This week we started the second half of the year! I am hoping that many of you have picked up some energy, and have begun to once again work towards your goals and dreams. Over the years I have given you countless “ra-ra” posts about going out there, and knocking down obstacles and achieving your dreams. So instead of rehashing much of those posts, I wanted to get a bit more personal. I wanted to chat about how I create, what makes me write, and some of the obstacles I have had to overcome along the way. My hope is not that you walk away thinking how great I am (I’m not) but rather that you would come away inspired. Ready to take on the world! If I can do it, so can you!
Not every story I start gets completed. There are many stories I have attempted to write or stories that I have just been unable to write. We don’t always get to pick and choose what comes out of our pens. In 2012 I was doodling and ending up with a compelling sketch of a cowboy, crossing the desert (yes, it’s the one up top). As I worked on the image, a story began to coalesce around this character. Who was he? What was he doing out in the desert? Why a desert? Is he meeting someone, why? For every book we read, there is a mountain of notes, sketches, plot ideas, settings, everything you read in a book is just the most interesting tip of the iceberg.
The spring of 2012 I sent out a short story based around the sketch. It wasn’t part of my original idea, I wanted to write more books in the series I had already started. This was something new. A new world, new characters, new towns and cities, new enemies and new lore. It was a whole new set of rules to play by. I was excited but wasn’t sure if I could write something that captured the gritty desert cowboy aesthetic. I wrote a quick story and sent it off, hoping that was enough to get it out of my system. I had other things to write. My readers came back with their notes. They all wanted more. I had caught something by the tail here, now it was up to me not to let go. Those other projects would have to wait.
Throughout the summer I worked on the back story, developed the characters, and took the feedback from my readers; improving the foundation of what I had started. The long summer months turned to fall and soon I was face to face with November. For those of you who are just joining, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo (you will hear about it lots). That year would be my official start in the program and I would ease past the grueling 50,000-word mark and just kept on writing until the story was told. I had taken an original idea from just a tiny spark all the way to a completed story in less than a years time. It still remains the quickest turn around for one of my story ideas.
The journey from start to finish was one of breathless excitement and creative joy. Yet even then I had to overcome my doubts. Was I skilled enough write a compelling but completely different kind of story? Everything was new. Everything was different. I surely didn’t have enough time to develop it correctly right? Sometimes we don’t get to pick our stories. Sometimes our stories pick us. I could have refused, stayed with my original idea and worked on my previous series. I could have worked on any one of the many other book projects that have been languishing in development for years. I was too busy for another project. I couldn’t write a gritty western. I would need years of planning and development to even begin writing the story. Instead, this one came out of nowhere. Unbidden and unexpected a story shot across my synapses like lightning. I managed to catch it, and somehow, I managed to hang on for dear life. It was a story that demanded to be told. A story that caught fire and burned bright.
Life will not always go on as expected. We will hit snags, we will face hardship. Sometimes we get so bogged down with the idea of succeeding that we walk when we should run. We plan instead of boldly just going for it. There are certainly times for all of that, but when you’ve got something hot, don’t wait. Be brave. Run. Write. Paint. Draw. Sing. Chase your dream with all you have. Grab hold of it tight, and don’t ever let go.
I absolutely LOVED that book you wrote.