My Writing Journey

(For my first post, I want to give a little background about who I am as a writer and how I got here with this particular project...because it's been quite a trip.)

I've loved stories from my earliest memories. I still remember bedtime stories with my dad, where we would change the tales to make them funny. And once I learned to read, I devoured books. I loved them so much I tried to write my own. In fact, my parents recently found some of my "constructions" pieced together on notebook paper with absolutely atrocious illustrations. But hey, I tried.

By the time I hit junior high and high school, though, I had a problem. I didn't know what to write! I didn't have a story. I was reading a lot of contemporary teen romance and mysteries, but I couldn't get a story like that down. I had no clue how to write a mystery, and my personal experience in the romance department left a lot to be desired. I started to veer toward journalism, seeing it as a practical option that would still make use of my skills.

When I chose my major in college, I declared a B.A. in English with only a minor in journalism, however. I still preferred my creative writing aspirations, no matter how unlikely they might be, and the English degree seemed to house a wider degree of options. My reading was consumed by assignments, though, and I was in for a detour. I took a couple trips abroad in college and became obsessed with travel and the idea of living overseas. Following graduation, I moved to Cambodia and worked for a mission organization teaching ESL. I wrote articles on my experiences there and once again, read voraciously during my down time. It was while I was there that I finally read the Harry Potter series. And I. Was. Stunned.

A series with adventure, suspense, magic, friendship, humor, good vs. evil. It encompassed everything I wanted to read in a book and everything I wanted to write. So, when I returned to the States and became temporarily stuck in a period of unemployment, I decided to try my hand at YA fantasy.

I knew I didn't want to do witches, wizards, and spells. I wanted my characters to have their own powers but with limitations and not end up overpowered like some superheroes. But the story I was crafting was dystopian in nature, and the MC was shaping up to be another "special" or "chosen one" type. I didn't like that. I didn't want some burdened character whining about his responsibilities. But how to get away from that? I started thinking about what made the Harry Potter series so fun, and I realized it was the side characters. What if Harry hadn't stepped up? What if Fred and George or even Ginny had become the MCs? What kind of story would that have been? I took a look at my side characters, a set of twins who would be the comic relief and the love interest...what would this story be like if it belonged to them?

I started writing. I had no plot in mind, so we're talking pure pantsing here. I had a magic system and an idea, and I let the characters call the shots. To my shock, it came together coherently, and a series took shape in my head. Over the next year, while I earned my teacher's certification, I also used whatever spare time I could find to write my series. With four out of five books complete, I attended a writers' conference the summer before I started student teaching and pitched to an agent. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but I got a partial request provided I did some editing first. It ended in a pass, which was a good thing.

Once I started teaching, I didn't have time anymore for writing. I was drowning. I shoved the series to the backburner, vowing to finish the final book and then try querying again. It took a few years for things to slow down enough, but I did it. I finished the series. I just wasn't satisfied with it. Something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on what. I sent about ten queries, all rejections. So, I stopped.

A couple years later, I hired a professional editor to work on the first book, and aside from learning a lot about fiction writing in general, I also realized what was bothering me about the series. It had to do with the antagonist, and it wasn't something that could be edited. The series would have to be rewritten, but I had no idea how to fix it. Still deep in teaching and about to start a family, I determined it wasn't going to happen. It wasn't in the cards. If I got an idea, maybe I could go back to it, but that seemed like a big IF.

When my son was born with two genetic disorders, I entered the crazy world of special needs parenting, where time was consumed with hospital stays, surgeries, seizures, heart defects, therapies, and so many other appointments. I turned to writing, to blogging, to sort out my thoughts and feelings to try to survive it. It had been so long since I'd written anything, and it was cathartic. In fact, I started wondering if maybe I should be writing novels about this experience. The problem was I didn't want to write about MY experience. I wanted fiction, but any new characters I thought up would inevitably represent us. The only way around it was to steal characters who weren't being used, the characters I abandoned in my series.

It was good to write with my characters again, but ultimately, I couldn't write realism. I was bored. Writing was work, and it had never felt like that before. Just as I was about to throw in the towel again, though, I got an idea for how to salvage, not save, my original series. It would be a total rewrite. I would save my characters, my magic system, and a few of my favorite plot points but combine all of that with a science fiction premise. I took a couple days to just make extensive notes about the overall and more specific plots, see if it would work. And it did. With all the details ironed out, I began writing, primarily during my kids' naptime.

The story gushed out of me. I couldn't write it fast enough. I started at the end of November 2020, and I finished the four-book series in late September 2021. Although I still had a lot of revising and editing ahead of me--and a lot to learn about querying--I knew that this time I had the story I'd been looking for my whole life, and it was time to chase the dream.

So, that's what I'm doing. I'm taking the risk. I'm putting myself out there and finally going after something I've wanted since I was nine-years-old. Yeah, querying is hard, but being a special needs parent has taught me how to do hard things, how to put in the work, and how to cling to hope even in the dark times.

If you made it through that whole post, congratulations! I know that was kind of long, but I wanted to provide some of my background and experiences that have made me the writer I am. (And I promise not all my posts will be this long!)