"Project to Published" I challenge/dare you!

Welcome to my new meme “Project to Published”, where I hope to help writers just starting out make their way to their dreams! I hope that this meme will be able to help each of you as you go from a blank piece of paper to getting your project published.

Throughout this new meme, I hope to be able to help hopeful authors, and in general, people with a love for writing with all of the helpful tips I have found, links and so much more. First, I will caution each you that the hardest lesson to learn is a big part of taking your first steps toward writing your first novel, or going for the golden egg of being published. The hardest lesson to learn is that the only way to truly fail is to never try. While rejection hurts, each of you will still know that you were still able to write your novel, get past your initial writers block, come up with an original story idea, and/or any number of steps you may have taken that so many others never took the chance to try.

I will not lie to you. It is a tough market, but there are rewards past what others might show you or what other online sources may explain or even understand. It isn’t about getting published or the amount of fans you make. It is about growth. It is an absolutely amazing feeling when you become published that makes that one yes worth all of the times you heard no. But there is also more to it than merely reaching your destination. Writing a novel, allowing yourself to have the type of freedom that a blank page can give you, can provide so much more than only what you hoped or dreamed.

That blank page before you means that you have all the room in the world to grow as much as you want. It means that you have a world of open possibilities laid out right there in front of you because in a novel anything can happen. I write because it is what I love to do. Every time I start a new story, I look at my computer screen and suddenly it comes flowing out of me, as though a part of myself that had been trapped or locked away has finally been set loose. It is a freedom unmatched. Does this sound interesting? Here is my very first challenge for you.

Look at that blank piece of paper and don’t think about publication. Don’t think about that heart wrenching need to have your voice be heard and/or your words read, don’t think about agents or marketing. Sit down and let that blank page in front of you spell out freedom. Go ahead, type it even! Spell it out and read it carefully f-r-e-e-d-o-m. Now I think we all know what to do with freedom. USE IT! Let your heart and mind feel free to tell the story inside of you, not only because of your hopes and dreams for yourself, but because that story feels its own need to be told!

I challenge you to write!

Sincerely,
Emma Michaels