My Journey As An Author Part 1 – Taking Out The Trash

image by ~Brenda-Starr~

Those of you wanting action, listen up! I am going to take you on a wonderful adventure – and that is the publication of a book that was just once a silly idea in my head. That silly idea has now turned into over 300 pages of text being edited and polished one last time while I seek out publication. The journey is all about how I got up and took action (and how I sat around for far too long).

How did I start?

In the year 2000 (nerdy I know, but it really was in the year 2000) I had the idea I would write a book. Yep, that was it. I would write a book. Hmm, but what about? I know, it will be about this kid, and he’s going to another world. Then he’s going to find a big castle! And he’s going to lead the castle’s men against 5,000 angry goblins and save the day!

Um OK, so what happened next?

I wrote about 10 pages and stopped cold turkey. “10 pages, is that it?” Yep, that’s it, nothing more. A few months later, I added on 15 more pages. This was really a monumental feat by the way. In the course of a few months I had written 2,500 % more of my novel than I had ever before in my life! This was truly ground breaking for me.

Good job, then what happened?

Let’s just pretend in our minds how long eight years is. It really is a long time. But over the course of eight years the novel sat and gathered dust. Lots of it. And the 25 pages I had written? They STUNK. Like a truck full of manure. No, that would be a whole lot of stink. For just 25 pages, it was a sack of garbage. Like this one.

image by Nemo’s great uncle

So You had some garbage, what did you do with it?

Let’s just say, I had one of those moments, and I began to clean up the garbage. And the more I cleaned up, the more garbage I created. Things got a little messy. But that is a tale for next time. This story will be continued…