Writing Warrior

HOW I LEARNED TO RELAX, ENJOY THE WRITING JOURNEY, AND WRITE LIKE A WARRIOR!

I wasn’t always a writing warrior. At one point in my life, I looked for passion I felt was missing. Not with my spouse or marriage, not with my sons or my status as a mother, friend, or employee, but with me, myself, and I. The lack dwelling within was completely personal. I made it my business to take stock of myself by recognizing my strengths, weaknesses, habits, hobbies, fears, dreams, time constraints, goals, accomplishments thus far, and everything in between. I zeroed in on my courage and love of books. I remembered the powerful feeling I experienced when writing poetry or short stories in adolescence. Even as early as sixth grade I started writing a book, but abandoned the idea because it was harder than I thought. I still recall the main character’s name, Cordelia. Funny how life is sometimes. I later used that name for a character in a different book, one that I spent tons of time on.

So, back to my doldrums about the missing passion. It finally dawned on me that I loved to write. In college many of my electives focused on English courses. Creative writing was something I thoroughly enjoyed along with fantasy novels. I arrived at the conclusion it was time to start drafting a book again. I needed to fulfill the dream of one day authoring a novel and becoming a published author. I created a vision board with images pertaining to my dream, book titles, and terms like, best-selling author.

J.K. Rowling, one of my favorite authors, inspired me to try again. I loved the Harry Potter series and have read all seven books numerous times. While reading each book I realized how J.K. Rowling grew as an author. It all started for her with a fantastic idea that blossomed into a series.

After mulling things over, I recognized that I had no magnificent idea, so I gathered my thoughts and embarked on writing a realistic fiction novel loosely based on my family and the secret entrenched within it. Penning the story turned out to be good practice. It allowed me to get my feet wet as I dipped a toe in the book-writing journey and publishing world.

I dreamed a dream. No, I literally did. Armed with a selection of publishing industry knowledge and writing know-how, my second attempt to empty the thoughts swirling around my brain and let my fingers do the typing happened with acute efficiency and targeted effort. Childhood dreams fueled amazing ideas for an upper YA fantasy novel filled with unique characters and interesting otherworldly settings, supernatural powers, a coveted object, shapeshifters, and a surfeit of magic. Concurrently I had two other novels in the works. One a YA fantasy and the other a contemporary women’s fiction suspense novel. I still had a lot to learn though, so I dove into the whole enchilada of the publishing world and learned as many tips and tricks as possible.

Over time, I crammed a ton of info into my brain: terms, grammar, genre, wordcount, agents, traditional vs self-publishing, writing voice, book must-haves, characters and character names, killer opening lines, plot, subplots, comp titles, editing, query letters, synopses, alpha and beta readers, blurbs, author’s rights, chapter essentials, titles, epilogues and prologues, rejection, dialogue and dialogue tags, head hopping, blogs, social media, writer’s block, pitch, writing strategies, the terrifying slush pile, and a hundred others things.

While chasing all of the above, I created the Wordy website blog and companion social media pages. With a lot of hard work, my vision to mentor writers and aspiring authors met fruition. Throughout this daunting time of compiling and completing stories and finalizing the Wordy brand, there were amazing writing days where I plowed through my manuscripts like a badass, so-so writing days that had me questioning what the hell I was doing, and crappy writing days when I was a stressed mess dealing with rejection.

I persevered, practiced mindfulness, engaged in simple meditation, relaxed, and lo and behold my writing took off. I chose to believe in myself. Eventually each of my novels came together and were ready to query. I learned and shared self-editing tips, trimmed and rewrote scenes, and finally settled into the writing skin and flair I had all along. I can honestly say I found my passion, and enjoy writing and editing so much, I’ve become a writing warrior. So, happy writing to all who are reading this. Keep watering your writing seeds. May you become a writing warrior too and find enjoyment on your writing journey!