Hello everyone!
I was so thrilled to send my novel, “Where the Ghosts Lie” off to editing a couple weeks ago.
My lovely friend Olivia is going to have a time going through that dear old thing. (You should totally check her out! She’s starting an editing business and she’s legit The Bomb)
On another writerly note, “Last Flight to L.A.” is ALMOST finished!
Thus, I’ve been in hyper-writing mode over the past few weeks, dealing with two first drafts.
And I know that 75% of the time, writing is HARD.
It’s not always having a perfect story world come together, creating characters that generations of people will fall in love with, or being in complete writerly bliss over your work.
In fact, we often find ourselves on the complete opposite side of the spectrum.
The reality of writing is basically staring at a screen longer than actually putting words onto it, drinking enough coffee to supply energy for the Industrial Revolution, and hating the way your story is going.
There are definitely breakthrough moments, and sentences that give you chills, but most of the time you just want to pull your hair out.
Right? Right.
But as I went back and line edited “Where the Ghosts Lie”, I realized how amazing it was.
Not because it was perfect.
There are SO, SO, SO many things that need a complete overhaul.
There are some corny jokes I wish I could put in the trash and burn.
There are a few plot lines that leave me wondering what I was thinking.
But I had created it.
I realized that I had written a story that was completely unique, not only to me, but literally to all mankind.
Take a look at your story, Writer.
For all its flaws and plot holes and grammatical errors.
No matter how “bad” it is, you have created something that no one else in history has ever thought of before.
No movie, book, TV show, or play has ever seen the story you created.
Sure, there might be things like it, but not an exact copy.
Just think about that for a moment.
In a way, you’re making history with the words you write.
Even if your name isn’t broadcasted through the centuries, if only two people read your story, you are a pioneer.
So Writer, let me ask you:
With that in mind, do you think your story is important?
Do you think it’s worth the midnight hours, the bleary eyes, the frustrated headaches?
It’s not easy.
It takes a little insanity.
But, in the end, it is undoubtedly worth it.
Keep going.
Oh my goodness, this was beautiful!!! And I absolutely needed this right now. I’ve been slowly — but surely! XD — climbing out of a writing rut recently, and sometimes it’s still a little difficult to look past my perfectionism to see the beauty in this weird thing I’m creating. But this post was so immensely encouraging. It’s posts like these that make me excited to be a part of the strange and beautiful world of writing.
Thank you so, SO much for posting this!