Do you know about National Novel Writing Month? Every November, aspiring authors start new novels. The goal? 50,000 words (about 175 pages) by the end of the month.
Back in 2010, I decided to do NaNoWriMo. I even posted my goal to Facebook. I had the first name of my heroine: Fenway. I had the character of her father, a selfish man more devoted to the Red Sox than to his daughter. I had Fenway's occupation: coroner. And I knew who the murderer would be.
I started writing, and got 1,000 words written that first day... and then that was it. November came and went. I didn't forget the idea kicking around in my head, though.
Last year—on October 30, 2017—Facebook helpfully served me up an "On This Day" reminder. It was my post from 2010. An awful reminder that it had been seven years since I had written a word about Fenway the Coroner and her estranged father.
So on November 1, 2017, I started again. And I decided how I would complete the novel. I wouldn't go back and edit what I had written. I wouldn't spend more than a day away from writing. And I would write it until it was done.
Judy Blume says that she's a terrible writer. But she's a great re-writer. And it's so much easier to edit your work when you, you know, have something to actually edit.
And that's how my journey started.