A year ago, today, I wrote my first blog post.
I’d spent the two years prior typing feverishly at my computer, separated from and uninvolved in the online writing community. And the industry in general, for that matter. I hadn’t once taken a look at an agent’s blog or submission guidelines. I didn’t know what Publisher’s Marketplace was. I had no clue how to write a query letter and I didn’t have a critique partner. I knew nothing, folks. Nothing other than the fact that I had stories in my head and I’d finally gotten those stories down on paper. One of them was OK. The second I thought might be something special.
It was then, after the entire novel was written, that I started thinking seriously about publication. I ventured into the writing twitterverse, the blogs, the online realm of publishing. I decided that if I was going to do it, I would go all in.
So I started this blog and with my toes barely dipped in the water, I wrote my first blog post.* Today, I thought it would be fun to look at a few snippets of what I said when I was just starting out on this crazy-wonderful journey:
On being a writer:
Getting published is not the end-all, be-all…I will continue to write either way, because it’s who I am.
On passion:
It really is a labor of love. I don’t do it because someone makes me, but rather because it makes me.
On sharing:
Everything in my writing becomes real to me. The characters are real. I love them as though they were my family or friends. The places exist and the plot is looming…I want to take all this and share it with others.
On regrets:
If nothing else, I just want to try. I don’t want to be plagued by those two horrid words that have a way of swallowing you whole and making you hate yourself. “What if?” I don’t want to push off trying because I’m afraid or scared or worried about rejection.
It is crazy that this was just a year ago. So much has changed, but at the same time, so much has stayed the same. That girl, speaking up there? That is still me. I still want to share and write and spill stories. I’m still insanely passionate, and I still wake up each and every morning itching to write. I’m still scared of rejection or failure or whatever you want to call it, but I’m still not willing to not try.
Some things have changed drastically though. Like you, blog readers. You are the biggest difference between then and now. This time last year, my blog posts pulled in zero comments. Now I watch conversations bloom in the threads. I get excited to share my words with you and I look forward to reading your thoughts in return. We can talk about queries and characters and plots and pacing and I know that I’m not boring you. We can giggle over grammar goofs and dish about books, and we are completely happy in those conversations.
I started this journey with some friends and family cheering from the sidelines. They’re still around, of course, but now I have a slew of writer friends who really, truly “get” it. And that is wonderful. Incredibly, incredibly wonderful.
So thank you for joining me, readers. Thank you for listening to my thoughts and commenting on my posts and tagging along for the ride. It has been an amazing journey so far. I can’t even imagine what will be on our horizons this time next year.
<3
* If you want to read that first blog post, you can find it here.
