What a Year! Back Again (I Think...!)

23 October 2018 

Greetings All!

This has been a year I'd care not to repeat, starting a year ago in September of 2017.  

I had been working on my book, thinking that FINALLY it just might be drawing to a close at LONG last!  I had started three chapters of it, the assignment for the last lesson in the writing course that I took with Institute of Children's Literature. I began the course about 2009 and completed the course of study, "Writing for Children and Teenagers," in December of 2011.  

It was a struggle to continue writing the book after the course was finished.  My first three chapters, although the ideas were good, contained too much, too soon. I didn't know how to spread the thoughts out.  So I tried and stopped. And tried and stopped!

Later (months, perhaps?) I would go back to the computer and try again and again, without a lot of success. Then the gaps between trying got longer.  

Finally in 2014, I had new enthusiasm for the book. I thought I'd work on it for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. Well, it was a great idea while it lasted! Picture a newbie writer trying to get 60,000 words in one month! That was the NaNoWriMo goal. That meant writing only 2000 words a day, BUT...! That might not be a lot for a seasoned writer.  And it might not be a lot for me when writing some things, BUT...!  Yes, but!  But this novel was my first of the type. Short or relatively short stories were my past writing experiences.  I soon changed my goal from the NaNoWriMo target of 60,000 words to my own goal of 40,000 words because I was getting farther and farther behind each day.  I finally gave up.

I think it was the winter of 2015-16 that I decided I was either going to finish that book or else never go back to it again. So I fired up the computer, spent a short while looking at what I had previously written, and in tears I closed the computer. Same thing happened the next day.  The third day, I told God that I was going to try once more and I needed His help.  Because that was the deciding day. And guess what?  I actually was able to add a few hundred words that day and felt good about my accomplishment!  Thank you, God, because I know without Your help, I would have given up the whole thing!!!

So that winter I made some good progress, after re-reading what I had written the years before and doing a bit of reconstruction! I wasn't totally consistent in writing every day (nor always every week), and I have made a lot of progress pretty much until August of 2018 where I began to slow down again because I didn't know where to the take the story next.  I felt like it was coming to a close, but just how to do that, I didn't know! So most of the summer was somewhat slow in accomplishing much.  I felt like only one or two chapters more should bring the book to the end, if only I could get it there.

And then September 15th, 2017 arrived.  

I was talking with Laura on the internet that evening on Messenger. She'd not been feeling well and I asked her how she was.  She wrote back that she was better.  The next morning, Saturday, the 16th, I got the phone call that would change my life on this earth forever!!! She had asked Jesus to be her Savior when she was a young child.  I know I'll see her in Heaven one day, but losing her after almost thirty-five years (lacking just three weeks to the day) certainly has left a huge hole in this mother's heart and in my life here. 

I haven't written/worked on the book ever since that time.  And although I cannot blame my lack of blog writing on that day, this is the first time I've wanted to write in the blog since before that day.

I attended a ladies conference at a nearby church a week ago. The speaker was/is a published author and writes a blog. She did inspire me, among other things, to start writing again. And so this is my first attempt!  I'm praying this is my new beginning of many more blog posts and of the completion of my first draft of my book.

Blessings Always,
Ramona