Feeling The Thrills Of Getting To Read Your Own Stories! Writing Is Something You Should Consider Trying.

There is this amazing and utterly thrilling feeling when you accomplish something in your life that you have always wanted to do...especially if you have told yourself it is something you don't think you can ever do…

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There is this amazing and utterly thrilling feeling when you accomplish something in your life that you have always wanted to do...especially if you have told yourself it is something you don't think you can ever do…then add the excitement of reliving the experience when you get to enjoy all the elements and aspects of your completed goal.

As a young woman, I loved to write poetry, and, of course, a song or two when I was a teenager as I picked up my first guitar. I remember such a personal sense of satisfaction in being able to write something, and a delightful thrill when I completed my little projects and read them back.

When I sang those songs, or read my poems, I felt good about myself in a time in my life where my world was faced with many situations due to family challenges and the periods of angst of growing up in the world I lived in. My writing became a bit like a therapy for me, and those quiet moments of creativity gave me such a huge sense of accomplishment and confidence in that time of my life.

Fast forward to those years when I was working full-time, running a household, bringing up children, and partnering in a marriage, where some busy-busy ugly stresses were hitting me from all sides. I am sure many of you completely understand what I am describing (and many of you have the same if not more challenges in your busy worlds). Most of us, it seems, go through those years of everyday family and work challenges in one form or another.

In the late 80's (or early 90's) I remember feeling determined to steal moments of my day to read a good romance novel here and there, and welcomed getting lost in the pages of my reading where, new possibilities, new awakenings, exciting feelings and ultimately love would prevail. I stepped out of my everyday responsibilities and challenges for the wonderful brief moments I carved out to get lost in a good romance book.

Secretly, I started forming the idea that I wanted to write my own romance novel, but it seemed like such a pipe dream, an unattainable reality in my mind at the time, but, it seemed, I could not shake off the idea that maybe I should try. There was that little voice that said, "give it a try...what have you got to lose?"

In those days, I hardly had time to sit at a computer with my busy lifestyle of family, home and work, so I bought a smaller-sized loose leaf binder, and several packages of paper to fit in it, and pulled out a pen to attempt to write. I could essentially carry the binder around the house, or in my purse, or in the car during my work commute (when I wasn't driving, of course) and drag it to our summer cabin on those special vacation days at the lake. After all, I then remembered I had tried to write a story a long time ago about a teenager on vacation at a lake when I was about 12 or 13 years old. Over the course of one year, that story was rather interesting to read back to myself because I was so rapidly changing and growing up over the course of that one year...I never did finish it, but I still have it somewhere! The point being…I tried writing a story before, and I enjoyed it immensely! Sorry, but I digress.

So I opened that fresh new binder and stared at the empty blank pages, pen in hand, and wondered about whom and about what I should write. I started to jot down ideas on the first few page, like who my main character was, where she was, where the story might take place. In those days I enjoyed several magazines, and somewhere in the pages of one I had lying around I saw a headshot of a woman with red hair and a beautiful smile pictured with her large, blond coloured dog. It was an ad of some sort, but I saw her and knew...knew that she would be what my character in my book would look like, and the dog, too, I'd add a dog to my story. I didn't have a dog at the time, but I grew up with one as a child, so my character would have a dog then.

I had a cabin at a lake, and so I decided that my character would live at a lake. I was married, but my marriage was not entirely blissful, most likely because we were all so busy and life was fragmented as we ran in so many directions. In my heart, I wished every day I could spend more time at the childhood cabin I had been gratefully able to go to since my early years, even if there was no power, no running water, and, quite frankly, mainly because I had little time with work, family and home. Those brief lake vacations were the best ever, and therefore, in my story, I placed my main character permanently living at a lake, and for ease, she was divorced, and had all the time in the world to spend her life in the sunshine, amongst the trees and forest, swimming every morning (like I loved to do) and hiking with her dog. She also liked to woodburn walking sticks, which was something I have done and loved doing.

