When you feel like giving up...

Sometimes it's felt like this.

No, I'm not about to get all sappy on you. I did that already this month. {Was it really June? Feels like it was longer than that. Can you believe how the time flies! :P That post is embarrassing... sorry.}

Today I'm talking about my book {again. imagine that, with my current status on it and all. lol. don't you wish I'd open up Stories in the Mind again. ~_*}

I began this book when I was 13 {barely. literally had my birthday days before the idea popped into my head. but I won't cheat and say any differently}. It was practically a plagiarized, feminized Beric the Briton {G.A. Henty ~ STILL love that book and would recommend it to anyone}.

The idea popped into my head that though there were TONS of adventure books out there written for guys, there were very few targeted at girls.

Well, I have since had my eyes opened. My literature selection at 13 was pretty narrow. We had no access to the library and I had no friends. At all. You know, the ones you beg borrow books off of. And my parents were pretty strict about what kind of books found there way into the house {we bought anything that came in...so if we didn't want to own it...I didn't get to read it...}.

Still, erroneous or not, the idea was birthed and my serious journey began. {I'll be honest. this wasn't my first attempt at writing. I'd been writing for years...just not on this level.}

I remember lying on my belly on the living room floor, stacks of notebook paper sorted and piled around me, scribbling ideas for this book and that book, titles, ideas, and all...

As I said, this wasn't my first project. I was 150 pages into a novel about a girl on the Oregon trail... Not exactly sure where this idea began or what my intent with it was... I might not ever figure that one out. {It's pretty humorous to read, though!}

But this was different. This time, I began a journey that has taken six years to complete.

Yes. Six. :P

I think I wrote about 80 pages in the first two days. For a 13-year-old, that was pretty impressive. Three weeks in, I got the brilliant idea to combine another book idea I had with it to have two main characters.

Three years later I had a novel pushing 700,000 words and 700 pages. And finished{ish...}.

I printed it. {It weighted about three pounds and had to fit into two large ring binder folders.}

And gave it to my Mum and Dad to read.

Six months later they finished it...

All in all...I decided to start rewriting.

Again. And again. And again.

There were times when I pushed it away and didn't look at it for months.

Once I had an {apparently} brilliant idea that I half started {but didn't write down} and then I didn't touch the book for two months. To this day I have no idea where I was going with it, but had to entirely change what I wrote to fit my new plotlines....

Sometimes I got so sick of it I just wanted to quit. Not the book

Writing.

For good.

But I couldn't.

The more I would try to ignore it, the more my desire to write would spring up in me.

And so I would.

Did...

And today we are here.

Book #1 Completed and Copyrighted.

Sent to two beta readers. Two more on the platform. One down.


I look around at it all and I sometimes wonder. What if I had given up? What if I had stopped, decided it was too much work, not worth it after all, and who cares?

What if I had never decided to write?

The idea scares me.

And I am so thankful to God for giving me that tiny-winy idea and growing it into a massive life purpose.

Who knows what I would be now if not a writer?!

So, don't give up. On whatever your idea is. It could be singing, photography, dancing, acting, being a mum, WRITING, teaching, or driving a mail car over the countryside. Pursue it. Keep your ambition high. Don't forget.

Every big idea started with a little one.

:D