From Start to Finish

Sometimes when I walk past the bookshelves at the library where I work, I wonder how the authors did it.  Sometimes I look at my own books on the shelves and wonder how I did it. During my hiatus from writing, I had, at most, a wistful longing to be a writer again.  I had no desire to try again.  No clue as to even how.  While I told myself that my creativity couldn't really be gone, and that someday I'd write again, I didn't really believe it.  I walked away from writing 3 and a half years ago.  It was the right decision at the time, and I've never regretted it.

Then I discovered electronic publishing, and began reissuing my backlist.  Epubbing gave books that had been out of print for years new life.  More than that, they gave me an interest in my old career.  As I reviewed books prior to publication, I found myself becoming interested again.  I stopped wondering how I'd thought of certain things, and began knowing that I'd be able to think of others, if I tried.

There was a practical consideration, too.  While I have a good backlist, it's not inexhaustible.  The day will come when everything I've written has been published, and then what?  Then I'll have to produce something new.  Well, I thought, why not start now?  It's true that I have little free time, but I'd written before in such circumstances.  Get something started now, take my time with it, and by next year it'll be ready to publish.

I chose an old idea to start with, a novella titled "Miss Nobody."  It's a story I've always wanted to write.  More, it's an absolutely necessary prequel to a trilogy I really want to write.    In the print world, I might be able to sell the trilogy, but no publisher would buy a novella.  that's one of the advantages of epubbing.  It gives niche books a place, and a market.

So, with some trepidation, I took up pen and paper (a black stick pen and a white, narrow-lined pad), and began sketching out notes.  What happened surprised me.  It's back.  The skill and creativity and just plain fun of writing, that I'd thought lost forever, is back.  I'm ready to begin the process of creating a book again.

Come along with me as I take this journey.  We'll plot the story and watch the characters come to life and do research - together.  And along the way, we'll discover how I did it.