Hurray for Writing Buddies!!! (Seriously, I Would NEVER Survive Without You Guys)

So.

Welcome back to my blog!!! I’m sure many of you will have seen my previous post which was…. not the funnest, to say the least. I was honestly feeling very very down about writing and I was in this huge slump where I felt like writing was about rules, not about creativity, and I really, really felt like I didn’t know if I could keep doing this. I guess I sort of lost confidence in myself.

Well, hurray for writing buddies!!!! I was pretty much ready to just give up, quit, surrender, call it a day (whatever you wanna call it) when someone (hi, Valinora!! 👋) talked me out of it. 🙂 Basically there was a very long chat about imposter syndrome and all that. And then we just started brainstorming random ideas to get book four moving again, and it worked!!!

And I guess… somewhere along the brainstorming session… it got fun again. We were just throwing out some random ideas, brainstorming a bunch of different ways where the story could go…. and just something about it felt free. Like there were no judges watching my every move. Like I was just having fun. Like there was no right or wrong.

Which is exactly why I love writing.

And earlier yesterday, I also wrote to one of the authors I really admire. You might’ve heard of her – Anne Mazer. If you haven’t heard of her (GASP), she wrote this AMAZING craft book on writing with Ellen Potter called Spilling Ink, and the whole book was just so fun and creative!!! It helped me feel that spark again. And… well, yesterday and the past few weeks, to be honest, I just felt like that spark was gone.

So I write to one of the authors who wrote Spilling Ink, Anne Mazer, because when she and Ellen wrote that book, the way they talked about writing just made it sound so much fun! Free! Chaotic!!! And she wrote back this morning, and she had some great advice for me.

I won’t post her WHOLE letter here, but I will post a portion of it. The one that really, really, really helped me the most. She asked me this – ‘Are the people in your group mainly interested in getting published? Or are they encouraging and supporting each other as writers?  Look for people who support your love of writing above all.’

And that’s when I sort of realized it.

Story Craft Cafe… Well, I realized that a lot of the focus is on PUBLISHING. Query letters, agents, plot structures, etc.

The very things I hate the most (okay, I don’t hate agents!! But I do hate when everything is just about publishing and rules, rules, rules).

As Shannon Messenger once said, ‘Writing is the fun part of being a writer. Publishing is the not so fun part’ or something like that.

And… well, she’s right.

I love writing to write. To have fun!!! And then there’s publishing. And that’s when people start telling you about all the rules and all that.

As I said in my previous post, someone (I won’t say who or where) said that the main character of a middle-grade novel cannot be above the age of 12.

But Elena Ramirez is 16. Ariella is 15. Arabella… I think she’s 15?? Melina’s 14. The only twelve-year-old in Enchantria is Rani.

And that writer said that if their age didn’t matter to the story, I should just change it.

It might not seem like a big deal. But that’s kind of the advice that kills the joy in writing, as someone made me realize.

Sure I could change the ages. But then… Well, those were just the way the characters appeared to me!! And if you can’t have a teen as the MC in middle-grade, then what about Ella of Frell, from Gail Carson Levine’s novel, Ella Enchanted? I think she’s around fifteen years old. Not sure, but she’s DEFINITELY older than twelve. What about Jason Grace from Rick Riordan’s, Heroes of Olympus? What about Reyna? Piper? Hazel? What about Sophie Foster, from Keeper of the Lost Cities? By the end of Stellarlune, she’s probably around sixteen! And Yvonne, from The Lucky Diamond by Valinora Troy! She’s 15!

And yet people still love those books.

Valinora told me that YA isn’t about the ages and all that. It’s about the themes. How you write the story. The amount of gore…. And to be honest, I am NOT a fan of gore… The whole reason nightsilver was invented is so that people could die/be injured without a lot of stabbing. I’ll tell you this… Weeeeelllll, in the first draft of Enchantria: Guardian’s Heir (then titled, Enchantria: Warrior’s Daughter), the cut on Ariella’s forehead was a bleeding gash.

0_0

Um.

Heheeeeeeeeee I didn’t want to write that. Hence the nightsilver. If you get cut with it, you’re as good as dead. Unless you can find some maniacal woman named Auntie to heal you.

Neither are preferable, to be honest……

But yeah. Somewhere along the way, writing felt fun again!! Especially while Valinora and I were brainstorming story ideas for book four (by the way, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really needed that…). And then later that night, I continued brainstorming while listening to music. And then brainstormed some more when I SHOULD’VE been sleeping (hey, it was just an idea!!! A VERY good idea….)

And that was the kind of brainstorming that I LOVED. The kind of brainstorming where I just tried to let the ideas flow and not let myself second guess. It’s hard. It still is. And the rules have pretty much made me totally second guessing and not trusting my writing anymore.

Even now, I still do doubt myself.

But I’m going to try. I’m going to try and silence that stupid little gremlin voice. Because all the brainstorming and talks with both Valinora and Anne have made me realize that writing ISN’T about rules. That’s publishing. And Story Craft Cafe really just focuses a lot on publishing.

So, yeah. THANK YOU to Valinora Troy and Anne Mazer!!! HUGE THANKS!!! And to Arisole (I know you’d get mad if I quit writing… ;D), StarsUponTheThrone, and Christie V. Powell. I’m still going to try and not put any pressure on myself.

So…….. this is hard… but I guess I’m not going to pressure myself into finishing any of my projects. I’m not promising you guys a whopping nine book series or anything. And I’m not promising you that Enchantria will be completed within the next year or so. I can’t write with that kind of pressure.

And……. I’m leaving that writing community. Thank you, you’ve been lovely (in the beginning), I’ve made friends there, but it’s kind of time for me to move on.

Thank you guys so much! 🙂 Where would I be without you?

Isabelle