Last night, while digging around a bit, I happened upon some old writing. There in the deepest, darkest recesses of my hard drive...well, actually in a folder entitled "Cacey's Book", I found it. My first book. Actually it's technically my second, since I wrote one, also unfinished, my senior year of high school. Anyway, there it was. In all it's unfinished, out of order, choppy glory. Hesitantly I clicked on the document labeled "Chapter 1" and began to read.
And you know what? It didn't exactly suck, per se. But I did cringe quite a bit while reading it. In fact I pretty much had to stop after just a few pages. I clicked open a few other documents and read a little more. While it did leave me feeling quite nostalgic, I certainly don't miss it at all. I can't remember exactly when I started writing that particular book. So dramatically entitled "Shadow of a Memory", but it was a while ago. Certainly back in our Georgia days, possibly as far back as 2007.
At the same time I can't help but feel even more satisfied with the work that I've been doing lately. Not only am I writing faster. I'm way more organized, deliberate, and just plain better. I started writing my recent book literally the first weekend in January. And I'm so close to be finished now, it's crazy. But before now I've just written endlessly and pointlessly for years.
I'm not sure how to explain my sudden surge in writing. Or my sudden talent. Seriously, my old stuff sucked. New stuff=awesome. The only thing I can think of is that I've just managed to find my little niche in the writing world. It's pretty funny because what I'm writing is certainly not what I ever imagined myself writing, but somehow it just works. In fact, before when people would ask what I was writing and what my book was about I wouldn't know how to answer. And my only reaction to people reading my work was embarrassment. Now I'm perfectly happy to own up to writing "Young adult action/adventure YAY!". And if someone wants to read it, I'm totally down for it, though I'm supposed to be keeping it under wraps for the most part. I want everyone to read it someday, I really do. I suppose that's where publishing comes in, huh?
Anyway. Here's to no more sucky writing in the future. And knowing what you're supposed to be doing and doing it. At least in the fictional sense.
