I’m… writing a novel? Okay, I should probably be more assertive about that: I’m writing a novel. Is this out of left field? I suppose it might seem like it. In some ways it feels a little out of left field to me, not because writing a book has never occurred to me, but rather the timing. If you’re following me on social media (which you likely are, otherwise I’m not sure how you ended up here) you know that my main creative outlet, at least for the past 7 years, has been DIY home renovation. This is what I do for work, what I create content around, and I truly love it. I love transforming spaces, especially on a budget or in ways that repurpose existing materials, and making bold, offbeat space designs is my jam.
This past February I hit burnout hard. Undertaking the expansion of the DIY Awards to include an in-person, fully-produced live-streamed event… well, it was too much for one person to manage. I knew I should’ve assembled a team to help me but for some extremely frustrating reason I have a near impossible time doing that. Even bringing on Virtual Assistants has felt difficult. Partly because I don’t know what they could do (besides somehow help the fact that I’m always stressed out. But how. I don’t know.), partly I’m afraid I’m wasting money on paying someone to do nothing because I have no work to assign them. But that’s all neither here nor there. I pushed myself to the edge putting on that event and when all the dust settled at the beginning of February, all I wanted to do was be a human lump and never leave the couch ever again.
After the initial crash, I picked myself up and got back to work, at about a 30% capacity, taking on a few brand campaigns to cover my business costs, but as summer approached and I realized that school would be out and I’d be momming full time, it felt like I should push pause on DIY content creation for real. I figured it would also give me a chance to take a breath, reassess my goals and plans, and take a beat to let myself be creative in ways that didn’t necessarily have to serve my business.
Being a creative “solopreneur” if you will (I don’t love that term but it’s somewhat accurate), it can feel like every creative thing you do has to somehow serve your main business or it’s not worth pursuing. Random creative ideas get shoved to the back burner to wait until you have free time to pursue them (spoiler alert: you never have free time). So I decided: I’d take the summer off from professional content creation, let myself enjoy time with my kiddo, and allow myself to ride the current of whatever creative whim befell me.
I also have been rekindling the pleasures and interests from my childhood, one of which was reading Anne McCaffrey’s dragonriders series. As a kid I had so loved the world she created, and the way it was a blend of sci-fi and fantasy genres. I’d read the Chronicles of Narnia series and enjoyed that, but something about the infusion of sci-fi felt more exciting and expansive. In early 2021 my friends all started reading Sarah J. Maas’ ACOTAR series and I jumped right in with them, eventually devouring her Throne of Glass and Crescent City books as well, reigniting my love of fiction. Prior to that my Audible library was just full of self-help and entreprenurial books, not a shred of anything that could be construed as a purely pleasurable read.
It felt so delicious to read something purely pleasurable. The magic, the world, the romance. Listening on Audible was a game changer. I could be listening to books while I was doing laundry or working on DIY projects, or doing dishes, or driving in the car. One of the barriers to me being able to read was that sitting down with a physical book for hours is a time luxury I just don’t have most of the time.
So anyway, what does this all have to do with writing a book? All of that introspection about what I used to love as a kid, all that reading for pleasure, and especially revisiting Anne McCaffrey’s books re-sparked the desire to write a novel. I remember being in second grade and hearing about a girl who was in fifth or sixth grade who wrote and published a book. I was so envious— I wanted to do that. Of course I never did. I wrote short stories and poems over the years, and then after college all my writing energy went into blogging and i never got back to creative writing (besides that angsty poem note in my notes app filled with poems jotted well after midnight).
Then, a couple months ago after I’d started rereading Anne McCaffrey’s oeuvre, a novel concept beamed into my mind from the ether. And I said… “well, okay. Let’s do this”
I think over the years I’d felt like there are people who write novels and get published and then there’s people who can’t. And for some reason I fell into the latter camp. But this past April my mom self published her memoir. And then found an old blogging friend who published a novel. And I realized that the only thing that kept me from being an author was not writing. It was literally that simple. I didn’t have to write a book that made it to the New York Times list. I didn’t have to write a book that got picked up by a publishing company. I could just write it and then it would exist.
So that’s where we’re at now. The writing of the thing. And I figured maybe if I bring you along for the ride, it’ll help peer pressure me into finishing and function as a sort of co-working body doubling to combat the ADHD that will most certainly kick in about 6 weeks to 6 months into this endeavor. So, you know, no pressure. Me finishing this relies on you being here. Just kidding. But in all seriousness, having you here does act as a sort of accountability. But also, it’s just fun to share this process with others, especially as a newb first-time author.
Will I get published by a traditional publishing house? I don’t know. Will I get an agent? I don’t know. Will I self publish? I don’t know. This is a journey with no known destination with the exception that I write the whole story down and release it into the world in some way.
So, welcome to the adventure! You’re like my Samwise, accompanying me (Frodo), as I carry this book (the Ring of Power) to completion (Mt. Doom).
