80% of people want to write a book! I was taken aback when I first saw this statistic…I’d never thought much about it up to that point and I had no idea there were so many aspiring novelists out there. Apparently, 8 out of every 10 people I know want to write their own book, yet nobody around me has mentioned it. More to the point, I have never told my friends that I am writing my first novel, and I go out of my way ‘not’ to tell them! Why is this? It’s because I lack confidence in the creative world, I don’t feel like I belong there. I didn’t grow up with creative hobbies, nobody encouraged me to explore my creative potential as a child, I wrote myself off before I had reached my teens, reaching the conclusion I had no creative abilities. I have even considered using a pen name, it feels too daunting to use my real name. The idea of  sharing my book (when it is ready) with those closest to me sounds incredibly intimidating. 

I knew nothing about creative writing before I started my book and I had no idea there were so many opportunities to learn more about it. The idea of going to university to study creative writing when I was 18, that would now be a dream I would never have imagined back then. So, I slowly found my way into another profession, something I will share more about later on, in another blog. I do sometimes wonder what my life could have been like if I’d found my way into writing straight out of school. 

So how did I come to the realisation that I want to write my first book? How did I come to believe that I really CAN do this?  I think that somewhere along the line, well into my adult years, I realised I have good ideas and a pretty awesome imagination! Not only that, I started to realise there are attainable ways for me to get my much-anticipated book published, when the time comes. I heard about self-publishing, which felt like a real game changer for me, because it will give me that control and power to get my book out there, even if a publisher does not take a chance on me. 

Fast forward one year and I find myself here, working on this book, still in the early stages and wondering how to get the chapters out of my head and onto paper. I find myself wandering around in this rabbit hole of research, character development, plot lines, and so much more. Did I underestimate the amount of time needed to do this? Yes, 100%. This brings me to another statistic – only 3% of people complete their own book, which came as no surprise to me – I’ve quickly realised that writing a novel is a mammoth task! It requires some serious brain power!

I’ve been left wondering, where are all these other aspiring writers? I don’t seem to meet other people who want to write…or do I and like me, they don’t say?

Please come and read this blog if you need to be reminded that you are worthy of being a writer, whoever you are and whatever your background. You don’t have to come from a family of writers and artists, you don’t have to have a creative writing degree (although how truly wonderful if you have). If you have started your own book, you are a writer!

This blog does not have one sole aim, it has many…I want to share my journey through the writing rabbit hole I’ve gone down, the challenges I am coming up against and the ways I am overcoming these, I want to share resources that are aiding my journey, and I want to reassure you that you have just as much right as anyone else to be down in the writing rabbit hole. Whatever you want to take from this blog or say about your writing journey is okay.

Please be respectful of each other when using this blog – we all have ideas, questions, wobbles and worries, we will be writing different genres, a few non-fiction writers may even stumble upon us. We will all be at different stages, some of you may not have written your first page yet, some may be deep in the trenches, some might be nearly finished. Everyone is welcome. 

A bit about me…my name is Tabitha Puddlejack, aspiring writer embarking on my first novel. I will share more about myself in future blogs, more about the novel I am writing, and the many feelings and dreams that I have, connected to writing my book. I fell down the writing rabbit hole quickly and happily, but I don’t want to be down here alone, so let me say welcome to each and every aspiring writer who reads this and is joining me…we’ve got this!