Creating is scary.

WRITING PROMPT # 30: Creating  

I wrote a novel. It's a goal I've had since I first read a novel in first grade. It was one of the most exciting days of my life to go to the print shop and have all those pages that I created, printed out and bound so I could edit the tar out of it.

Fast forward over a year later and that novel has been safely tucked in my nightstand, untouched. Whenever people ask about it I kind of waffle through the weakest, vaguest answer possible. Because right now, those pages are only known to me. But once I put it out there for editing and beyond, it will no longer be good. It will be critiqued and judged and changed. And that is crazy intimidating. It's my baby! 

Lately, I've been feeling like it's time to push past these emotional stumbling blocks so I joined a writing group. Just a small group at a public library with other aspiring novelists. I loved sitting among these other writers for the first time and listen to them share pieces of their work. Pieces of their heart. At the end of the meeting they asked about my projects. And then came the question I've avoided for a year. "What's your book about?" 

This was the moment. I took a deep breath and shared, for the first time ever, an actual synopsis of my story. And they didn't laugh. They didn't scoff. They cheered and encouraged and replaced all my doubts with hope. In one moment we went from strangers to confidants and cheerleaders for each other.

I wish everyone could have a moment like that. The world would be a better place. 

Needless to say, that manuscript is out of the drawer, dusted off, and now follows me everywhere, just in case there's a spare moment for editing. 

 

(This is the picture I texted my husband when I finished the last page, April of 2021. 

Can I just take a moment and say, Dang! My hair has grown a lot since then!)