In a rash moment of insanity, I quit my job to pursue my lifelong dream of completing a novel. Now I’ve been spending most of my time freaking out, drinking coffee or wine (depending on the time of day), and lacking any sort of writerly structure. For now, I’ll be using this blog to keep daily tabs on myself and to dialogue through what I’m thinking and feeling. I’m really doubting it will be interesting to anyone else – just doing it to keep myself on track for right now.
Did all of the above until the 1 year mark, then had a mini meltdown, freaked out about life and writing and everything in general, and got a job. But I got the first draft accomplished during Paragraph 1. Now it’s time for the second.
It's totally original! 
Just focus. 200 words or 10,000 words a day is still more than 0, which means you’re winning. 🙂 Just push yourself since right now you’re your own boss.
Thanks so much for the encouragement! You’re so right, I am my own boss. I need to get my only employee to be more productive before she’s fired! :p
Hi, Juniper. I wanted to come over here to thank you for visiting and following my blog! And reading about your brave decision and struggles, do not despair! Just try to write something every day … I’m 60, been writing since I came remember, and have wasted too much time not writing at all. Now, since finally having a novel published I realize that doing it is the beginning a writer can have again and again, that sets the foundation, not only for what we write but how. Every writer has their own pace. Dmichleski’s comment is great! Keep going and best of luck! Diane
Congrats on being published! And thank you for the encouragement. Wishing you continued success with your writing!
That is so gutsy and awesome to quit your job and pursue writing full time! You’re officially my hero now. Looking forward to learning more about how this goes for you.
Oh boy, you better find a new hero fast. Because the whole experience has been terrifying for me and I am THIS close to start applying for jobs again (every week or so I panic and start filling out applications, saying things like ‘what was I THINKING?!’ and ‘can my sister count as a professional reference if we had a lemonade stand together?’). So uh, I haven’t been very brave, gutsy, OR productive with this whole endeavor yet. Here’s hoping things change, though!
Well you’d probably be kind of insane if you didn’t feel a little terrified about it all sometimes. Your survival instincts are probably on hyperdrive. But just the fact that you were brave enough to try it at all is pretty stinking impressive. And I bet it’s an awesome learning experience. About yourself, your process, writing. Even if you do end up going back to work eventually, you’ve done a cool thing that is only going to make you a better writer in the end. I stand by my first statement: hero. 🙂
So are you a motivational speaker in your free time? Because you have some serious confidence-boosting powers! Thanks for the kind words. You’re right, it has been a crazy learning experience – but a good one!
I stumbled upon this while searching for that Stephen King quote. A great blog design you have here. And a fellow writer – hi!
Hi, happy you found me! The design is a free one from WordPress – the “Zoren” theme, if you’re interested. Hopped over to your blog and read a few posts – like what you have to say, so far! Your YA post was especially interesting to me, as that’s the genre my work in progress falls under and the genre I enjoy reading the most.
Good luck with your writing this week! Thanks for stopping by and saying hi. 🙂
It’s interesting to me! I did something similar in June, cutting back work to three days a week so I have more time to be a “writer,” which usually involves fiddling around on the internet, making tea, taking long walks and staring at the ceiling. It’s funny how you can squeeze thousands of words out of precious few spare moments, but once you give yourself entire spans of free time devoted to writing, you start to find other uses for them. . . it’s a common phenomenon, or so I’m reassured.
Thanks for liking my blog. Seems I’ve found a fellow YA procrastinator. 😀
It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who finds that more time seems to just give me more time to…well, not write. 😛
And your blog is fantastic! Yesterday I read your post about trusting your readers and it struck me, hard. I now have the phrase ‘Stop spoon-feeding the reader!!’ written in big letters in more than one place in my notes to remind me. Keep up the awesome work! 🙂
Thank you! I’m glad I was able to help. (And I like that phrasing by the way. . . “Stop spoon-feeding the reader.” I might just steal that and write it on my wall of inspirational/instructional stickies.)
Well, I came across the phrase from somewhere else (although I couldn’t tell you where), so steal away. 🙂
That’s such a scary but exciting journey, wishing you all the luck!
Thank you!
You’re welcome 🙂