From The TypeWriter

A few months ago I read one of my stories allowed…in front of an audience. I agreed to do this several months before the actual event. Long before I had considered what this would mean. It meant standing up before total strangers and a handful of friends and reading a story that I had poured my heart into. Not to mention the hours of editing and revisions I put my story through to get it ready to be read aloud.

At first I couldn’t even decide what story I wanted to read. For a few months I was sure I wanted to read one story about an old legend and an extinct Indian tribe. But the closer I got to the event the louder the voice inside my head said, “No, that isn’t the right story. Don’t read that one.”  No matter what my friends said to encourage me that voice wouldn’t be silent.

Eventually I decided on another story that needed quite a bit of editing but felt more like something I would be comfortable reading to an audience. It was a story about a young girl living on her own for the first time and being terrified. I was convinced that if I got scared during the reading everyone would simply attribute it to the character of the story. So with the help of one of my friends I edited the story until we both felt it was ready and sure enough there were only a few weeks until the reading. That’s when the panic set in.

Suddenly every time I thought about reading my story I got sick to my stomach, my palms became sweaty. All I could think about was that I had made a mistake and no one would want to hear my silly story. What if no one liked it? What if I couldn’t bring myself to read it? Or I became so nervous that I stuttered and couldn’t be understood?

However despite the fact that every fiber in my being told me to flee I didn’t. I practiced reading the story in my room. This reassured me that I wasn’t missing any flaws within the story. So on the night of the reading I showed up and read my story aloud to an audience for the first time. It was horrible and fantastic. I was so incredibly nervous but when it was my turn I stood up and I read.

I read perfectly every line. I fell into the rhythm of the story and almost forgot where I was. Not once did I look up at the audience. I kept my eyes focused on the paper afraid that if I looked away for a moment I would lose my place. The moment I was done I returned to my seat and felt exhaustion and relief pour over me.

Afterwards a couple of people came up to me and told me what a great job I had done. This made me feel great. I was relieved. I hadn’t made a fool of myself and no one had told me I should give up writing. In fact knowing I was going to read my story to people encouraged me to work on it. I would suggest that every writer read his or her story aloud at some event even if they only do it once.It is a great experience and will definitely help you in so many ways as a writer. Just know now it may be the scariest thing you do.

When you’re thirteen writing stories on your family’s computer it’s fun. You have this unchallenged belief that what you’re writing is gold and you take it for granted that a publisher will magically see it and want to publish it making you the next J. K. Rowling! That sounds like the dream for most writers, to be found and swooshed out of obscurity and into instant fame. But what fun would that be? What do you do once you’ve become this famous author?

Of course other than Christopher Paolini, I don’t know many published authors who skipped straight to publishing novels. I imagine the journey that is undertaken when a writer seeks to make a name for herself and to one day become a published author is terrifying and exhilarating all at once.

So this is how my journey is progressing. It starts with a blog and building a following, but it can’t be about just anything. It must be clear and concise and organized with a bit of creative genius. You need to have focus so that when readers find your page they know they’re going to find what they want to read.

Hopefully you were smart in college and prepared yourself by working internships that would not only teach you what you need to know but would pad your resume to impress employers. One such internship might be at a small publishing house, doing whatever work they want you to and paying your dues. Then you can set goals for yourself like working as an editor’s assistant at a bigger publishing house based in New York, at the heart of the publishing world.

Can you picture it? Sitting at a desk in a New York office, maybe you don’t even get a cubicle and maybe your boss will work you to death and you’ll feel like Ryan Reynolds in the Proposal and Anne Hathaway in the Devil Wears Prada, but its worth it, because eventually you’ll make a name for yourself and become an editor or a published writer and all that work will have been fun. It will have made the success feel like winning a Olympic Gold!

So this is my adventure and this blog is just the beginning!