Getting Started
So, I’m sure most of you know by now that I want to be a writer. I’ve never really been much of a writer, outside of my personal journals, but the desire to write fiction novels showed up several years ago. It probably started when I really got into reading for fun again. (High school and college tend to burn some people out with reading. I was one of those people. It’s not as fun when it’s forced.)
The desire came, but I never thought it was a possibility because I had zero experience. I never wrote for school, other than research papers (YUCK!). I never wrote for a school paper. I never wrote little stories for fun at home. Nothing.
Besides, what would I write about anyway? I mean, how do writers get their ideas and write a whole book? That’s a lot of words!
Regardless, the desire continued to get stronger and stronger. I started having little snippets of ideas come through my mind every so often. I would write them down, but still had no clue how or where to start.
Well, almost two years ago, I got up the nerve to actually do something about it.
I started with going to the website of one of my favorite authors, Karen Kingsbury. A long time ago, I had read some FAQs on Nicholas Sparks’ website and a lot of them were about how to begin writing fiction. So, I thought I would look for something similar on Karen’s website. What I found instead was a link to information about an online course she did at Liberty University. The course was made up of 8 classes, all done online and at your own pace. All I had to do was decide if I really wanted to invest in myself for something I had never done before. Something I may not even be any good at. I quickly followed through with signing up before I had a chance to talk myself out of it.
You know what I realized soon after? The downside of online courses is that you have to be your own motivator. And since I’m not the biggest believer in myself, I took almost a year to get through those videos and lessons.
When I finished the last class and assignment, I was happy that I didn’t waste the money spent on that class, but I also felt incredibly intimidated. Looking back, I can see that I was believing lies about me never being able to do something like write a book.
“It’s too much work.” “I don’t have enough experience.” “I didn’t go to school for this.” “Who would want to read anything I write any way?” “This is ridiculous, Amanda. Just stick to your day job.”
Those were all thoughts I had after finishing the class.
Thankfully, my inner circle of friends is pretty amazing. Each of them saw more potential in me than I ever saw in myself. And they told me so.
So, after a lot of fighting it, I decided to follow a suggestion that Karen gave in her class and started a blog. This blog. Though I didn’t start it for the same reasons that she gave. She talked about how it’s easier to get a book published if you have a following and the best way to get a following is by starting a blog.
As much as I know that’s true, I felt like I needed to just get comfortable with writing and letting other people read it. So that ended up being my main purpose in starting this blog. To get comfortable writing. To get comfortable letting people read it. And I think it’s working.
I used to nervously hover my mouse over the “Save & Publish” button for each blog. I used to dread the moment I knew I needed to write about something personal. I used to hesitate calling myself a writer. I used to correct people when they called me a writer.
But now I’m starting to see that this blog is helping me in a lot of ways. I’m feeling more comfortable, more confident. I still hesitate, but not as much—well, not where the blog is concerned any way. The hesitation has moved to another post. And my next blog will be about that post.
But for now… thank you for reading what I write. Every time you read one of my blogs, I am encouraged. And with each blog, I feel like a little bit more of the story I am writing is released into my spirit.
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I’m curious… am I the only one with a dream that doesn’t seem to make sense with the rest of their life? I’d love to hear what kinds of desires God has placed on your heart. You can comment below or contact me here.