The Life of a Writer - Creating A World of My Own

I always wonder what God was thinking when He created the earth and the people living here. He spun some beautiful chaos out of nothingness and here we are today. It's pretty amazing isn't it?

As a writer, I do something similar.

Growing up, I drew a lot but as I reached middle school, words became my obsession. I never cared much for English until my eighth grade teacher, Mrs. Nowlin, told me I was a natural writer. That simple compliment threw me into a whole other world. High school brought along it's own set of gifts and challenges I drew inspiration from, and Mrs. Walls, one of my English teachers, helped me learn to harness my erratic thoughts and put them onto a page.

The first "story" I ever wrote was loosely based on the people I knew; my boyfriend at the time, his family, my friends and family, random people at school. I never finished it, but I did get pretty far along and still have the original, hand-written copies of it in my closet. I was so proud of the sloppy story telling and elementary wording, but it was a stepping stone for me.

It wasn't until fall of 2014 - two years after high school - that I started working on my first book. The idea didn't come to me in the form of a detailed re-telling or even tidbits of what the story would be about. The image of a boy and girl were all I had to go with. Try as I might, I couldn't ignore them. Every day I'd think about them, and I'd get lost in thought trying to figure out who they were and what they wanted. (If you've never met a writer before, you're really missing out. We're a pretty fun and somewhat crazy breed.)

In October, I messaged my husband that I figured out what their names were and what degree they were pursuing. It was one of the most exciting days of my life to be honest. November 9th of 2015, I finished writing Beauty from Ashes, and cried like a baby.

Creating a story, developing characters and people with real-life fears and problems is one of the toughest parts about being a writer. There's something raw and almost forbidden about picking away at the minds of someone to reveal their true intentions and secrets, but doing so is addicting. Creating a world is more than just the people though. It's the settings, the places scenes happen and how the environment manipulates the characters and story.

If I'm being completely honest, I can't explain how to create a world of its own in one post. There are so many components that it would take until the day after forever, so I'll be making this a mini-series of posts to lead you down the rabbit hole that is writing and peel back the layers one by one. Every Wednesday, you can read another post that breaks down each component of writing from outlining to cutting scenes to make the story flow. As always, any suggestions are welcomed and will be considered as the foundation of a new post.

God bless, lovelies!