A short while ago, I decided to take the plunge from Book Editor to Author.
I’ve had ideas in my head for as long as I can remember, but never have I shared my innermost thoughts with anyone but well my brain.
My debut novel, Alluring Turmoil, involves characters that for all intents and purposes would not get out of my head.
Thus my decision to write my thoughts down. Never did I intend to do anything with the story of Lexi and Jude, but get it out of MY head and maybe reread it once before tucking it quietly away.
But after 9 hours of solid writing on day one and over 9000 words, I thought, “Hell maybe I’m onto something. ”
I took a few of my rambling paragraphs and sent them to a couple of author friends to see what they thought.
Now remember, up until now, I’ve been the EDITOR, not the writer. I read books. I edit books. I correct other people’s errors. And this stuff I was sharing was straight out of my head. Literally from my brain to my fingers to the laptop.
I reminded them that this was purely unedited, ramblings from my brain, but I wanted an honest opinion.
Within minutes, I had several replies from fellow authors I trusted not to bullshit me, and they all said the same thing… this story was good and I needed to pursue writing it.
Since that day, I’ve been a machine. Knocking out 3000-7000 words a day and each day I realize the story changes.
Something I’ve never realized before, because I’ve never before been the “Author”.
Bottom line is the story that was in my head on day one, is no longer in my head today.
Everyday, my characters evolve. And as they evolve, the storyline changes.
I’m just the vessel and trust me, being the vessel for a bunch of voices in your head is scary and frustrating.
When you write, you are putting a piece of yourself out there and opening yourself up for all kinds of criticism.
I won’t lie, I’m terrified.
I’ve never thought about how my editing and reviews have affected the authors that I work for and with, but it’s rough.
When people love it, you’re on top of the world, but when people hate it, it’s a bit brutal and quite frankly it hurts.
But I’m now 19 chapters into it and I’m finding out a lot about myself and my characters.
I’m at the top of the cliff, about to jump… I just hope my parachute opens and I don’t splatter on the ground!
(And there you have the wine induced, exhausted from writing ramblings of me, Skye Turner now Author!)
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