I Almost Gave Up On My Story

Some months ago, I was added to a writer’s group chat for an anthology call. The anthology’s theme piqued my interest, so I stayed in the group. I was absolutely down for writing a story for this anthology.

 

The problem was, I couldn’t figure out a story!

 

But I know that creativity comes to us in waves, so I decided to sit tight until I had an idea for a story.

 

Sure enough, one morning, I woke up with a story in my head. And it was perfect for this theme!

 

So I went to the computer and typed it up. My next problem was that I didn’t have the idea for the WHOLE story. Just some of it. So, after I typed up what was in my head, I couldn’t figure out where to go next.

 

I really wanted to write the rest of this story, because it was interesting, so I didn’t let this go. I spent my time doing research on the mythology surrounding the creature in my story. I also tried to figure out a FREAKING NAME for this thing! And I also worked on worldbuilding for this story, since it had elements of fantasy.

 

Even still, after all that, the rest of the story remained a mystery.

 

So I decided to let it rest for a few days. Maybe something would come to me eventually.

 

But as several days passed, I grew frustrated.

 

So, I did more research, this time on writing these particular kinds of stories. I also chatted with my oldest about it, since he is also a writer and we tend to talk about writing. We threw around some ideas, he offered suggestions, and I decided I should just focus on the worldbuilding in the story while trying to figure out the rest of the story.

 

But as the deadline for submissions to the anthology drew closer, I still couldn’t figure out the rest of my story.

 

I opened the group chat on my phone, my finger hovering over the tiny keyboard as I read messages already in the chat. I was ready to tell them I was withdrawing from this anthology because “my story is shit.” But something made me pause. I had a feeling that there was hope for this story yet.

 

So I closed the chat and went on to doing other things.

 

Meanwhile, I have been reading a science fiction novel. I was impressed by the author’s worldbuilding in this story. It made me think about ideas for worldbuilding with my own story.

 

And the more I explored my story’s “world,” the stronger my story grew. And the easier it was for me to figure out the rest of the story!

 

Soon, I had ideas on what should happen next in the story. I grabbed my phone, opened the notes app, and furiously started typing.

 

And even as I managed to finish writing the rest of my story, I couldn’t figure out a name for my creature. (Yes, I have done research on naming fantasy creatures as well.) I came up empty by borrowing words from languages, so I started to play around with ideas in mythology, since my creature is mythical and there are actually creatures just like this in other world mythologies.

 

Well, that ended up being another rabbit hole I went down. I explored what my creature represented in Australian mythology, Greek mythology and Egyptian mythology. Soon I had a list of words and names and decided to just combine two or three words to make one.

 

I didn’t want my creature’s name to be long, complicated, or unpronounceable. I kept this in mind as I created a word.

 

Let me just say that I love to play word games, Scrabble, Boggle, anagrams, etc. You name it. This came in handy as I worked on creating a name for my creature.

 

I took three words from Greek mythology which represented my creature’s themes (since my characters had Greek names) and got to work. Soon I had a word I was happy with. The problem? A business already had that name. ARGH! So I tried again, Googling my word each time. After many attempts, and double checks that this word didn’t already exist, I had my creature’s name. Yay!

 

Now that I had a name for this thing, I could get back to writing this story. I ended up revising what I wrote last night and also added more information to the myth surrounding the creature in that story’s world.

 

Then I was DONE! YAY!

 

I even texted my son, “I FINISHED MY STORY!!!!!” Yes, I was very excited about this. My story was FINALLY complete and I was very happy with it!

 

I submitted my story right before the deadline. Now I am excited to share this story with everyone. I’m so glad I didn’t give up on it!

 

New poetry book, Satyrs Are Cool

My daughter, Jennifer Wilson, and I have a new poetry book out that we co-wrote! The book is called Satyrs Are Cool: Poems of Mythological Creatures. We are very excited about this new poetry book. It is the second one we have written together!

