– an excerpt from Allison Hodgson
So you get started, but you realize right away you need to do research first. Of course! Family stories can only take you so far; you have to soak in the atmosphere, get all the historical details just right.
And while you’re at it, maybe you should explore the publishing business. You know your novel/memoir—your epic—is sure to be a hit, so there’s no time like the present to calculate how soon you can quit your job and whether you’re going to be able to buy ocean-side property or just lakefront.
Oh dear. Oh dear.
Maybe you know all about the publishing game. You learned long ago a platform isn’t just a tiny stage, and if you’re going to get published, you better build one. You have to start a blog. Ugh! Even the name is ugly, but you know you have to do it. So you set up your website and now you’re just trying to write a stinking post so you can get to the real meat of your transcendent-sweeping-gonna-be-a-blockbuster…whatever-sort-of book TBD…whenever you finally get around to writing it.
Or maybe, if you’re being perfectly honest, you’re feeling a little stuck too. Well, you’ve come to the right place.
When I first got serious about writing I didn’t even have an idea. Okay, I actually had tons of them, but no clear beginning. What I did have was three little kids I was educating at home and a wonderful husband who had the bad habit of leaving the country for weeks at a time for work. I had every excuse in the world not to write, but not writing had become an ache, an almost physical pain. I knew I had to find a way to make writing a part of my daily life and if I didn’t, I would always regret it. But I had no clue where to start.
Commitment is a powerful thing. You don’t have to know how you’re going to do something to decide to do it. Have you made a commitment to write? If you haven’t already, do it right now. We’ll figure out the details later.
