Daily Archives: September 12, 2024

How We Grow As Writers

How do we grow as a writer? Or a better question is how do we track that growth?

I’m not talking about sales numbers or something easily trackable. I’m talking more about goals for our inner selves.

My word for 2024 is grow. And I have had a hard time finding things related to that word to motivate me specifically in my writing. Quotes or examples of that word playing out throughout the day. Last year was change and that was no problem. In fact this year could’ve been change, too. And there are so many more quotes related to change, than there is grow.

Yet change is what helps you grow. And when I took this picture, it occurred to me how much I have grown. It’s just difficult to see it.

Stacks of paper can show how we grow

This past week, I cleaned out a large stack of papers. What would seem like a very easy toss was not. It represented the entire set of printed papers of all the different versions my story went through before it became a published book.

Twelve years worth.

I don’t need them anymore. But when I look at this stack I see where it all began and what it then became.

When I started this writing journey I had no idea what I was doing. I read a lot of books and had story ideas, but how did you actually write one?

I started out by joining a writing group that held workshops every month and online classes. Then I joined a few more and took more classes. I printed out scenes. Had writing friends review. I then worked on sections during these online classes. I entered contests (a lot) and printed out all the feedback. Some was hard to accept, but I’d come back stronger and try again.

I’m not sure what drove me. God, definitely. He never gave up on the story He wanted me to write. I also wanted to follow through with what I started.

How far I’ve come

To read some of my early early scenes helps me see how far I’ve come. How I wrote scenes over and over again to find the words people would want to read. I also found some gems in side notes that came from those classes (I did save a few of those).

I most likely won’t print out pages like this with future books. Or if I do, I toss as soon as I’m done. I trust myself and what I’m doing more. But I won’t have this huge stack to remind me of all the work and change and growth that went into writing my story.

It’s now time to say goodbye to this stack, but I took a picture to remind me that anything worth doing is a journey. A process. I’m really thankful for all of it. I don’t think I’d change a thing.

Denise’s first novel, When Plans Go Awry, published June 4, 2024 and can be purchased on Amazon, both in print and digital formats. She has a section on her website where she shares about her Focus Words or you can see past articles by Denise here on A Slice of Orange in her archives.