I wrote my first play in fifth grade. My superstrength was writing plot holes. I journaled and diaried and wrote many a college essay. Then my “writing” turned to MLS descriptions and marketing content. I know, I know. Enter YAWN emoji here!
After losing my mother in 2010, I began writing short stories and poetry as a way of processing my profound loss. Writing helped get the gremlins out of my head and onto the page. I deeply believe in the pen’s power to repair & regenerate.
In 2016 I finally gave way to a premise for a novel that had been hounding me for five years. I joined writing/critique groups. I was defensive and guarded about my precious words. Thanks to all the goddesses of all the universes for my patient, persistent writing partners. Without them, I would never have completed one novel, let alone three. If nobody else knew I was writing, I would’ve thrown in the towel.
Since 2016, I’ve been in four critique groups with multiple writing partners. Some haven’t worked out, others have gone off to do other things. But I’ve accrued a tiny network of write-or-die partners for life. They are some of the best writers I’ve ever read. They are my heroes.
In 2019, I queried and networked my first novel, signed with a kind, supportive agent, and went on submission in August of 2020. Along with about eleventy-million other writers. We died on sub. My beleaguered agent was then diagnosed with cancer, forcing him to stop agenting.
But he left me with a gift: he’d pushed me to outline my second novel for NaNoWriMo of 2020. My outline was not what you would call well-thought-out, but it got me to a completed draft. Which I then revised, and rewrote, and revised again. I queried it, got several partial and full requests, but no offers of representation. Sigh.
As I started my third novel in 2022, I had one foot in the plotting zone and one foot still pantsing (and my third foot on a banana peel). I still wrote in circles. Saggy middles. No clear arc.
In 2023, I finally hired a brilliant Book Coach. And, oh my! Life-altering! My motivation mushroomed. My momentum skyrocketed. My outline became my bible. Because of my Book Coach, I completed a solid first draft in five months. This story was long-listed in the 2024 Page Turner Awards.
From 2023-2025, I mentored writers through the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. Through this endeavor, I met wildly talented writers with exceptional writing skills. Here, I found my passion for helping writers take their stories from great to exceptional.
In 2025, I took the plunge into Book Coach certification with Jennie Nash’s Author Accelerator, the most respected, well-known book coaching program in the country. The curriculum was intensive, reaching broadly and deeply into editorial skills, mind-set, project management, structure, support, clarity, and planning a writerly life.
It’s no exaggeration to say becoming a Book Coach has been transformative for me as a human and as a writer. One of my writers scored a dream agent within months of us working together, and this was the greatest accomplishment I could have hoped for. My little contribution to her success gives me all the feels.
Though everyone’s writing paths are different, here we are, stories still simmering inside us, dying to burst onto the page. I know how hard it is, how frustrating and full of highs and lows it is, but I’ll never stop writing. I can’t. It’s life-affirming. And despite the challenges, the rewards are incalculable.