NaNoWriMo is beginning in a few short days. I’ll be participating for the first time ever in a quest to make myself work out the first draft of my sequel. I think the strangest part of all this is that I’m ready to begin work on a sequel. I have literally been writing These Lying Eyes for YEARS.
So to realize as I walked into work today that I was thinking about new writing, new storyline, new plot arcs, was kind of…amazing. Incredible. Surreal. Unreal. And just strange. Just straight strange.
I’m not one of those writers whose been working for years on half a manuscript after half a manuscript. Or one of those writers who has this pile of completed and rejected manuscripts. Instead, I have written and re-written (and rewritten and rewritten and rewritten) the same book. I learned to write fiction while writing These Lying Eyes. I learned about what I wanted to do while writing These Lying Eyes. This book is so different from the first draft as to be unrecognizable, but it is the same piece of work that has evolved.
And, it’s amazing to me that out there right now are several readers who are doing a beta read for me. There are people who are experiencing the end of Mina’s story and are getting ready to let me know what they think. And I–I am considering editors and feedback and changing things. But now they’re fairly minor. Now they’re quick changes, a few lines here, sentence tighten there, still recognizably the same.
When did I become a writer? I think over these years, but only in the last weeks do I feel able to say I am.
I am a writer…. tee hee.
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I am a writer.
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I have written a book.
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A whole book.
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I am writing another.
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When the heck did this happen?
~Amanda ❤ ❤ ❤
Amanda A. Allen 
I am soooo proud of you and what you have accomplished. I have a sister who is a writer. She has written a book. AND is working on another. How awesome is that. Especially considering that I have had and puzzled out ideas for books for years (since HS). both fiction and non-fiction. I aspire to be a published writer. There are books that I would love to write, but don’t have the vaguest idea on how to start, how to get it done and what to do if I ever finished it. And you, my little sister, have done that. So Proud!!
Awesome post! I was so able to identify with it. And it feels so good to identify yourself (to yourself) as a writer! I still feel a little fraudulent when I say that out loud. Hopefully that feeling will go away some day. In the meantime, so glad to have met you and grateful for all that I can learn from you. Thanks for sharing!
Sister Seal, didn’t know you wrote a book. What is it about? We should talk about it 🙂