The Author's Journey

 The Author's Journey

I had forgotten how much I loved writing stories until that fateful day in my 8th grade Accelerated English classroom.  My students that year loved writing narratives and were actually good at it, so I promised them that after the mundane, unnecessary, soul sucking act of taking dreaded standardized tests at the end of the year, I would let them spend a whole week writing stories.

My first block class decided they all wanted to use the same story prompt and see who could write the best one.  I scoured Pinterest and found a scenario for a narrative about when children come of age, they have to fight the monster under their bed and defeat it to enter into adulthood.

They began furiously writing/typing excited to get all the ideas they had on paper, and it warmed my teacher heart to see so many teenagers exhibit a love of writing.  As I began to watch them work and assisted them when they got stuck, a story popped into my head.  Characters quickly introduced themselves urging me to write their adventure, and my students agreed with them.

So I did just that.  I sat down with my students and let the words flow across the screen of my laptop.  Before I knew it, I was researching names and Gaelic folklore weaving things in thread by thread as the tale grew and grew into chapters instead of just a short story.

My students had me read my first chapter for them just as they had shared their stories with me and kept up the hype as they inspired me to write more.  

I spent my summer break that year pouring out chapter after chapter as my beloved characters captured my heart.  I wrote and edited then edited and wrote feeling like I was actually entering the world of fantasy writing just like my favorite authors, Sarah J. Maas and Nalini Singh, are a part of, and it built my confidence in my work.

Confession: I tried to write a book back in 2009 and even self published it on Amazon, but I cringe to think of it now.  At that time, it was more of the ability to say "I wrote a book!" than about actually developing a passion for being an author, but that work did plant the seed.  The concept of that book was a good contemporary romance plot, and maybe one day I'll rewrite it and publish it on Wattpad just for fun.  For now, I'm all in on my fantasy novels.  

Back to the more present work.  By the end of that summer, I had written a completed fantasy romance novel AND a contemporary adult sports romance novel.  My soul felt refreshed and energized as I remembered how cathartic writing was for an overly imaginative person such as I.  I couldn't stop.  I had to write more.  

And so I did...