I'm just me
I hate the idea of writing my biography.
I'd rather write about characters and focus on their stories rather than my own.
I'm a writer, but I supposed you've guessed that already by now.
I always wanted to be a novelist. At 14 I wanted to be the next Jackie Collins. I fell in love with her Lucky series and was blown away by her writing style. The fact her writing was bold, crude and just different from the flowery writing I'd previously read blew me away. I figured there was no money in writing novels - at least not really - so I tucked that dream away. Of course, the fact that I also didn't believe I had it in me to be successful also kind of stopped me from pursuing it.
I've always written in some form or another. Once upon a time it was my main source of income. That was when I saw the world through rose-tinted glasses and thought love could make the world go round.
Wow, that makes me jaded doesn't it? For personal reasons, I stopped writing. It wasn't until 2012 I contemplated writing a novel. I wrote my first novel Nowhere to Run, quickly followed by Nowhere to Hide and learned some tough lessons in the Indie industry. First of all, not all things are what they seem. This is a TOUGH industry and it's easy to get swept up in churning book after book out without using professionals.
I released Nowhere to Run using an editor, who quite frankly should never be an editor because the book was riddled with errors. So much in fact, I've pulled the whole series and I'll be reediting the whole novel. It's cost me thousands of dollars and granted will cost me more, but I want the books to go out looking like they're professionally edited not a hack job. And that's not me being mean. It's the reality.
Writing is everything to me. I've always said I don't know where it ends and I begin. We're that intertwined. I've always put too much of myself in my writing - whether it's a simple review, a feature article or just a short story. It's a part of who I am. I throw myself into things completely because I am an all or nothing kind of girl.
So, how did I start writing novels? I like to say by accident. It wasn't like I woke up one morning and thought 'You know what I think I'm going to write a novel'. It doesn't work that way. At least not for me. I was just sitting at my computer one night and started playing around with ideas and just started writing and the next thing I knew I had the prologue to 'Nowhere to Run'. I could have stopped then but decided to just see where I was going with the novel. I didn't think I had much to lose.
It's been a rocky journal. I walked away in 2014 because I was exhausted - emotionally, mentally and physically. I felt drained and I didn't feel anything I was writing was working for me. I was also sick of the industry. I'd been bullied by another author, had people bitch about me and I was just tired of it all. It seemed the best thing to do for me - and it was.
Until now.
Here's the thing when writing is such an inter grained part of who you are it's hard to walk away. You can't. Not for good. Writing isn't easy. It isn't always fun and more often than not it will take you places where you don't always want to go. It's my belief that every writer has a dark side. Some just show it better than others. Writing will tap into that darkness. It will chew you up and spit you out and you know what, you better love what you're doing because it's exhausting.
Having said that it's scary as hell, thrilling, tumulteous and everything and everywhere you better want to be.Realistically there is no easy way to start a novel. You just need to start writing, keep writing and never stop.
There are days you are going to love what you've written and there will be days when you look at it and think that it's the biggest piece of crap you have ever written. It's all about balance.
It's taken me a long time to be here. It may take longer to get where I want to be - which is being able to walk into a bookstore and pick up one of my many novels (Yes, I do plan on writing more than one) from a bookstore shelf and staring at my own face on the inside jacket.
I can't tell anyone how to be a writer because, despite all the classes you can take and degrees you can earn, it's not something you can learn. Yes, you can learn to be better at it but writing comes from within.
So, here's the gist of it all.
Write from the heart.
I'd rather write about characters and focus on their stories rather than my own.
I'm a writer, but I supposed you've guessed that already by now.
I always wanted to be a novelist. At 14 I wanted to be the next Jackie Collins. I fell in love with her Lucky series and was blown away by her writing style. The fact her writing was bold, crude and just different from the flowery writing I'd previously read blew me away. I figured there was no money in writing novels - at least not really - so I tucked that dream away. Of course, the fact that I also didn't believe I had it in me to be successful also kind of stopped me from pursuing it.
I've always written in some form or another. Once upon a time it was my main source of income. That was when I saw the world through rose-tinted glasses and thought love could make the world go round.
Wow, that makes me jaded doesn't it? For personal reasons, I stopped writing. It wasn't until 2012 I contemplated writing a novel. I wrote my first novel Nowhere to Run, quickly followed by Nowhere to Hide and learned some tough lessons in the Indie industry. First of all, not all things are what they seem. This is a TOUGH industry and it's easy to get swept up in churning book after book out without using professionals.
I released Nowhere to Run using an editor, who quite frankly should never be an editor because the book was riddled with errors. So much in fact, I've pulled the whole series and I'll be reediting the whole novel. It's cost me thousands of dollars and granted will cost me more, but I want the books to go out looking like they're professionally edited not a hack job. And that's not me being mean. It's the reality.
Writing is everything to me. I've always said I don't know where it ends and I begin. We're that intertwined. I've always put too much of myself in my writing - whether it's a simple review, a feature article or just a short story. It's a part of who I am. I throw myself into things completely because I am an all or nothing kind of girl.
So, how did I start writing novels? I like to say by accident. It wasn't like I woke up one morning and thought 'You know what I think I'm going to write a novel'. It doesn't work that way. At least not for me. I was just sitting at my computer one night and started playing around with ideas and just started writing and the next thing I knew I had the prologue to 'Nowhere to Run'. I could have stopped then but decided to just see where I was going with the novel. I didn't think I had much to lose.
It's been a rocky journal. I walked away in 2014 because I was exhausted - emotionally, mentally and physically. I felt drained and I didn't feel anything I was writing was working for me. I was also sick of the industry. I'd been bullied by another author, had people bitch about me and I was just tired of it all. It seemed the best thing to do for me - and it was.
Until now.
Here's the thing when writing is such an inter grained part of who you are it's hard to walk away. You can't. Not for good. Writing isn't easy. It isn't always fun and more often than not it will take you places where you don't always want to go. It's my belief that every writer has a dark side. Some just show it better than others. Writing will tap into that darkness. It will chew you up and spit you out and you know what, you better love what you're doing because it's exhausting.
Having said that it's scary as hell, thrilling, tumulteous and everything and everywhere you better want to be.Realistically there is no easy way to start a novel. You just need to start writing, keep writing and never stop.
There are days you are going to love what you've written and there will be days when you look at it and think that it's the biggest piece of crap you have ever written. It's all about balance.
It's taken me a long time to be here. It may take longer to get where I want to be - which is being able to walk into a bookstore and pick up one of my many novels (Yes, I do plan on writing more than one) from a bookstore shelf and staring at my own face on the inside jacket.
I can't tell anyone how to be a writer because, despite all the classes you can take and degrees you can earn, it's not something you can learn. Yes, you can learn to be better at it but writing comes from within.
So, here's the gist of it all.
Write from the heart.