Book One in The Nora White Story drops in just three days (depending on when you’re reading this). What a journey it has been. I now know what I want to do and what I definitely do not want to do with Book Two. The feedback has been amazing so far and I mean both positive and constructive. This project, in particular, is different than anything I’ve ever written for sure. I feel like The Stella Trilogy helped me to find my voice and now that I have grabbed hold of the vision, I can now continue on in that direction. For me personally, every new book feels new. Every time I sit down to write a story I am a new writer. I am venturing into a world that has not been visited before and I learn something new with every experience. This has not been more true than when writing this book.

One of the ways in which this book is different than the others is that I learned so much last year that I consciously set out to apply new things I’ve learned about what to do and what not to do. This has had both positive and negative results for me. There are some things I won’t do again (not even with Book Two) and some things I will do again. In many ways, ignorance is bliss. I found myself thinking back on days I knew less than I do today and how freeing it was. But knowledge holds responsibility so I could not do the same things with this book as I’d done with the others in areas where I now know better. An example of good advice I sought to apply is my new understanding of dialogue tags. I had no idea how important they were and am now ashamed of my other books lol. But like I said, every new book is new for me so my new book will always seem far better than my previous ones. I hope to sharpen my writing skills and to make every book better than the last. It is my hope that Book Two of Nora’s Story is better than Book One for instance. Where Book One falters, I hope Book Two excels.

Another, probably the most important, thing I’ve learned (and I’ll elaborate more on this at a later time) is that once you put all the writing advice into practice, you actually get to see what works for real and what doesn’t because the experience is the best teacher. I can get so frenzied sometimes until a tiny voice says, “Shh. You’re learning. If you had not done it and failed, you would not have known that it doesn’t work or that it does. Now you can share what you’ve learned with others.” It’s a completely different world than just reading about it. Once you actually do it, your eyes open up to new perspectives and ways of thought. When you actually publish the book and apply all this advice, you are able to better discern, through trial and error, what is worth holding onto and what is not. You’ll find that it’s a lot deeper than it seems on the surface but at the same time so worth it. You’ll make mistakes but you will see the world of publishing with new eyes once you actually do it. So, what are you waiting for? Nike said it best, “Just Do It”.

Renaissance releases Saturday.

Check out the latest review

courtesy of  Nadine Tomlinson on her website HERE.