A Novel Pathway to a Novel Publication... (Hopefully) part 1

A novel pathway to a novel publication (hopefully) part 1.

As per the sage advice of the King of Hearts, I am beginning at the beginning and will go on until the end, and then I will stop. (A special nod to Lewis Carroll.)

For us, the beginning of the writing process on our book "Liberty's Rescue" came in the form of a passing joke between us and our co-author about the garden gnomes that sat quietly outside her window. We would joke about the wild lives they led once everyone was asleep and they could move about freely without anyone being the wiser. Eventually, the joke evolved into a goofy challenge between friends to see who could create the craziest scenarios for our dear diminutive friends.

This unintentional exercise in creativity and accountability continued for some time, until the day we thought to ourselves that we needed to quit just messing around with these ideas and should actually try to DO SOMETHING with them. I gotta be honest when I say that decision was MUCH harder to commit to than we expected it to be. Once we conferred amongst ourselves (Something only someone with DID will truly understand...) and gathered up our meager supply of gumption and courage, we spoke with our co-author about our plan.

This conversation was well received and we proceeded to go over all of our previous quips and ideas regarding the gnomish nocturnal nonsense. At first, it was incredibly disjointed and lacked any real focus which was sooooo frustrating, but with time it developed into something that we could work with.

With our newborn idea cradled safely in our mental bassinet, we began SERIOUSLY exploring scenarios that our protaganists might run into. There was no lack of ideas in this regard, but for some reason it didn't quite feel right yet. We felt like it was lacking something... but what? As it turned out, it was lacking US. We were trying to develop a world independent of our lived experiences which made it feel fake and ill conceived.

We discovered how important it is to incorporate one's internal perspective (or in our case, perspectives) when creating. We came to appreciate the internal dialog amongst ourselves as ideas were allowed to grow and to be challenged. Creativity changed from a word that we felt only belonged to other more talented folks, to something we could begrudgingly apply to ourselves.

Sigh... I guess what I am trying to get at in this first entry is that we discovered it was okay to mute the cruel and discouraging voices from the past. It was okay to allow ourselves to have enough self confidence to actually TRY. Fortunately, our co-author (someone whom we trusted enough to share our condition with several years ago) knew of our trauma and the amount of effort it was taking to believe in ourselves.

So, I suppose that would have to be step one. Take a chance in believing in yourself. Allow your creativity to run amok. Let your gaurd down (even if only momentarily) and enjoy the experience. Once you do that, you can begin establishing the foundation of your creative masterpiece with structure, outlines, schedules, and expectations. But in the beginning... let chaos rule, let it carry you where it may and enjoy the ride.

Please let me know how you feel about this series as I move forward. Your thoughts, comments, and advice are welcome, as always. Our next post will focus on what we did to establish the supporting mechanisms to help us continue to move forward while also respecting our individual needs internally.

Have an amazing day!