I’ve mentioned I’ve been sitting on this (my first!) manuscript, off and on, for years. I decided to try NaNoWriMo in 2012, and that is how the first draft was birthed. I called it my barebones first draft. It had a beginning, middle, and end. If a person read it, they would be able to follow the story, but it was just a skeleton of a manuscript.

After that, I went through periodic phases of trying to continue fleshing it out. I researched the ways authors tackled manuscripts, storylines, scene building, etc. I tried writing up character bios and rewriting the beginning scene over and over and over again.

It actually wasn’t all that long ago that I subconsciously started pushing the thought of publishing one day from my mind. Instead, I began to believe the lie that it was shameful to take so long to write a book. And believe me, that is a lie.

Fortunately, I had someone who believes in me in my corner. My husband wants me to write a book. Even if it’s never good enough to publish, he wants me to have the experience. According to him, writing brings me so much life.

That is one of the reasons I briefly pushed past that lie and signed up to try hope*writers. It was the push I needed. Now, I belong to a community of writers, get to ask all kinds of writing questions of people who have been there done that, and have access to a library of resources to answer all my publishing questions.

What brings you life? Have you pushed it aside, or are you incorporating it in your daily life?

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