Yet another newbie

yetanotherheather

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Hi everyone.

I am truly a newbie as this is my very first online forum. I've been lurking for a while and trying to get a feel for things. I must say, AW seems pretty great so far.

I've always wanted to be a writer, but life and kids and a general lack of courage got in the way. I finally got the nerve to go for it about a year and a half ago thanks to NaNoWriMo, some great friends, an amazingly supportive husband, and an idea that WOULD NOT GO AWAY.

Three drafts, several beta readers, and more hours spent obsessing over the whole thing than I can count later, my first novel is "finished". At least, it's as finished as I can get it on my own. Which is what brought me to AW.

I've already learned a lot (thank you Uncle Jim and crew!) and I'm looking forward to connecting to other writers and learning even more.

(What I'm not looking forward to is the very scary query and dreaded synopsis, but that's another story for another day...)
 

Cathy C

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We have all the courage you'll need here! There are more success stories here than you can shake a stick at, and we're willing to share the love and knowledge.

Jump in! The water's fine. Oh, and :welcome:
 

PuppyDogTails

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Hello!

I'm excited to follow your story, yetanotherheather! You are quite a few steps ahead of me, YOUR story gives me hope for mine. :)
 

Chase

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Yetanotherheather,

Yetanother:welcome: for yetanotherwriter.

The more the merrier. :D

Yetanotherchase
 

regdog

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Take some time and read the Newbie Guide and the Stickies found
at the top of Forum pages. They are your best guide to learning about
Absolute Write.


Please read the FAQ about posting photos.


In fact we have lots of brilliant FAQs check them out.


Members who want to start a thread in Share Your Work to have work critiqued need
50 posts. Don’t make a mad dash to reach your 50 posts. That is frowned upon and can lead to your posts being deleted.
Take some time to greet fellow newbies, critique other members’ works, or join a discussion.


Announcements, Events and Self Promotion is for active members only. All obvious spam will be deleted on sight!
 

yetanotherheather

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Thanks for the warm welcome. I am so excited to be here and it's kind of ridiculous how happy I was to see all your posts this morning!
 

TGrace

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Welcome! It's wonderful that you were able to stick all the way through with an idea. Here's to the next one! :)
 

moni6654

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I've always wanted to be a writer, but life and kids and a general lack of courage got in the way. I finally got the nerve to go for it about a year and a half ago thanks to NaNoWriMo, some great friends, an amazingly supportive husband, and an idea that WOULD NOT GO AWAY.

So excited to see your post. You are where I want to be a year from now. I am smack dab in the middle of life, including the kids, job and lack of courage that you referenced. I'm helping my husband in our business and for 15 years I've played the broken record..."I want to be a stay-at-home-mom and have time to write, to take a writing course at least." I pray that I will be able to take that leap of faith and find out if my burning desire to write is actually my destiny or if it will die out once I have the opportunity. I hope it's the former but my fear is that I want it more because I can't have it and once I get the chance I might not be that good at it. Silly fears. Welcome yetanotherheathr, I hope to find encouragement in this forum.
 

yetanotherheather

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Hi moni6654! I can't tell you how happy it makes me to be an inspiration to someone else. I've definitely found encouragement and inspiration from AW already and I'm sure you will as well.

The best advice I can give you at this point is to just START. Give yourself a goal and commit to writing every day. (AKA: "butt in chair" or BIC) Some days will go better than others, but make a point to write something every single day. Even if all you can manage is two sentences between getting the kids to bed and collapsing into your own bed, you will know you accomplished something and you didn't give up. If you make writing a priority, you will wake up one day and realize writing is something you do, that you ARE a writer. You don't need permission or validation from anyone else; it's just part of who you are. (Much like being a mom, wife, entrepreneur, and whatever other hats you wear on a given day.)

Figuring that out was amazing, at least for me. It ranks right up there with finishing my first novel. I'm not sure how it compares to landing an agent, or a publisher, or actually seeing my book in a store, but hopefully I'll find that out soon :)

As for worrying you'll lose your desire once you start, I'd say fifteen years is a pretty long time to want something just because you can't have it. I'm pretty sure writing is in your heart like it is in mine, but there's only way to find out.

So what are you waiting for?
 

jmarz01

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Congrats on finishing the first novel! That's an amazing achievement. :)
 

tiddlywinks

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Hello, welcome and congrats! Feels good to have that "I finished a novel" mantra jingling in the back of your head, doesn't it? :D

Looking forward to seeing you on the boards. And never fear - though QLH seems like a scary place when you first visit...it grows on you. Good luck with the editing process.
 

bombergirl69

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Welcome!

I also just finished my first novel and am doing revisions! It IS exciting, if not frustrating!

But this is a great board (Im a newbie here) with lots of resources!

Welcome!
 

yetanotherheather

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Thanks again everyone. I think "I finished a novel" is my favorite jingle of all time. At least so far :) QLH is scary, but I can't wait until I can jump in. So far editing has been a lot more rewarding than I expected. I hope you find the same bombergirl69.

Best of luck to everyone, wherever you are in your process!