My Journey: Entry 1 (And a shitty novel was born.)

Hi everyone! Ivy here, starting a journal on Prose, the social network that has given me confidence to call myself a writer.

Nope. This isn't a challenge entry like most of my writes. Nor is it poetry or flash fiction. This is me, the woman generating words that have suprisingly led a handful of people in this great world to reach out and tell her they enjoy what she puts to paper. To those who consider themselves fans or otherwise support my writing: Thank You! You are a big part of the reason I'm still here.

Several Prosers have encouraged me to move forward with an idea to share my journey toward what I hope will be traditional publication. I hope that sharing my journey will entertain and enlighten readers who I hope will, in return, provide me with feedback and encouragement as I tread this scary, yet exciting, path. So, if you're still reading this post, I welcome you to my first journal entry...

One of the most important things to understand is that I never wanted to be a writer. That fact is important because my journey did not start as a dreamy-eyed little girl imagining life as an author. Dreams of publishing never entered my head. Not once. And the significance of this lies in the fact that I'm here because something (neither me nor anything tangible) is driving me forward.

Writing chose me.

When I was a teen (a long time ago), I enjoyed writing poems and short stories for fun. Key words: for fun. I took more English classes than necessary during my first two years as a psychology major, but stopped all creative writing when I entered junior year of college.

Ph.D. in psychology? Check.

Full-time career? Check.

Family? Check.

I'm a busy woman with age on my side (interpret that how you may). I don't have time to write. But I do it anyway and this is why...

A story fell into my head on a December day a few years ago while I was playing with my kids on the living room sofa. Characters spoke to me. Scenes came to life. I looked at my kids and said, "I have to get to the computer. A story is writing itself in my head." In the months that followed, the story kept coming. So I kept writing.

And a shitty novel was born.

In the years that followed the birth of my creation, I taught myself how to write fiction. The novel has been reworked more times than I wish to count. (Only so many hours in a day, you know.)

Third person, past tense? Check. (Didn't work. Try again.)

Third person, present? Check. (Kinda okay, but third person is shit. Try again.)

First person, present? Check. (Best so far, but it doesn't read like a story. Shit. Try again.)

Take out backstory? Check. (A little better, but still shit. Try again.)

I could go on and on.

And while I was reworking the manuscript, I was teaching myself. What is voice? What is story arc? What is character development? Death to adverbs? Death to adjectives? Sentence fragments okay? (Seriously?) Pacing. And cut, cut, cut anything unecessary, especially words such as that, the, and just. (By the way, I'm not editing this post to perfection as I would my manuscript. Again, only so much time in a day.)

And the biggest thing I needed to investigate was this: How the hell do I write a romance?

So I read some more. And more. And more.

And I learned.

And I reworked that manuscript. A. Lot.

And I still am.

But now, after all that learning and reworking, I've got something I'm quite confident I can query. (If you don't know what querying is, start researching. Now.)

This leads me to today's question for you: If you want to achieve traditional publication, what have you done to teach yourself how to write well? Have you been working on refining your craft?

Unpublished writers must acknowledge a grim reality: They don't write well enough. And tomorrow, they need to write better. (Actually, this holds for all writers, including published ones, as it applies to anyone who holds a profession. Make tomorrow's work better than today's.) Anyone can put some words on a sheet of paper. The trick is to arrange the words and punctuation marks in such a way as to draw readers in and keep them in your grasp. That's what I've been working on, which is part of my reason for joining Prose. The challenges are an excellent place for me to practice skills I've been teaching myself.

Whether my novel is solid enough for traditional publication is yet to be discovered. I'm working on it and hope to find out this year. Through this journal, those of you with interest will be able to see how this goes for me (and I'll give more history, too). In the end, we may find I don't have what it takes, but I'm enjoying the journey and that's what matters.

If interested, please consider visiting my website (ivyblackwater.com) or finding me on Twitter (@IvyBlackwater). If you like what you see, consider following me there, too. And, by all means, let me know what you enjoy!

Until next time, be well and be happy. (Don't forget to comment below. :-)

Have a beautiful day!

Ivy Blackwater (IvyBee)