Just sit down and write already…

Hi! I’m going to share my unfolding journey in writing and getting published. It began by simply trying to write.

Writing a fantasy novel was the one consistent dream I always listed during leadership and life goal seminars. But I never picked up my half-finished manuscript from my college days. I never started a new one. I barely wrote anything other than my grocery store list. I scheduled that dream for “someday” because, well, life happened. Many good things kept me from writing, but honestly it was distracting stuff too. At some point I had to stop and say, “Today is my someday.”

One day I literally said out loud, “Just sit down and write already, Beth Green.” Then I walked into the study to put words on a blank page. All I had in my head was the first sentence: Mae Swiftlin felt the forest pressing on her as she crossed the tree line of Niashan Wood for the first time. Then I wrote for months to figure out who Mae was and where her journey led.

I am mostly an improviser so I write a lot then go back and do extensive cuts and rewrites. I know others are seriously fierce with an outline and methodically write a chapter at time to get to the end. I just want to take a minute to encourage any writer that isn’t currently writing to do whatever works for you – just sit down and write already. Today.

Why today? Because you never know what life will throw at you next. (And as my husband would say, “Why not?”)

That motto has helped me through some slumps too. Just sit down and write already, Beth. Don’t overthink, just write. The rest of the journey will unfold as long as I keep writing.