Recounting My Writing Journey

Everyone has a story within them. At least one. Stories build our world, structure our ideals and bring our wildest imaginations to life. They're freedom. Heartbreak. Love. The human condition is made up of intricate, layered, endless stories of all varieties. I am honored and deeply humbled to be a part of something of such magnitude.

The past year has been eye opening for me. I've felt the same pull I've always felt, just magnified. I've been inspired to dig deeper, work harder, and try things I've always been too afraid to even truly consider. All of this inspiration and motivation has led me to do some real reflecting. As I move forward in my writing endeavors, as I continue to grow and try new things, I'd like to share my writing journey with you. I'll cover the major steps I've taken, what I learned at each of those steps, and what I'm aching to learn yet. 

​So let's get started, shall we?

Azure Light / 2017

Although I've been writing for as long as I can remember knowing how to write, my writing and publishing journey officially started with my debut novel, Azure Light. 

By the time I was fifteen years old, I had started writing more "books" than I could count. But I never finished a single one. More than that, I was never driven to create and develop a world that would drive and deepen my story. I never thought to develop lore and religion and backstory like I did in Azure Light. 

When I was fifteen, I was inspired by my step sister, who at the time was one of my favorite people in the world. I was inspired by her brilliant mind, and the way she viewed world building and language development. When the idea struck me for Azure, I grabbed a pencil and a composition notebook and got writing. 

Azure Light, which in the early days was titled ​And Then There Was Light, took on many forms and underwent extensive remodeling over the next several years. For five years, I wrote, rewrote and restructured this book. I went through moments of what my naive self called writer's block (really I would just put it down and refuse to pick it back up again for a few weeks). I read scenes to my friends and my siblings and asked their opinions. I reached out to past English teachers for feedback.

In college, I took writing classes of all kinds. The class that I remember helping me the most with this first book was a science fiction and fantasy class. In that course, I absorbed every ounce of information I could get my hands on. I devoured the lessons on world building and creating a mythos. I studied suspension of disbelief. I enjoyed it so much that I continued taking classes from this professor for the remainder of my bachelor's degree. And I went back to work on my book! 

Finally, I completed my manuscript. And boy, was I proud of it.

I began researching different avenues I could take for publishing. I considered my vision for the book and my anxiety over rejection. I met with author Holly Kelly, who had published traditionally and independently; and who was kind and generous to sit with my nineteen-year-old self and walk me through the process for each publishing route, where she had found success, and what she had liked and disliked about each. 

My husband, who had been a part of this process for its entirety, read the book and gave me extensive notes. (Bless him - he's never been afraid to look at my work objectively and tell me just what he thinks it needs to take on its best form). And I rewrote again. 

I worked with my mother, a fabulously skilled photographer, to create several different versions of the cover I wanted, and finally went with one I felt truly excited about. I discovered the struggle of creating a quality synopsis. (Trust me, I'm still​ working on this one). 

By the time I was twenty years old, I felt I was ready. I had decided to take the independent publishing route, partly due to my fear that I would never get my work out to the world if I tried publishing traditionally, but also so that I could make the big decisions rather than have someone else make them for me. I wanted to choose the journey my book would take, while maximizing the royalties I would make. 

Azure Light released in August of 2017. I still remember how incredible it felt to hold the physical copy in my hands for the first time. How I ran through our apartment, shaking with excitement that after so much time and so much doubt, I had put something out into the world for people to read. I still feel that way each time I receive my author copies in the mail. 

Only after I had the book out in the world did someone tell me about the errors they'd found. I realized that I had accidentally saved the wrong version of my book - an older, less polished version - and deleted the most current file prior to submitting. Much of the editing had been lost! 

I learned a lot of things from the process of publishing my first novel. I learned about rewriting and restructuring, and looking out for inconsistencies. I learned how to take feedback with an open mind. I learned how to publish my own book, how to create a cover, how to hyperlink. I also learned through this process to save the versions of my work with different names. I learned that it's important to thoroughly read and edit the proof copy rather than just looking for glaring mistakes and formatting issues. You'd think that some of these things would be obvious, but they were things that, as a first time author, I hadn't even thought about. 

All of these were critical lessons I had to learn, and I'm grateful that I had such support along the way. I don't think I ever would have had the courage to even finish the manuscript without the support of so many friends and family members throughout the process. 

That just about concludes my first piece for this recounting. Stay tuned for the next chapter of my writing journey, and please, share your stories as well. I'd love to read them!