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As an author, it’s customary to thank everyone who helped your book get from a spark of an idea to a finished book. Typically listed under a heading called Acknowledgements, authors thank readers, friends and family, editors, agents, pets, high school English teachers, and that one guy who said I’d never write a book and ha ha! Look at me now.
But I digress.
The other night my husband and I went out to dinner, as married people do, except we pretended we were on a first date. We asked questions that, after almost five years of marriage, you should already know—what’s your favorite food, what do you like to do when you’re not working, where would you love …
Any writer will tell you that writing isn’t the hard part*—it’s starting. There’s always one more load of laundry to change, one more meal to prep, one more notification to respond to. Getting your butt in the proverbial chair can sometimes take longer than the actual writing session. Which is why I was nervous when I finished one first draft and shifted gears to publish my upcoming book.
Lately we’ve been talking about adding more shelves to my closet, which has led to me imagining my dream reading space. So if you’ll indulge me…
In my last post I talked about pushing yourself and reaching for the big goals, the ones you think about when you’re falling asleep but are afraid to admit out loud. Now I want to talk about balancing that with the rest of your life.
I’ve talked before about the sacrifices you have to make if you truly want to achieve your goals, but another way of looking at it is balance. If you want to write a novel, but you also have a day job and a family and you coach your son’s soccer team, you may have to cut out something else to find that time.
Write down your goals. And not the easy ones, the ones you know will take work but are easily within your grasp. Write down the ones that scare you. The ones you secretly wish for when no one is listening.
Introducing The Trail Rules! I’m so excited to announce that you can pre-order The Trail Rules — book 2 in the Rules Series! I’ve had so much fun writing this and cannot wait to share Mike (Mikayla) with the world!
To celebrate my productivity, I’m giving away a Kindle Fire 7 (8GB with Alexa)! All you have to do to enter is sign up for my newsletter. There are also bonus adds by following me on Instagram, Twitter, and the Facebooks, but really I’m hoping to keep in touch with all of you through my newsletter.
Sunday I finished the second draft of The Trail Rules, which I wrote over the summer, so it’s perfectly logical that today I’m starting the first draft of The Edge Rules, the next book in the series.
You’ve read your story so many times that you’ve gone cross-eyed and you’d rather throw it in a river than read it once more. That means it’s time to share with beta readers—a term for readers who review and critique your manuscript before it’s finalized.