My Writing Journey: My Advice to Young Aspiring Authors

As a child, I took scenes and passages and descriptions from various books and move them into a story. I usually ended up with it unfinished, but at the time it pleased me very much. Then I began to write little stories—2 or 3 pages, probably less than 500 words. When I was about 10, I started my first written-all-out-of-my-own-head book. I never got past chapter three, but it wasn't a bad plot. 

Then when I was twelve, I met a girl. She was a teenager, and writing books and stories. Inspired by her, I decided to start writing. My first book was from a writing prompt. At the moment I was deep into Scottish history, and very much in love with Sir William Wallace. (Not much has changed). So I wrote out about twenty different story titles and sat down to write the stories, the first one being the story of the girls in the tower.

Around the same time, I read this story (Morning in the Trenches) and decided I could write better than the young lady who wrote it, so I began a WWI story set in France. The story morphed into a book, and then I laid plans for a six-book series, each chronicling a year of the war. My Scottish book reached about 12k or so—I never finished it—and my French WWI book was about that or less. 

Thus began my writing journey. I wrote many short stories and began several short story collections. My average length was 10,000 words (usually attained with some difficulty) for a long story and 300-500 for a short story. I was a solitary writer. I told family and friends about my writing and sometimes they read it and praised it, which made me so happy. 

I was introduced to NaNoWriMo when I was around thirteen. At this moment my model was that girl and I was striving to be like her (writing books, writing every day, etc). Of course my life was very different from hers, and I was discontented and frustrated. While she wrote 50,000 words for NaNo, finished books, and even published books, I could hardly write 10,000 words, I had no good books, and I struggled to write every day. I neglected other things and grew angry and upset when my writing time was restricted, threatened, or taken away. I was often depressed and angry. But I kept writing and enjoyed my new stories. I participated in Victoria's monthly writing challenges and was always so happy when she commented about my stories. At one time I had an email thread where I sent monthly updates of my writing to various family and friends, and sometimes they answered. 

In 2016, as a fifteen-year-old, I began to do NaNoWriMo. My first story, a pretend biography, was 15,151 words long. I kept writing. My best friend was a staunch supporter, and so were some family members; and I kept writing stories for Victoria's challenges. My word counts still stayed around 10,000 maximum, though I usually had shorter stories that that. 

Earlier that year I had begun to follow Amanda Tero. The first post from her blog that I ever read was this one. It struck me hard, because it was exactly what I needed, though I didn’t like it. Some time after I read this one and was again hit hard—it was so my story and so what I didn't want to do. I did not want to give up my writing. But finally, after struggling for years, I began to let go of my writing. I’m not sure when exactly, but it was some time after this. I wrote for the pleasure of writing, most of the time; didn’t strive to be the same as my model; and was much happier. And I finally surrendered my writing time. I still kept learning all I could about writing, and followed many writers' blogs. But writing became a hobby instead of my obsession.

In 2017 I began to write longer stories, and began a trilogy. Story #1 was 8 or 9,000 words long; story #3 was about the same; and I wrote story #2 for NaNoWriMo. I did Camp NaNo in July (I don’t know how much I wrote; somehow I have no records), and during NaNoWriMo I wrote 14,172 words. I was ecstatic—I had almost reached novella (15k) length! I was also very happy to have written a story that had been in my head for a long time. This was the first time I began to write stories that I had written in my head. 

In 2018 the pattern continued. My word count varied between 500-10,000 words. I didn’t write very much. In July I wrote a 12k story in a 100-for-100 (writing 100 words every day for 100 days). I missed only 3 days, even if we were traveling across the U.S. & Canada on vacation, and ended up with 12,436 words. And it was a story with characters from a story in my head. I also had some of my stories published on a blog and I was so happy--especially when people commented that they liked my stories. 

During NaNo 2018, I wrote 18,504 words in 12 days and was almost speechless with happiness. Not only had I passed 15k, I had also written a good story and I’d written an average of 1,542 words a day. That story ended up at 19,110 words and I went on to write 21,190 words’ worth of Flash Fiction. So I finished up with 40,300 words’ worth of writing in 30 days. My dream was still to write a 50,000 word book, but I could only hope in the distant future that this would happen. And I dreamed of writing 50,000 words for NaNo—all on the same project—but this also seemed a distant achievement.

In April 2019 I participated in Camp NaNo again and this time I joined a cabin. I wrote 40,682 words in 30 days, and it was all on the same story—which was not yet finished!!! My goal was suddenly much nearer. I had a story good enough to publish—so I thought. And I had fangirls and a writing club. I was blissfully happy. I kept writing until I was at 45,000+. I couldn't figure out how to end it, so I sent it to alpha-readers—and when I got their response, I realized my book wasn't good enough to be published yet and was full of flaws. I was intensely discouraged and I stopped writing in it. In May or June a sweet friend read my book and left me a ton of compliments and fangirly comments. I found that there was good in my story and I was happy—but I still didn't write.

Then, in Camp NaNo July, I started a random short story, was very uninspired, plowed through, and then randomly decided to finish Chords. I dreamed of reaching 45,000 and this story fulfilled that dream, topping out at 46,526 words. 

I edited this story and sent it to beta-readers. I also edited a Christmas short story and gave it to friends to read, and a well-known published author (!!!) loved it and asked me to publish it so she could add it in her Christmas book recommendations. (A post on a well-known blog about my little story. Can you imagine?!) I was even able to have a proofreader read it and I made it available to the world. 

I was blessed beyond measure. My old dreams were becoming real. I had a (sort of) published book, I had a fan club, I had almost reached my dream of a 50,000 word book. And that’s when God decided to bless me even more. 

I started writing a new story. Like Chords, it went from a short story to a novel. It passed 19,000 words and it still wasn’t anywhere near done. I decide to finish it for NaNo and then work on some other WIPs I had. 

NaNo began. Broken passed 30,000 words—40,000 words—45,000 words—and my dream came true. As of 2:14 p.m. on November 14^th, Broken sits at 50,245 words. 

NaNo is not yet over. I have passed the halfway mark—I’m currently at 26,140 words. I’m writing more than the necessary 1,667 words a day, averaging at 1,800 words a day. I’m on track to reach that dazzling 50,000 words goal and I might even pass it. Broken is still not done and might end up at—who knows?—that gorgeous 60,000 words. I don’t know ye.

But I do know that I have been blessed. And I know that it was worth surrendering my dreams and aspirations to God. And I know that with time, perseverance, and hard work, dreams can come true. 

I’m writing this post for you, the young teen who wants to become an author. I’m telling you, learn all you can about your craft. Write as much as you can. Pray about your writing and surrender it to God. Don’t compare yourself to other writers. Write what the Lord would have you write. Accept when He gives you seasons of little or no writing. Keep working. Don’t give up. Don’t neglect your responsibilities or miss out on life.

God is good, and if it is the right thing for you, He will make your wildest dream true. Trust His timing and rest in His promises. 

Because the Lord is good, and worthy of trust.