No matter how old I get Halloween still holds that special magic for me. I loved bobbing for apples when I was a child and carving the pumpkins. My children still enjoy getting dressed up (although it's more teenage zombie than fairy or cute ghost nowadays). Going out trick-or-treating with friends and dressing the house up with giant spiders and plastic bats holds a giddy fascination. I have been known to wear purple velour and a pointed hat on occasion!
With Halloween fresh in our minds, I thought it was the perfect time to think about the scary stuff - not headless horsemen or flesh eating gremlins - the day-to-day stuff that stops us from achieving our goals.
Many years ago I set myself a challenge to take part in
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). A writing competition to pen 50,000 words in 30 days. I didn't do it. Why? Because I was scared. Scared of failing, scared of taking part, scared of writing drivel, scared of what people may think.
How many times have you allowed your fears to stop you from doing something?
Last year I finally took part in NaNoWriMo, of course this was part of my Resolution Challenge, a year full of resolutions that I had to achieve whilst blogging my progress. It was a fantastic experience and not only did I thoroughly enjoy the event, but I finished with time to spare and the first draft of my debut young adult fantasy novel,
Guardians of the Dead.
What had I been so scared of? After the event I understood how valuable the experience was and realised what I had been missing out on because of my fears. Before we can achieve we must first face our demons. My demon looked like me; brown hair, brown eyes, five foot ten with a slight muffin top and laughter lines (I refuse to acknowledge them as wrinkles!)
So how can we do it? How can we do something that scares us? During my year of challenges, I faced several demons, all of them were self-made. Knowing that I was writing my progress here on my blog gave me the strength to get on and do it. I found the confidence to just write and over time I stopped over-analysing myself and my work and began to enjoy it. Once this happened I started to receive feedback from people all over the globe. I'd faced a fear - failure - and came out on the other side unscathed.
Back
in February I released my debut fiction book, you may think it strange to hear,
but I was slightly nervous about my friends and family grabbing a copy. As an author,
I should be over the moon at the sales, but the majority of my friends aren’t
my typical audience. You see, I write
young adult fantasy fiction.
Supernatural stories about sixteen-year-old
protagonists who go on a demon hunt with a bunch of faeries and witches. As it happens, the feedback I’ve received has
been overwhelming. I may have converted
a few die-hard historical romance readers over to the dark side.
