Recounting My Writing Journey - Chapter 2

Accidentally External: A Poetry and Short Story Compilation ​/ 2018

Last week, I covered some of the many things I learned as I wrote and published my first book. Today, I'd like to dive into the next step I took, and some of the things that I learned along this part of the process. 

​In 2017, after I finished writing my debut novel, Azure Light, I immediately got to work on its sequel. However, I was taking several writing classes in college, and was highly motivated to get other types of work out into the world as I wrote and developed my next novel. 

I was particularly inspired by a poetry class I was taking at the time. I've always enjoyed writing poetry. It's a way to express any emotion, describe any moment, bring to life anything you can conjure up in your imagination. Poetry is pressing pause on life and appreciating it under a magnifying glass. I remember my poetry professor talking extensively about how difficult it is to get your work out there, and how lucky authors are who can make any amount of money from their creative writing. 

The final project for that course was to compile the poems we had polished over the course of the semester and bind them somehow. For this project, I learned how to print and bind paperback books. It was a blast, and this was a skill that I would carry into my teaching and continue to explore in my writing life. While that project was a lot of fun for me, I wanted more. I wanted to take this collection and do something more with it. I continued writing poems and short stories, and compiled some of the art I had recently created. Once I had the collection together, I went through several steps in editing. I edited with pen and paper, I formatted and reformatted my document, and I had my first exposure to the beta reading process. 

From this small chapter in my writing journey, I learned how to insert images into a book. I learned more about formatting and the different styles and options that independent publishing has to offer. I was able to publish little pieces of me, my world, and my imagination. I was able to tell many different stories in one small collection, and the stories I had created, those little moments I had captured beneath my magnifying glass, touched a handful of people in different ways. I had peers in college who commented on how the words moved them. Professors who said that the choice of assonance and alliteration made a distinct impact on the content within. Family members who said the stories I wrote lingered in their minds. My grandfather reached out to ask if I was OK, because some of the pieces were harrowing. This conversation sparked many years of conversations between us about his drive to write his own book, as well. 

At this point in my writing, I was just dipping my toe in the ocean. I had no idea how to market. I had no idea of the intricacies that go into making your book look professional and aesthetically pleasing. I had no idea how much thought and effort goes into the content, font, color scheme and images that make up a successful, eye-catching cover. All of these are things I would need to do a whole lot more research and experimentation for. 

Once again, I felt invigorated by the process, energized by the various responses and feedback I was receiving, and driven to write more and learn more. I had a LONG way to go. So, I kept on working. 

​Next week, I will dive into what I learned from the process of writing my novella, Crimson Darkness. This novella had me thinking more deeply and critically about aesthetics, for sure, but above all else, it got me working on character and back story. More to come next week!