Poet to Novelist

I have been striving to transition from poems to novels for years. I was in despair of ever succeeding at this. I fell into limbo. But I never ever stopped writing.

I’ve adventured with genres such as: 500 word flash fiction, 100 word flash fiction, short stories, poems and poetry with puppets for children, picture books, blogs, non-fiction short articles, memoir drafts, and narrative poems. Now this mission ‘to be a novelist’ seems possible.

It’s not that I don’t love poetry, and won’t include it in some way in all that I write, in style or technique, it’s just that I have to move forward, into a novel, with hints of the poet I once was, and flourish.

I am good at starting novels but won’t tell you how many I have begun, that’s going to forever remain my secret. World building intrigues me, and sometimes I even have characters I absolutely love, but it’s going that step further to FINISH something that eludes me.

This time I am working with a mentor, and everything seems possible. Not one detour prior to now has been wasted, rather they have led me to epiphany. The detours were good training and opportunities to discover what does and doesn’t work for me. Now though, I am truly ready to listen to someone who knows how to make this journey from start of manuscript to the end!

This time I have a mentor who believes in me and let’s me be myself not only that she is also a skilled coach. It makes a huge difference to work with someone who encourages you to reach your full capacity, by first seeing your strengths but also pushing you to challenge yourself and go further.

But also this mentor is combined with a genre that truly calls to me and says it is time to realize its potential to be a vehicle for my stories.

We work together with another writer who inspires me with her story in progress.

I will catch the full idea for this one (as my mentor teaches me how to navigate by the knowledge I already have and the wisdom and knowledge she shares) and step by step reel it in!

A huge thank you to Share Your Story But I know the biggest thank you I can give is to write this novel with confidence, skill, joy and bring that story out into the world.

The journey isn’t over yet!