What Happened…
When the pandemic happened, I thought to myself, “okay, now with all of this time to myself, I will finally get to sit down and write another book.”
It sounded great…I mean, why wouldn’t I? What else was I going to be doing? There was nowhere to go, no one to go see, no stores to shop in, because we were stuck at home. So of course writing was the first thing that came to mind.
But that didn’t translate to paper (or computer) at all.
My oldest daughter’s senior year was interrupted, as so many others experienced. She didn’t get her senior prom, her final choral popshow, and while her graduation happened, but it was delayed and no one was allowed to attend except her immediate family. And then she went off to college where she, along with all the other freshman that year, experienced the weirdest college year ever.
I was experiencing my oldest flying the nest and I thought, “Okay. She’s off at school…NOW I can write!”
But wait!! I now had a freshman in college AND a junior in high school. There were quarantines, covid scares, masked musical performances, masked college performances, and all the other crazy things that happened that year. Those sort of, we’ll call them “distractions,” don’t make for inspiring writing sessions. (At least not for me).
***What you read above were all the excuses that I used to justify WHY I wasn’t writing. The longer away, the harder it was to get back into the practice of writing. VERY hard.***
Then I was approached by Colleen Hoover’s the Bookworm Box to include a short story in their One More Step Anthology. It was an amazing opportunity and I would be a fool not to TRY to get out of my writing slump. And the prompt was simple: the story had to start with the sentence, “One More Step would mean certain death.” From there, each contributing author was allowed to take their story in any direction imaginable.
I’m not going to lie…it proved to be a difficult ask for me. It seemed simple enough, but it was an exercise of patience, creativity, and more patience to come up with something. But once I started, it felt so good to flex that writing muscle again. I wasn’t sure anyone would read my little short story, so imagine my surprise when readers reached out to ask “where’s the rest of the story?”
In fact, I was signing at Book Bonanza in 2022, when I was approached by so many asking when I would have it completed. I had some of the story plotted out, but hadn’t sat down to actually work on it. (The story of my professional life!) The manuscript was staring at me each time I opened my computer while I scanned whatever gossip site, Facebook, and news agency – you know…anything to avoid actually working!
Truly, I thought it would never be finished, until my daughter became my boss. (I’m only partly joking!!) She sat me down, took notes, and then made a schedule – which included texts, bribes, and whatever else it took to motivate me to write.
And now, if you have read this far…thank you!! When I completed The Stand In, I immediately started working on the next story. I don’t know what comes after that, but my prayer is that it’s more writing. And maybe even some reading.
XO
~T
