Restart.

During the fall of 2019, I got the itch to start a website. All professional authors have one, and if that was my dream, then I needed to have one as well. (Not to mention, I was gripped with the sudden fear that someone else out there would have my same name and purchase the domain I wanted.) So I set goals for myself on January 1, 2020, as part of my New Year’s Resolutions. I wanted to draft my next novel, get my website up and running, and hopefully get an agent to represent my first novel.

Oh, January 2020. What a much simpler time.

I set my website up with most of what I needed, but I felt like I needed a few blog posts to really fill it up before I took it live. I had signed up for my second writing conference in March where I was going to pitch my novel to a couple of agents. I was right on track! Or so I thought.

Like many people in the spring of 2020, I lost my job. I was working for a company that did in-person business training seminars, and guess what you can’t do in the middle of a global pandemic? That’s right! Host big in-person seminars. No hard feelings though; timing has a way of working out the way it’s supposed to. Even before I was laid off, I was starting to feel burnt out, and I knew that I needed to start looking for something else. Long story short, I ended up finding a new job that I enjoy a lot more. (Plus they are almost fully remote, which is a very nice bonus.)

Unsurprisingly, amidst all of the chaos that was happening (oh yeah, I was also moving in the middle of all this), my ambitious writing plans were derailed. The kind of derailment where the train falls completely off the tracks into a ravine and bursts into flames. I found it hard to be creative for a couple of years, and despite suddenly having so much free time, I didn’t even make my Goodreads goal. For me, that was a huge failure.

“So Britnie,” you may be thinking, “what did you do with all that free time?” 

Honestly? I vegged on the couch, binge watched my way through Netflix, and listened to Taylor Swift’s folklore on repeat.

Sure, since then I’ve worked on polishing my first novel further, querying a few agents (to no avail), and drafting my second novel, but my heart just wasn’t quite in it. I was discouraged, and the publishing industry seemed to be at a bit of a standstill while we all figured out what was happening. For a while, it seemed like no one really wanted to take a chance on debut authors. 

This year, however, the writing bug began getting back under my skin. I shared my novel with a few new friends who provided encouraging feedback. (“Why is this not already on Barnes & Noble’s shelves?” will forever be one of the biggest compliments I’ve received.) I’ve been reading more this year than I have in the last couple of years. Not to mention, characters from my second novel have been taking more and more shape in my head and are demanding their story be put to paper. Best of all, in-person writing conferences are starting back up, which means more chances to meet with and pitch to agents, as well as network with fellow writers.

Oh, and one of my local libraries has been partnering with Creative Writing MFA students to offer writing classes. I am challenging myself to attend at least one a month. In October, the class I attended was focused on imagery–taking an image and writing about it in detail. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I ended up enjoying myself, and it felt nice to write with no pressure–even though the only pressure on my writing at the moment comes purely from myself. I didn’t have to share these writing class pieces with anyone, and they didn’t even have to be good. It was refreshing to be in a room full of creative writers again, and I forgot how much joy comes from not only doing the work, but in sharing it with others. 

That’s my goal for this website (at the moment anyway). To share. To allow some of my writing to live somewhere other than Word docs on my computer, abandoned notes on my phone, or in my head. 

Most importantly, I wanted to take all of you on this journey with me.

Thanks for joining!