My Writing Journey.

Happy Monday Scribblings! How have you been?

I thought today I’d share my Writing Journey with you . How I started writing, my journey through my first drafts, and how my writing has changed over the years.
So grab a seat and some tea and lets chat for a bit <3 .

I’ve always been a story teller. When I couldn’t sleep at night as a little kid I would tell myself stories and day dream different scenarios in order to calm my mind down to sleep.
(I later learned that this method of falling asleep helped me get over my chronic nightmares as a kid.)
I would craft elaborate stories with my dolls and stuffed animals by myself and when I was little my brothers would play these story times with me with their own input added in.

My next door neighbors for the first 7 years of my life were also homeschooled and after we finished our schoolwork we’d usually all meet outside and play make believe together.

This make believe was the base for my future as a writer.

My first ever written story was written down on a heart notepad. I narrated what I wanted to say down to my mother who amusedly and lovingly jotted down my story of a dog who had lost his way in a park and the little girl who was trying to find him.
And while I didn’t physically write down this story, I did do all the illustrations, .

As the youngest of three and the only girl, I was left out of play time with my brothers quite often. But that was okay, I had books and my own toys if I decided I had enough of watching them play video games.

When my brothers started to play a new Splinter Cell game that came out I came up with my first ever big story idea.
It was a silly piece about my family as spies and I didn’t get far into it. But it was then that I fell in love with writing.
I learned a bit from that experience too as when I showed my mother my work she gently pointed out that it read more like a movie script and less like a book.
So I scrapped the ‘first’ draft of that and started anew! (I still didn’t get far as there was NO plot to speak of, lol.)

From this point onward I started to jot down ideas for books and in 2012 I got the idea for Murder Mystery and the Gingerbread Cookies.

That year my mom added writing to my homeschool schedule and over the next 5 years I wrote and finished my first ever completed story.

Side story: Save your work on external drives often. I lost the first draft of Murder Mystery and went into a depressive spiral that my brother Sean had to get me out of when I was 14 ish. I had no notes for the story—hence why I have a notebook with story brain storming/notes for every story now—and had to start from scratch.
The story is MUCH better for it, but it was a rough lesson to learn and grow from.

After I graduated high school, I started to write full time and that was a mistake on my part.
I didn’t know that I was chronically ill at the time and pushing myself to work a 9-5 writing job was not the best idea.
When I had brain fog—most everyday—practically unable to write a single word, I spiraled into self hatred and further depression.

After around a year or so of this I decided to return writing to a hobby as I was slowly killing my love of writing.
So I barely wrote for a good long while. Hating myself for it and berating myself for not being able to do what I wanted/thought I was required to do.
But all these feelings and self deprecation only exasperated my symptoms.

2020 I started a new journal and gave myself permission to just write what ever I wanted to. Scenes that made no sense? Write it down. Fanfiction that wasn’t going to ever be published? Yes.
Allowing myself to write whatever came to mind on paper was freeing and slowly I had a flicker of love for writing again.
I also started to brain dump story ideas into another notebook. Any idea I had, I jotted down.

In 2021 I finally got a diagnosis and answers for my health. Fibromyalgia. My life suddenly made sense. And a weight of guilt lifted from my shoulders.
It wasn’t my fault.
And now that I knew what was going on with my body and mind, I was able to really start healing my relationship with writing. (Amongst other things.)

In 2022 I wrote more than 50k words. I fell in love with writing again. It’s a small little flame inside me but it’s there.
This year I’m giving myself room to breathe. To let me write the random stories I want to write 2-3 months of the year and then the rest of the year focusing on my main Work In Progresses.

Having built in writing days/appointments is something I’m experimenting with this year as well.

Overall I wanted to share my experience/journey with you to encourage and maybe give you some hope/ideas if you yourself are struggling with burnout or self deprecation.
(also just to share it so you know more about me and can relate, lol.)

Writing is a hard hobby/job. But it’s also an amazing experience to have the story that was stuck inside your head to be in paper and ink and shared with others.

Well that’s all from me today. When did you start writing?/Have you ever considered writing? I’d love to know.

‘Till next we meet.
~Tiffany Michele.