Clearing one hurdle.

One of several first steps on a burgeoning, but old, writer's path.

I just hit ‘save’, and then ‘Print” on a project I have been working on for over a year. It feels like that’s too much time. But, in my defense, it is my first stab at a novel. And, I haven’t seen any other Sasquatch novels come out lately. So there’s that.

This first for me started out to be a non-fiction “Thank you” for a trip north to The Lake. I had been invited to go as Greg’s guest. Somewhere along the line, the Thank You needed to have a cover, and a title, and so many pages. I self-published that first piece, and it wasn’t good. It wasn’t drek, from a story standpoint, but in that first writing, I broke every known rule, and some unknown ones as well, I am sure.

And then there was the whole shift from non-fiction to non-fiction with a little fiction for seasoning which became a total shift to writing fiction, and it grew into this piece, this project, this novel. Then, with the help of Flight School with Jennifer Lauck , I began to get serious about the craft of writing. I feel like I am somewhere between kindergarten and 2nd grade on my writing evolutionary path. The problem is I am 72 years old in 2 weeks, and I don’t have time to invest the 10-20 years, or more, that it takes people to get “good”. My goal isn’t to win a Pulitzer or write a novel that will change the world, BUT …

I have gone through cycles of saying, “this is garbage” to “I like it” to “It isn’t good enough” to “Why am I wasting my time” to where I am now. It’s at a place where I am going to print the whole freaking thing and … I like it. I like my story, and I like my voice.

Ask me tomorrow, there will probably be a different answer.

But for now, I like it. Thanks Jennifer Lauck and april (April Streeter). You guys rock.

What I don’t know yet is what comes next. But for now, I will luxuriate turning my pages in my hands making notes on my story. #givingmyselfapatontheback.