My First (real) Book

 It all started one evening.

I was doing homework while face timing my best friend. Sprawled out over my bed. 

Then it hit me.

An image of a single man. Holding a sword. Standing in the center of a battlefield. 

And that was the start of a four years writing what is now The Chronicles of Elyndia. 

Now, four years is a long time to spend writing a book. At the very beginning, I was working on a different writing project. See, I've been a story teller all my life. Ask anyone who knows me😂 So this New Shiny Idea was kind of on the back burner. I plotted. I wrote random little scenes, just getting to know this new character. 

Who turned out to be Torrin Slater. The dethroned King of Elyndia. 

(I was also finishing up my last year of high-school. Fun days, am I right?)

I finally finished the current writing project and moved on to my New Shiny Idea and started seriously writing it. This was maybe a few months after that evening that started it all. And the story kept growing.

And kept growing. 

And just. Kept. Growing.

By the beginning of last year, I had finished the entire series. But it was all in one massive manuscript that was extremely messy. And full of plot holes. And never really ended, ya know?😂 New characters kept showing up. New problems kept coming. Torrin and another main character really didn't want to work with me.

But finally, it was finished. I broke it up into smaller, Book Sized chunks, and started working with my amazing editor, Alex Clark. And in August of 2021, I published my first book!

So to anyone out there who is wondering if maybe they should give up on their dream project. To anyone getting discouraged because they're not as successful as others in their line of work. To anyone who's wondering if they're just not good enough to do this job. 

You. Are. Good. Enough.

Don't give up. It may take months, or even years. It may take twice as long as you figured and wanted it to take. But keep persevering! Keep going! Because when you get there. When you finish. You'll look back and see how much you grew, how much you learned, and you'll be so proud of yourself!

So keep going! I believe in you!