#NaNoWriMo2016 Inspiration ~ #amwriting #Nanowrimo

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones
~ Confucius

Writing a novel is a dream for many, but the entire process can become overwhelming quickly.  Even if you KNOW you can finish a novel, because you've proved it before, sometimes the idea of starting over--moving that mountain--can dissuade even the most prolific authors. It's a big job.

After having three books published within three years, I found myself yearning for a break in 2014.  I figured it would be a good opportunity to spend more time in the real world, but then a story idea hit me, and the idea for my latest release, Haunted Souls, was born.  The initial inspiration came from a ghost tour I went on with my sister in Cape Cod's Barnstable Village, which started and ended at the Old Jail.

I'd never even heard of the Old Jail, and it's truly a historic gem.  It's the oldest wooden jail in the country, actually, and is thought to have been built in 1690, on orders from the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colony Courts.  It's considered actively haunted, and you can read more about it--and the plotline it inspired--in my Old Jail post.

The story grew in my mind, and I managed a few chapters, but I couldn't seem to find much time to dedicate to writing that summer.  Plus, my imagination needed recharging, so in the meantime, I researched what I would need to know about Cape Cod history and my military hero's background to get the details right.

Then it was suddenly October, which is always a busy month for me, as I write about hauntings and other paranormal elements.  So I told myself I would give NaNoWriMo a try, and on Nov. 1st, I opened up that dusty Word document.

It worked!  I don't know if I "won", since I had a few chapters done beforehand, and I didn't finish the manuscript by Nov. 30th, but I did surpass 50,000 words in a month, well on my way to a completed first draft.  The finished product, Haunted Souls, released from my publisher this June.

I fit in as much promotion as I could during another busy Cape Cod summer, and then in was Back-to-School obligations and another Halloween season keeping me away from my keyboard. But I promised I'd get going again on Nov. 1, and here I am, back in NaNoWriMo mode.  So, fellow NaNoWriMo participants, I'm wishing us all good luck...keep moving that mountain, 1,667 words at a time!

Writing Inspirational Quote #amwriting #writingtips

“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough” – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s First Female President

Writing a novel was my dream.  Getting started was the hardest part, because with a dream that–at the time, with my schedule and inexperience–would certainly take me years of work (two and a half to finish the first draft, to be exact), then take years to edit, submit, wait, revise, resubmit, wait more (one very long year), and might possibly never even succeed in terms of getting contracted, the list of reasons to NOT begin such an overwhelming task stack up quickly. Because it’s scary.

A printed out first draft -
that's a lot of red pen!

But it was my dream, and I told myself if I didn’t even try, I certainly wouldn’t achieve it.  And then I finally typed up those first pages (which are long gone from the final novel, but apparently still exist, as I discovered when I cleaned out a desk in the basement), then I had started, and when I start something, I rarely stop until I’m finished.  Even if it takes years.

So embrace those scary dreams.  The time will pass anyway, whether you are going after your goals or not.  That first novel of mine, SILVER LAKE, was eventually acquired by a bigger publisher, and recently hit the #1 Bestseller ranking in Ghost Mysteries on Amazon, almost four years after the original publication.  That’s a dream I never even entertained when I began this journey!  So dream big, push the fear down, and go for it!

Writing Inspiration ~ #amwriting #Nanowrimo

Last November, I tried NaNoWriMo for the first time ever, and while I didn't finish a complete manuscript in one month, I did "win" in terms of word count.  By February, I had typed "the end" to my fourth novel, and now Haunted Souls is awaiting a release date.  I decided not to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, as I've branched out into teaching writing classes as well, and to say I'm over-scheduled at the moment would be a tremendous understatement.  But I wanted to cheer on all the writers working on getting their daily word count in by posting the inspirational quote I keep on my keyboard.  And if your fingers need a break and you care to read the story behind the quote, I've included it below.  The original post first appeared as one of my contributions to The Pearls of Writing Wisdom ~ a blog co-written by ten published authors dedicated to sharing weekly writing tips on Tuesdays and inspiration on Fridays.

The quote taped to my keyboard came to me in a fortune cookie on New Year's Eve in 2010. It seemed appropriate for what I was feeling, since my resolution was to begin sending out queries for my first manuscript, Silver Lake.

Real courage is moving forward when the outcome is uncertain. - Michael Angier

Now, I'm not comparing writing to the kind of courage it takes to go into battle to defend your country or something like that.  But it does take courage to go after your dreams, especially when the dream is as big as writing a novel and getting it published.  It's easy to say "Someday, I'm going to write that novel." It's much harder to actually do it.  Even once those first words get typed, there's no guarantee your energy and inspiration will hold out until you get to "The End". A writer pours blood, sweat, tears, caffeine, and days spent in pajamas into a manuscript, and the outcome IS uncertain.  Will it all come together?

But if you don't start, you definitely won't finish.  And if you don't send queries out and risk rejection, you won't find a publisher willing to back your story. Putting your creation out there is nerve-wracking at best.  I knew I was about to enter a very unpleasant stage of the process for most writers.  And there was no guarantee that if I stuck with it, my novel would find a home.

I weathered the rejections.  I rewrote and made cuts.  I tried again.  I began receiving full requests, and then an R&R (a request to Revise and Resubmit) - with suggestions on what needed to be fixed.  Again, no guarantees, but I did the work.

And the day that contract offer came for my debut novel was one of the best days of my life.  December 16, 2011, almost a year after I opened that cookie and found the words of encouragement that remind me daily not to give up.

Keep at it, writers!