A few months ago, I wrote about a mantra I started telling myself, especially while writing:

“My favorite author is me.”

I want to expand on that.

Last week, I finally had it. My break. I was editing Project: GREY, red pen in hand, and something finally clicked. Snapped. Shattered. Th’at thing in your head when you no longer think of your writing as “sacred” or “good, rather, a means to an end. That glorious, attainable end, when the book/story is done and you feel like you can punch through a thousand steel doors like Idris Elba in that new, Oscar-worthy movie, “Hobbes & Shaw.”

Now, whether my writing was any good or not is up for debate. Or, really, for a book agent to decide. The big takeaway from those work sessions is I broke through and worked like my life depended on it because, hopefully, someday my livelihood will depend on my writing. You need to get words on pages and there’s not shortcut to getting words on pages than just to put words on pages.

So, how does that connect to my editing? Not to brag, but I need to brag. I’m over halfway done with Project: GREY edits!

Because that’s huge!

It should be celebrated! You finished a book! I finished a book. You made something! These are positive accomplishments we may not give enough credit to ourselves for.

I’m trying to become more active, in a positive way, on Twitter to celebrate other writers who also completed huge task and made great strides in their work. We’re not published. We need each other. Just a congrats here or there.

Because, it takes a lot, A LOT, to reach a point when you’re okay with your writing. When you can dish out page after page and not worry about their nature. When the number matters more than how good it is. You can trust your writing because you can trust your future self. You tell yourself, “That’s okay. I can fix it later. I trust future me.”

The thing that clicked for me was the number, just a number. One page edited, two pages edited, then three, then eight. Sheets were piling up and I felt better and better, and suddenly, the new mantra took hold. The second one I’ll keep telling myself as I keep working on finishing my manuscript to submit to agents:

“Filling up notebooks and emptying pens is more important than if my writing is ‘good.'”

Telling yourself either of these mantras is hard, as that is the inherent nature of mantras. But I’m gonna keep repeating them to myself, over and over again, as I keep working towards my dreams.

Join me.

My favorite author is me.

Filling up notebooks and emptying pens is more important than if my writing is “good.”

Again and again.

Project Update:

Project: GREY 2nd Draft Edits: Pg. 64 of 120

Project: BIANCA Story Bible on track to be finished by Feb. 28

*realizes that’s tomorrow

*chugs entire pot of coffee

Thanks for reading,

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