From a very young age, I have always been quite creative. Starting with making mud cakes at four, I soon graduated to more widely accepted mediums. Learning to knit and crochet at a fairly young age, I soon graduated to needlepoint and embroidery, then painting. While I sometimes struggled with the techniques involved, the resulting project always made it worthwhile. I wasn’t much of a reader over the years, and as a result, I’d never given much thought to writing a book. Writing is a creative process, and most storytellers are creative people, but to be honest, I never felt I had what it took to be a writer.
That all changed in 2022. I had dabbled with a few short pieces on Facebook and, to my surprise, received positive feedback, even from strangers. So, with some encouragement from family members, I decided to give it a try. When I started my first book, “The Kendricks of Glasgow Junction,” I soon realized writing is time-consuming, intense, and at times stressful. It’s easy to come up with ideas, but getting those ideas down on paper in a form that others will enjoy reading is not so simple.
It was quite a learning process over those two years of writing and rewriting. Thankfully, I had a very patient editor. As some of you already know, my editor is my husband, who took the time to edit my writings in between his other clients.
In my opinion, no matter your genre or style of writing, the level of effort, stress, and emotion needed to make it a reality is the same. Developing my characters was like role-playing, As I moved from one character to another, I found myself taking on those roles. Whenever I wrote a sad story, I would become emotionally involved and even shed a few tears. In the same way, writing a funny scene made me eager to keep writing.
My second book, “My First Decade: Relived,” is a collection of personal memories from my early childhood. It too caused emotional moments, as I recalled those times in my life, some of which will certainly bring a chuckle to the reader. The writing was less stressful than my first book because the stories were more personal and clearer in my mind.
However, with both of my books, I will never forget that moment, after all the edits were completed, re-reading what I had written multiple times, when it was finally ready for publishing. Once it was submitted, there was no turning back. My emotions were all over the place as we waited the 72 hours for Amazon to approve everything. I was an unknown author, but it was exciting to know my books were now out there for others to read and hopefully enjoy. Yet I was still fearful that my writing wasn’t good enough.
The day the parcel arrived, and I held the first printed copy in my hands, I was on cloud nine. The realization that I was now a published author finally hit home. Then the second book was even further confirmation. Will there be a third book in the making? At this point, I’m not sure. Only time will tell.
