What a Wild Ride!

jamiecanosa
Dec 3, 2014
2 min read

NaNoWriMo is a great inspiration to sit down and put words on paper, drink gallons of coffee and explore your inner creativity. But what is it that inspires us to keep doing this for the other eleven months of the year? That's what Webucator wanted to know.

Here's my two cents:

I've been on my writing journey for about two years now. When I first started, I won't lie, I never imagined I'd end up where I have. With eight published novels, several novellas, and a few short stories all in two years. It's been an incredible learning experience.

I started writing my debut novel, Dissidence, a YA dystopian about a girl who lands herself in trouble and with the help of a few close friends accidentally launches a revolution that changes her world as she knows it, mainly . . . out of boredom. I was a stay-at-home mom with three kids under the age of five. It may not sound like that would include a lot of boring moments, but I couldn't take going through each day one feeding to the next. I needed something to exercise my brain. I'd had the idea for the story floating around for a while and finally decided to sit down and write it.

My first book took two years to publish. I was a bit hesitant to put it out there, but when I finally did, I was astounded by the response it got. People actually liked it. People besides my husband and my mom. Who'd a thunk?

When I started writing, my one and only goal was to write. I wanted to write. It made me happy. So, I wrote. That remains my main goal, today. Being a stay-at-home mom, it was (and is) my husband's income that paid the bills. My income has since gone a long way to making a dent in our debt. It helps, but it's not necessary. I think that's important. If you start looking at writing as a job, as something you have to do rather than something you love to do, that will change the way you feel about it and in turn have an impact on your writing, itself.

If I were to give a new author one piece of advice, it would be to write a story you love. Create characters that you're passionate about. Feel their emotions. Experience their journey with them. Invest yourself in the words you use. What you put into a story is what a reader will take out of it. If you cry while writing a scene, they'll cry while reading it. If you laugh out loud at a joke, so will they. Leave a piece of yourself behind and the readers will see that.

Oh, and always have a snack on your desk, otherwise if you're anything like me, you'll be tempted to get up in search of foodage every five minutes. :)

Best of luck. Don't give up. I look forward to seeing what beautiful stories you create!