You see how that works? When you pen your own story you can create the characters to be any way you like. You can base it on yourself, or a friend, or pieces of yourself or someone you know. You can place your story anywhere you'd like, it's that easy! You still have to realistically know enough about your location, (I had a cabin, those bits were covered), but when I added in a movie star character for my main male love interest, I did have to learn a lot about movies, with film making and other such relating aspects of that industry at that time. It was fun to do all the research and connect with industry aspects in order for my story to be believable and work properly for you, my readers.

Please understand, I started writing this book on the late 80's to early 90's and cell phones were just becoming part of that current reality. Many of the sticky communication situations between my characters would not happen today with texting and easy access with modern technology and cell phones. Even though I finished the book after several months way back then, and did not actually publish the book until 2020, about 30 years later, I could not have rewritten the storyline by modernizing and updating the timeline to modern day without much of my story falling apart. Hence, when I published I kept the story as it was meant to be, in the early 90's just as I had then written it.

I wrote in that binder by hand and then bought several more binders as the story grew, (to a total of 4, I think). I remember I wrote while cooking dinner. I wrote while riding on transit, I wrote while waiting for the kids, I wrote late at night when everyone was fast asleep. I wrote with a fever every day in the stolen moments of my very busy life. (Oh, and I still have the original binders.) I didn't even have a preplanned full storyline, the story just grew and evolved along the way. (As it turns out, I write many projects like that.)

When it was done, I entered the draft novel into my computer. I edited and rewrote it (several times) as I went along and I actually completely finished the novel way back then. I was elated! I loved my story! I felt such a sense of accomplishment and confidence in myself. I was thrilled with my characters and my storylines. There it was...Act One, Willow Beach was born.

I wrestled with the title, as the working copy was titled, Angel In The Willows. To this day I am still not sure if I should have changed the title. I secretly thought I might write a sequel that was "Act Two "something-or-rather", and I did actually start writing a sequel at some point but it has not moved forward to date.

Why am I explaining this? Well, even it you sit down and try to write a novel, (and it is amazing how many people tell me they secretly want to write a novel), the hours you spend writing are still well spent...even if you never complete the story or publish it. The personal quiet time you spend with yourself, transported away weaving a story about whatever you want, about a character imagined how ever you want, and in whatever genre you chose to write in, is a beautiful thing. It is a creative, mind-exercising, open world of possibilities for you to explore, all by yourself. No one may ever see it, or read it, or critique it, if you so choose. but realize that you still did it...you accomplished it! You gave birth to it all by yourself, and how incredibly exciting and amazing is that...even if it never sees the light of day!

Act One Willow Beach I re-edited and then published (by downloadable e-book on Amazon) (see the link on my Bookshelf Page), when COVID hit. I was forced to stay home, and was alone at the time, and was dealing with what all of us were dealing with, stress, loneliness and uncertainty. In that time, I kept myself afloat and accomplished my life goal, (to write, complete and publish) a romance novel, and my life has been so much better for the experience.

This summer, as I am not fully writing as much, (as you can see by my website posts even), I have re-read my two romance novels, Tropical Transformation, (also available and downloadable on Amazon) and this one, Act One Willow Beach. Again, in a time of personal challenges I have brightened my world by curling up and reading my own novels...again...and I love every moment. I can snicker at my own lines, identify with my own characters and my own life through snippets I wrote into the novels. It is a miraculous and wonderful way to amuse myself, and I feel so happy in those quiet moments and experience such a thrill when I read my own books! Give it a try! What have you got to lose? Certainly it is time we'll spend away from the challenges of our day, and in a way that we are in complete control...even if no one else ever reads our work...but maybe...just maybe...they will! Go for it!

Cheers! Lise

*image above courtesy of natali hordiiuk on unsplash

My thrilling summer reads, available on Amazon now, check out links on my Bookshelf page. Cheers!