I stumbled upon this quote from a Writer’s Digest article and it literally changed my view of writing:
“Keep on keeping on. No one else can tell the story you will.” –Kelly McWilliams, author of Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
This is the thing! This is what I need to do and WILL do in 2024 and beyond. I am always telling people. ‘Just do you.” but was I truly doing me? Trying to follow every new writer success; thinking I needed to learn every aspect of the craft. That was cray cray!
After 12 years of working to learn more about this business and how to write a good book in general, I must say that 2023 was the year it all fell into place and made perfect sense. I finally understand ‘show don’t tell’. I get ‘plot’ and ‘scene’ and ‘sequel’. I know where to hit the beats even if I don’t do it perfectly because I can feel it. I can actually feel where it is supposed to come and how to execute. It’s a great feeling but it took years in the trenches. Not the query trenches, the learning trenches. I have attended so many conferences. Read so many craft books and had my work critiqued by some of the best agents in the business. Through it all I finally put it all together: No one can tell my stories. No one looks at a thing the way I do. No one has the same idea in the same way. So yes, 2024 and beyond, Faith is going to excel. Whether I am trad or indie, I’m gonna just do me! So there!!
By the way, if you want to read the other encouraging author quotes from the Writer’s Digest site, they are here: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/one-piece-of-writing-advice-from-18-young-adult-fiction-authors-in-2023
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