My Writing Journey
Writing has always come naturally to me. I have done it since I was a little kid. I remember writing the Christmas story in my own words, writing little fictional stories, and even once a poem about the Titanic (I was obsessed).
In school I much rather write an essay than do a math equation. I remember going to a church youth conference once and we had to go around the room say what we wanted to be when we grew up and I said a baker or a writer. (I tried the professional baking lifestyle; it wasn’t for me).
As I entered middle school, I feel like I stopped writing. I don’t know why. I guess life just got in the way. I don’t remember writing again until I was in my last year of my master’s program. I was completing an online program and working full time, which seems like the worst time to start writing again. But it was during COVID. My job had been very reliant on having clients come into our offices, which wasn’t a possibility anymore. This meant I had about 15 minutes of actual work to do even though I had to be there for 8 hours.
Even with working on my schoolwork I still had more time on my hands than I knew what to do with. I was bored sitting at my desk all day, trying to look busy. I opened a blank word document not knowing what I was going to do with it. Then an idea popped into my head and the words started flowing out. Soon I had finished my story of about fifty pages. I wrote this story and then stopped writing again for a couple years.
Then I started going through a health concern. My liver enzymes were high, and my doctor wanted me to get an ultrasound to check on my liver. Unfortunately, I am a chronic Googler of symptoms and the list of what they could find was frightening. I had so much anxiety during this time I couldn’t really focus on anything, and I needed to find a way to channel the anxiety so that I could have my life back. All of a sudden, I thought, “I’ll write a story about it.”
I figured I would start the story and once the wave of anxiety had passed, I would abandon it. That was the plan anyway. But everyday more scenes for the story came to me and I had to keep writing. I was skeptical to call my little anxiety driven story a novel but in time I did. My health ended up being fine (or at least my liver) but yet the story played on.
Halfway into writing this book, which I titled “Second Chances” I had the amazing opportunity to attend Karen Kingsbury’s writing conference. Anyone who knows me knows that Karen Kingsbury is my all time favorite author, so having the opportunity to learn from her and spend three days with her was just simply a dream come true. While at the conference I also made friends with my table mates and we still over two years later talk almost every day. We share our writing with each other and more than that we have all become great friends.
I eventually finished writing “Second Chances” and I tried to get it published but the right opportunity never presented itself. This was a hard time. It was so disheartening to get so many rejections. I know now that it still needs a lot of revisions but in the meantime, I have moved on to writing my second book. I have been working on it on and off for almost two years. I am hoping to have the first draft done sometime this year (hopefully before the two-year mark).
It has been a long journey, finding and losing my passion over and over again. But God has brought it to me over and over for a reason. I truly believe that God wants me to write for a reason. Even if my books never get published, God had me write them for a reason. This year is my writing isn’t about getting published or getting followers, it is about rekindling my passion instead of being bogged down by it being perfect and marketable.
Now would I love to be published and have people read my books, of course. But if I only focus on that I will never write what I want to write. I will write what I feel others want me to write. I want to respect my own ideas and make sure I still have fun doing it.
I do want to thank you all for joining me on this journey and for all the love and support you provide me.
Much love,
Victoria