So how did this book come about? Last year, Jennifer and I had something pretty awesome happen: A poetry book that we co-wrote, Dogs Forever! Poems for the Dog Person, was published. I have already talked at length about how this was special for Jennifer because it made her dream of being an author and illustrator come true, so there is no need to go over that again here. But one thing I never mentioned was something we decided to do after all the excitement died down about our first poetry book together: We decided we’d do another poetry book together! Not only this, but we would do one a year. I told Jennifer I am already publishing one of my poetry books every year (the next one will be out in the Fall), and so she thought maybe it would be a good idea for us to do one together a year, too. After we decided on this, I asked her, What kind of a poetry book should we do next? After some thought, Jennifer, who is a big fan of Greek mythology, suggested we do a poetry book about mythological creatures.

The two of us got to work. We made a list of all kinds of mythological creatures we could think of. I pondered narrowing our list down to one type of mythological creature – like Greek mythology, since that was Jennifer’s thing – but she wanted to write a poem about a vampire and a goblin. So I decided, why don’t we just include different types of mythological creatures? Instead of a certain group of them. I scoured web sites listing different kinds of mythological creatures from various types of cultures and mythologies and added ones we liked to the list.

Next, we decided on how many poems each of us would write, and that number ended up being 12 poems each. (The book had to be at least 24 pages, anyway.) From there, we made a list of what creatures we wanted to write poems about based on what was on the master list of creatures, then compared them to weed out any of them that was already taken. Jennifer insisted on the vampire poem, as well as the goblin and centaur. So after we each revised our choices to where we each had our own group of creatures to write about, we started writing.

After we finished writing the poems, I typed them up then edited them. I submitted the manuscript to GMTA Publishing, and they accepted it. But then GMTA later decided they didn’t want the book after all and canceled the contract. So I decided to self-publish the book through Createspace.

First, I had to get the manuscript edited. Since I had such a positive experience with my poetry books at Gypsy Shadow Publishing (who still keeps my poetry books on the market even though they no longer publish poetry, and I love them for that!), I contacted the editor, Denise Bartlett, about editing my poetry books. We worked something out with that and I sent her the Satyrs manuscript. She was surprisingly fast editing it! And she did an amazing job with the edits, too.

With the edits complete, I moved forward with production.

When I first put the manuscript together, I arranged the poems into an order that seemed to go well together. During production, however, I had to arrange the poems again to accommodate the illustrations Jennifer created for the book. (I tried to keep the poem and illustrations together in the final book, but things messed up somehow on one of the poems and illustrations and since I’d already fixed it five times, I didn’t have enough energy left to give it another go because it might mess other things up again! Since this was for one of my poems, I let that go. No biggie!)

Once it was finally set up in book form, I put the cover together. Jennifer had created an illustration to go with the “Satyrs Are Cool” poem so I used that one for the cover image. (I have made it a point to try to use one of her illustrations for the poetry books we co-write as well as my children’s books she illustrates, but she created the cover illustration specifically for Dogs Forever! – which is currently in the process of being put back onto the market since that book’s contract was canceled, as well.) Jennifer helped out in creating the cover, selecting style, font and colors that she wanted. Since this book was “her” idea and her book, too, I wanted her to go over the cover before I submitted everything for review.

After the manuscript and cover passed review, I reviewed the electronic proof of the book and ordered a print proof, just to be on the safe side. Everything turned out good so I launched it onto Amazon. It went live on the Createspace site on my birthday! Very cool this book’s publication date ended up being on my birthday. Yay! (Jennifer has another children’s book she has written which she wants to get published and I’m thinking of trying to get that one out on HER birthday.)

So Satyrs Are Cool was published and we are very happy our second co-written poetry book is now out. Woo-hoo! Thank you to Denise Bartlett for her wonderful editing work on this book!

Here is the cover for the book:

And here is the blurb:

Goblins, vampires, Cyclops and a zombie bodyguard! If you enjoy mythology or reading about Mythological creatures, Satyrs Are Cool will show these creatures and others in a new light through verse.


Here is a sample poem. This one was written by Jennifer:


The Siren

The Siren is the water queen.
Yet not one has e'er been seen.
She is devious, she plays quite hard
Around her tricks be on your guard.
Her face so pretty, her song so nice
But follow her singing, and you'll pay the price.

(Copyright 2013 by Jennifer Wilson)


Finally, here is where you can check it out on Amazon. It is available for Kindle as well as print.

We’re very excited about this book and we look forward to getting started on our next one!