Dreams in the Making

If you've been following this blog since it's inception, you know that I have been working towards becoming a published author (hence the blog name, "There's a Book Out There"). This year, I felt more prepared and more propelled than ever into the world of writing. I realize that I have time to write at the moment, and no excuse not to sit my little butt in a chair and just do the hard work of sorting through sentences and trying to make sense of an almost four year old manuscript. If I don't finish this now, I never will.

So, for the past few days, I have been in writing bliss. Editing has never been a passion of mine, but my fear of editing is gone! When I was younger, I was so obsessed with having each little sentence being perfect that I could never finish anything. Now, I don't care if I have to turn my story inside out, cut it open, dissect it's heart, and splice it all back together again. I no longer fear criticism. In fact, I welcome it! It gives me an opportunity to do better. I suppose the biggest hurdle I have jumped in this whole process is the fear of failure. For so long, this poor manuscript has been waiting to be finished because I was too afraid of failing. But, I will fail. I will fail over and over again. The words will come out wrong, the sentence structure will be terrible, the plot will take wrong turns, and characters won't be the way I want them to. But, I can always improve as long as I keep going! And I mean to keep going!

This is it. The first printed draft of my novel... For those of you who don't know, I have dreamed of being a published author since my childhood. Now, I am one step closer to actualizing that dream! Thank you so much to my family who always encouraged me to keep going. Now, I need a red pen and lots of hot chocolate ;) #writing #publishing #author #writersblock #fiction #novel #justashleyanne #aafouchwriter

A post shared by Ashley Fouch (@justashleyanne) on Jul 10, 2017 at 9:03am PDT

Much love, ashley