The moment I woke up yesterday morning I knew a new day had dawned. I felt a lot lighter then the day before, more motivated to delve back into the throes of editing. I hadn’t really stopped the editing process, I had just slowed down. It wasn’t enjoyable, it was starting to feel like a bad day at work, but the boss wasn’t being helpful in the very least. The boss was being negative and not constructive. Dreamwalker was a terrible novel, what was the author thinking when she wrote that paragraph? Misplaced commas, repeated words, past tense to present tense; I could go on and on.

The Boss.

I am the boss. I am the editor, the writer, the author. The writer that wrote that terrible paragraph. I was being very hard on myself, unapologetic, not even considering the state I was in when that very paragraph was written. January 2019. 2 a.m. The night was cold and snowy. I was laying on the couch in pain, a pain like nothing I had ever experienced before. From the tip of my fingers all the way down to my toes, searing pain; I could barely move. A pain that eventually went away after a few months, nothing was wrong, nothing was diagnosed; it just went away. My life went back to normal. During those few months I began my very first novel, my first work in progress. ‘Written’ on my phone in the early morning hours when sleep wouldn’t come. Working title, Emma Jayne Potter.

Emma Jayne.

January 2019. I loved the Emma character I had created. Her tenacity, her strength. She could get through anything life threw at her. The losses, the love, the Shadow Man. I loved everything about the story I had created, the adventures she went on with her friends, the risks she took later in life. It was all there. I thought it was perfect and couldn’t wait to share it with the world. In April I called it complete. 70,000 words. After some research I learned that it was time to let Emma sit on a shelf and ‘marinate’ for a few months. So I did just that.

Off The Shelf.

October 2019. It was finally time to pull Emma off of the shelf and begin first round edits. I knew that the editing process would be grueling. I opened Emma Jayne Potter for the first time and the words seemed foreign to me, as if I was reading someone else’s novel. Without over thinking I took the next step and printed out all 250 pages and placed them into a three ring binder. Line editing was about to commence and I was terrified. I think I made it to the third chapter and gave up. It wasn’t fun. It was terrible. I shelved her again out of sheer frustration. I needed to improve my writing and editing before I could even begin first round edits.

NaNoWriMo

November 2019. With Emma on the shelf I knew that I needed a new project to help improve my writing skills. I had learned about NaNoWriMo after watching some author Vlogs and knew it would be the perfect opportunity to working on my writing and editing skills. The Alexia Chronicles was the name of my new novel and it was going to take place in the world of Del Plazo. There were islands, Aardsmen, littles, storms, war and magic! I began writing Alexia’s story on November 1st, 2019 and by November 30th, 2019 I wrote the end. Over 50,000 words. I followed the NaNo rules to a T, no editing whatsoever until you typed, the end. I won! If you’ve won NaNo before then you know it’s not really winning. You now have 50,000 unedited words to edit. At least when I wrote Emma I was editing as I went. What had I done?

Editing The Unedited

December 2019. I woke up on December 1st, 2019 and was ready to dive into The Alexia Chronicles and begin first round edits. No marinating, just diving in. For me I needed to learn my process, and what worked best for me. I had to begin somewhere. It was a mess. I had written chapters out of order, I had 1,000’s of misspelled words, but the story was amazing (to me) the editing, unbearable. I had a huge world left to create and I had no idea where to begin. I quickly became frustrated and shelfed it. I spent the next couple of weeks questioning everything about my future as a writer and creator. Unsure how to proceed I turned back to the books I had been reading about the writing and editing process hoping to find some motivation.

Morning Musings.

January 2020. I started a new journal January 1st, 2020. Morning Musings were born. Inspired by Julia Cameron’s book about writing ever morning. She called them morning pages, but I really liked the ring that Morning Musings had. I wrote every single day. Sometimes a short story, sometimes my thoughts. I did a lot of research and found a new writing group called, The Literal Challenge. They had a contest starting on February 1st called 28 Plays Later. Without second thought, I signed up and began researching script writing.

28 Plays Later And Beyond.

February 2020. Little did I know that after writing 28 plays in 28 days the world would be on complete chaos. Countries shutting down. The World as we all knew it was facing a pandemic. 2020 flew by, but I didn’t stop creating. I threw myself into my writing. I joined every writing challenge that came my way. Scripts, short stories, screen plays, NaNoWriMo. I published my first book, an anthology with an amazing group of writer’s from all around the globe. I made some pretty amazing friends last year, friends that I know will now be friends for life. That motivation had somehow slipped away at some point this year. Where it went is unclear, but it came back yesterday after looking deep within myself and hearing some motivational words. July 2021 started off on the wrong foot, but now I am back doing what I do best. I am closing in on final edits for, The Chronicles of Del Plazo: The Vallejo. Dreamwalker is still needing some work and that’s okay. It’s okay to recognize that my writing in 2019 is completely different then how I write now. I have grown as a writer and have really improved my writing skills and will continue to do so.