Writing, Like Life, is a Process

It’s New Years Day. The first day of 2014. I’ll keep this brief.

I retired from the teacher education program at Cincinnati Christian University at the end of 2013. The time seemed right to begin a new career in writing.

One year ago I launched this blog, A Novel Creation.

My goals were simple:

I wanted to be a writer.

I wanted to help other people who want to write. That’s the “teacher” in me.

When I started today’s post, I thought I would share the statistics for the year: How many people have visited, which post was the most popular, which was the least appealing, and so forth. That’s the “researcher” in me.

I looked everything up, analyzed the data, and chucked it all. The data was good, but interesting only to me. And not all that helpful to anyone else. So I took another avenue. I sat down and read through every post I’ve written.

I liked some of them. Some of them actually made me laugh. But this is what I find most interesting: I wrote them. I wrote something every week and I held myself accountable to my writing goals through this blog. For me, it is evidence I can do this. I am a writer.

I’ve tried to be transparent in the process of writing, including my readers in the drafting, revising, editing, and problem solving of writing.

I’ve shared what I’ve learned at conferences, through editors, and from fellow writers.

The results? Of the eighty+ visitors to my blog each week, I’ve been able to encourage three to submit their own writing for publication. Two readers are working on a book of their own and one of my regular followers is at this time mapping out her own blog.

It’s a process. Writing, blogging,…life.

So as we begin this new year, I’m starting work on my third book.

It’s the story of Karen who finds herself in the middle –middle age, middle child, and now in the middle of dealing with her aging mother. Dementia? Couldn’t be. But Mimi, as she’s known to her family, is not herself lately. She makes Karen promise to never let anyone put her in a nursing home. Can Karen keep that promise as Mimi becomes more and more disoriented? 

I hope you’ll continue to join me on this writing journey.