Published

Since I was 11, I've been writing fiction. And almost for the same amount of time, I've dreamed of being a published author.

My stories have grown the more practice and expertise that I've gotten. They started as direct transcriptions of dreams that I've had; therefore, they didn't make much sense and events were only loosely connected.

Eventually, I started paying attention to the books that I read and considering how I could make my stories make sense. They were short; ten pages at most. I wrote a series that involved characters who were based on my siblings and me, and another about a girl who solved mysteries with her dad.

My stories started getting longer and better; I had a series about a magical queen and her family, and a series about a young man who traveled through time with a powerful sorceress to save different tribes and countries.

Initially, my stories were only shared with my siblings. A friend or two would also get to read them, but I was too nervous to let many others read them despite my dream of having millions of people read my work.

I branched off from this when I let some of the girls in my small group read Hunter, a sci-fi novel about a space soldier who learned that she was really a powerful magic wielder. My friends begged me for a sequel, which I've started several times but never quite finished. I think that was the moment when I started really believing that I could be published one day.

Just before I started college, I finished my longest and most well-written novel to date, Leila. I was extremely proud of this novel, and I knew that I wanted others to read it.

College put a pause on my writing since homework, papers, and plays took up most of my life and brainpower. It wasn't until I'd finished my graduate degree that I was even able to think about writing.

I'd seen some people self-publishing and decided to go that route after almost falling prey to vanity publishers (companies that will publish your book if you pay them up-front). I re-read Leila, made some edits, and went through the process of formatting, reading proof copies, putting final copies for sale, and marketing.

I worked on marketing like I hadn't thought I was able to do, hosting giveaways and writing posts on my business Facebook page. But with all of that work, I still found that I wasn't making many sales. I wasn't expecting a landfall on my first time through, but I was disappointed with how few copies sold. It wasn't until a couple of close friends read it and pointed out plot holes and typos that I found myself being extremely embarrassed.

I pulled the book from sale and decided to re-write it, but not right away.

The next novel that I wrote was called Divide and Conquer. I deviated from having a female protagonist, from writing fantasy, and from writing high and lofty characters. This story was a political thriller, filled with twists and turns and governmental intrigue. To this day I have no idea where this idea came from, so far removed from my normal fare of dragons and magic.

But I pulled from things that I've seen in my community and myself; complicated father/son relationships, imposter syndrome, and strong, outspoken women. I was extremely proud of this story, and eagerly decided to have people read and give me feedback on it. I ended up paying two readers, who gave me generally positive feedback. I was excited to start the next steps and busied myself with looking up agents and writing query letters. But nothing happened. After a while, I decided to leave it alone and focus on other projects.

It was around this time that I joined TikTok and began making videos talking about writing and the process and different inspirations that I had. After I'd built up a bit of a following, I asked for new readers for Divide and Conquer. I was surprised to get completely different feedback from these readers; no one finished it, and the feedback I did receive largely pointed towards the chapters being too long and too much information being stuffed into them. Since I'd already started writing another novel, I haven't fully returned to Divide and Conquer, though I have plans to make it into, at the very least, a duology.

All of this brings me to my current novel focus, Awakening. I've returned to my fantasy roots, writing about a sorceress who must go on a journey of self-discovery and learn to push past her introversion and negative things said to her when she was young to fulfill her leadership role.

This character is the one most like myself, which is why I think that she feels so real. Her relationship with her fiance mirrors the one that I have with my boyfriend, which also has helped with the realism.

I decided early on that I wanted to self-publish Awakening. But this time, armed with the knowledge of both experience and the wide writing community on TikTok, I decided that I wanted to do it slowly and purposefully.

First, I completed several drafts before I deemed it ready to be seen by others. Then, I asked my community on TikTok if anyone was interested in reading for me, and I had several volunteers.

This time when I received feedback, it was pointed, clear, and...positive? I was pleasantly surprised to find that they loved it, and I even received an offer to be on a podcast once I reached the marketing phase of self-publishing.

I've found myself more motivated than ever, working hard to address their feedback and fixing anything else that I notice. I'm currently on the fourth draft, reading through for coherence as I start the process of finding and pricing editors.

At the top of the year, I had this feeling that this was going to be a good year for my writing, and it's looking like that feeling was a good one.

Before the year is out, I'm hoping that I can share the good news that Awakening has been published. So if you're a reader of fantasy, hopefully you'll give it a read!