By Marie Hampton
I have always enjoyed writing. Even back in 6th grade my friend and I would listen to music and write stories about how we would meet our favorite bands and go on some crazy adventure. Recently I attempted writing a series with a friend. The ideas we had we not unique, and we had a hard time generating interest. We would write together, but our marketing ideas were completely different. Eventually our relationship fell apart.
Determined to become published I paid to go to conventions, worked hard to finish my own novel, and paid a professional editor to go over my work. I received some interest in my book at one of the conventions I attended, so I passed the manuscript off to an editor. All that was left to do was wait.
I was seven months pregnant and November would come soon. A friend of mine linked the Nanowrimo (National Novel Writers Month) site on a Facebook page. 50,000 words in a month with a goal to write every day, a challenge to push forward without editing, and I already failed once. I attempted it in 2011 and only made it to the 6th.
Luckily, a crazy dream gave me inspiration for Kas’ story. I started. Somehow I kept writing, the words kept flowing, and whenever I struggled some will person on the Facebook page participated in a word sprint (a set amount of minutes to write as many words as possible). Helpful links were always being provided, and one linked to a contest where the winner would receive a publishing contract. I found my motivation.
Days came and went so fast, but by the end of the month I had 50,000 words and a nearly finished novel. Through December I edited and reworked my novel, and early on January 1, 2013 I submitted it to Vanilla Heart Publishing. I won! I won a publishing contract on an idea that came in a dream while taking a break from another work.
The lesson? Writing is like life. Crazy, unexpected things happen all of them time. Some will be good, and some will be bad. Keep your head up and keep writing.
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publisher page: http://www.vanillaheartbooksandauthors.com/Marie_Hampton.html
©2013 Marie Hampton
Pen In Hand 