reflect the dark shadows that filtered through
my mind. The beautiful, bright, colorful words
were replaced with dark, dreary and dismal
reflections of reality. Instead of peace and
tranquility, I wrote death, suicide, and dying
because I stopped walking my journey. Yes,
I was putting words on paper but not the
echoes of my soul. I wrote myself there, and I
had to write myself away from it all. on one book, and still felt it was garbage. My
journey would take me back to a Victoria’s
Boot Camp. Sounds intense, right? Well, it
was. Needing a complete outline and one
chapter to work in class made me more
determined to devote time to developing my
craft. I found that I was missing discipline
needed to sit and write for extended periods
of time, and that was the biggest obstacle.
Forty years from the first poem, I would start
my first novel. Well, actually four novels.
Yet, I still didn’t understand the process of
writing a novel, and getting out of my head.
I took Victoria Christopher Murray’s Craft of
Writing course and thought I would be on
my way. I would do the assignments, but still
felt it wasn’t clicking for me. If you only knew
how many times I wanted to give up and
quit, you would be astonished. In my mind,
I kept saying I can’t do this, I’m too old for
this, but my heart and soul said to hang in
there, you can do this in your sleep. Then I
took a Consulting Class and Workshop with
Naleighna Kai, which supplied some very
necessary tools. I learned tips and tricks of
the trade, from the beginning of the process
to the end. The pieces were beginning to
come together. I added this knowledge with
what I received from Victoria Christopher
Murray and felt ready to start the novel that’s
been begging to be written. I wasn’t ready by
a long shot. Even though at this point, I had
written a little over twenty thousand words Writing poetry and prose is by far different
than writing a complete novel. Where I could
sit down at any given point and write a book of
prose with much ease, having the discipline
to write a fifty-thousand words novel was not
an easy feat. Yet, here I am, almost twenty
thousand words in this novel with no desire
to turn around. I will be the first to admit that
writing is not for the faint of heart. As a matter
of fact, there will be days that you want to
throw in the towel. There will be days that
you want to cry, but call your sister scribes,
call on those who encourage you, hash it
out and write. When you are gifted to write,
and that is your true source of contentment,
nothing will satisfy that desire until you birth
the baby you carry inside of you. The edited,
tangible manifestation of your efforts, sweat,
and tears will be art. You will be pleased to
find that your art is beautiful.
Naleighna Kai Literary Cafe Magazine July/August 2017 15