. Not my decade-ago previous attempt resulting in ten pages of honestly horrible fiction, but an actual novel. Characters, scenes, and chapters were born BECAUSE I MADE THEM. Then I wrote them onto pages.

Suddenly I loved my life.

I tried NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month– you’re supposed to write 50K words), got 35,000 words in before everyone in my household got sick, and had to quit. But not bad for a person with my workload! I’m proud of myself.

Then I bought Scrivener. To be more precise, I begged my husband to get it for me for Christmas and he did. Thanks again, Dearest! My brain is much happier now. As is my laptop. Combined with Dropbox (try writing a novel when your files are spread across three computers and I guarantee an aneurism), my writing woes have shrunk.

All I need now is more time to write, or in lieu of such, more will to make the time to write. Wish me luck.