write and publish a novel

i can’t stop rewriting.

Wrote 5 pages last night! Got a good idea going I think. Can’t wait to see how it progresses…

As in with a pen and paper. Not digital writing…

When in middle school and high school, I carried a writing notebook everywhere I went. I constantly scribbled fantasy-setting stories; my friends told me they were good. I read even more than I wrote, immersing myself in the worlds of Robert Jordan, George R. R. Martin, Jennifer Roberson, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Then came college. As an English major, I was continually being exposed to new writers and new genres. I wrote so many essays that I ceased writing for fun. I hardly read for fun either. Even if I had had the time, I would have been embarrassed to read something my professors would not have considered literature.

Six months after graduation, working as a development writer for a non-profit hospital, I picked up Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series again for the first time since 8th grade. I felt like I had been reunited with a long-lost part of myself. It was then that I determined that I should write again, and that I should write what I wanted. A story does not have to be set in Renaissance Milan or a turn-of-the-century elite New York household to convey a worthwhile message. If I loved writing fantasy, then I should write fantasy!

I found a coworker who also writes (her passion is screenplays), and she proposed we create a writing club that would meet once a month. There we would read our work, encourage and critique one another, and keep each other accountable. We have been meeting since February, in which time I have written a stub of a short story and have begun a novel.

I took my time detailing the novel’s plot and characters (something I never used to do, and then inevitably found myself running out of steam halfway through the project), and I’m now writing the first draft. At last count, I’m at 17,000 words. I imagine the finished draft will be somewhere around 100,000 to 120,000 words, but we’ll see! A professor once told me that she considered word counts to be merely guidelines: “Argue until your argument is complete, and you will find that the essay’s length is right.” I’ll hope that the same is true for writing a novel, at least while hammering out the first draft.

I would love to actually write and publish a fiction novel (fantasy genre). However, while my writing skills are great, I have yet to come up with an original idea.

I made my first step today. I am going to meet with one of my favorite authors to get her take on how to start writing a fiction novel.

This would be the ultimate accomplishment. I have dreamed of writing a novel, leaving a mark on this world long after I’m gone, since elementary school. I would hide in my closet for privacy and write for hours. I have a 3 year old now and time is not easy to come by but, if I have the resolve to get this done, I can definitely do it.

easy, fun, an income

That’s the title of it. I have started it. I need to make some more chapters and add a few more details. So far, I love it!!!!

I want to publish my novel (and complete it)

i’ve written 60 pages