Would you believe that about eight years ago, I wrote a novel? I felt my creative juices flowing like a whitewater river and let them go.

I will not give details in this post on what the novel is about, because I do not want to have someone steal my ideas. I will say that the story is dramatic, set in the summer of 2003, and told from the point of view of a 25-year-old woman.

In the novel’s current state, it is not very good.

It is good in terms of grammar, sentence structure, capitalization, punctuation, and the like. After all, I am an editor and reread the novel more than once to check those things. But in terms of the setup, the story’s progression, and the resolution of the main character’s conflict…I’m sorry to say that the writing is subpar.

This is all very embarrassing, because while I was writing the novel, I told several of my friends that I was writing one. (Big mistake!) Now, years later, they are asking me how it is coming. And I never really know what to say anymore.

I refuse to let this novel die.

When I have more funds, I plan to hire a book coach or developmental editor to help me flesh out the story. Following that, I want to hire an editor or copyeditor to catch mistakes that I might have missed. Then I need to enlist the services of a formatter and a cover designer.

After all of that has been accomplished, I plan to self-publish.

The process, as you can guess, takes a lot of money, so I must keep saving. But this novel will see the light of day before I pass away.

Have you ever written a novel and if so, did you publish it?