How To Upon Request
Since publishing my first book, Empowerment Through Advocacy, there have been many people ask me how to write a book. If you do some research or even read up on your favorite author you will notice that there is no "One" way. With that being said, I'm going to share my story of how I began writing and some of my personal processes. This blog is dedicated to anyone who has ever dreamed of writing that story that is in their head.
“Just do it. Sit down and write on! Don't worry about punctuation or spelling, just write the words.”
As a kid there is always someone that asks, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I am no different. At about the age of eight years old my dad asked me that question. My response was swift, "I want to be a screenwriter." Shaking his head from side to side in disapproval he said, "No, you have to do something normal like a doctor, a fireman or something like that." I have never forgotten those words and that was the moment that I gave up that dream.
Never the less, my passion and desire for the written word only grew as I did. Growing up I was the strange kid that would rather have a book in her hand reading instead of watching TV. Very much a tomboy I would go outside and play football with the boys, but I never told any of my friends how much I loved books; it wasn't "normal", as my dad would say. So I would keep my reading habits to myself, and definitely never told anyone of the stories I would write and then throw in the trash.
When I got out of the military there was a traumatic event that brought me to my knees. Barely able to breath from one day to the next, it wasn't until more than a year later that I realized I had not read a book, journaled or even written a paragraph, much less one of my personal short stories. Putting pen to paper wasn't something I was able to do again, yet! But I pushed myself back into my daily reading habits over the next several months.
Once I was again enjoying reading I sat down to write. Nothing! Nothing came to me because all I could think of was the traumatic event. Attempting to write, time and time again, I couldn't make it happen. To say it was writer's block would be minimizing the torment this was creating in my mind.
Under the advisement of a therapist, reluctantly, I began writing about the traumatic event. Some days I would sit and write a paragraph, literally get sick, and close the laptop for the day. Some days I would sit down, start typing, and write page after page through swollen flooded eyes. Yes, this was supposed to be therapeutic for me, as well as, helping me to open my mind to start writing again. This my friends is how Empowerment Through Advocacy came to be. Writing that book achieved both of those things.
Once finished writing it my heart could not wrap myself around making money off other peoples sorrows but I knew I had to publish this book in hopes of helping others. I contacted an editor and completed that process and the book was ready. One of the things you will find in the writing/publishing process is that you will forever be doing research on something. After researching and communicating with publishing companies I realized that the expense I would have to put out would be more than I could afford and would drastically increase the cost of the book. That is when I decided to self-publish on KDP.
Once I had went through all that I knew I wanted to write fiction, like I had for more than two decades (Even though all I did was through the stories in the trash.) and so my fiction writing was born again. A novel is just like this blog but for a longer amount of time. Just do it! Sit down and write on! Don't worry about punctuation and spelling! The editing process will clean up your function and spelling and all of the technicalities of writing. Just sit and left the words that come from your heart and mind flow through fingers and out. Have fun, laugh, cry, and rejoice with your characters. Whether or not you ever publish that book, everyone has a book anthem to write. Even if it does end up lost in the cloud and forgotten.
Good luck and happy writing my friends!
Sarann
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