Getting to know Time for Once: was it a story worth creating?
“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
Last week—and in a very off-the-cuff share—I brought up a few questions currently looping in my mind while Time for Once is with my editor. This week's question: was it a story worth creating?
It's no coincidence the decision to write this story from start to finish, no excuses—coincided with the pandemic. It was month six. And reality wasn't much fun to be in 24/7. Reading, of course, was still a means to deal (I'm looking at you In Five Years by Rebecca Serle), but the urge, the want, the need to write became, for all the dramatic purposes, unbearable.
So, I started typing. Foolishly letting the story spill out of me with barely a bone to attach to a skeleton that didn’t exist. Eventually, the story pieced itself into a somewhat reasonably looking book but it took four rounds of revisions to get there. It’s not walking yet, by the way. Which brings me to the topic of this blog: was it a story worth creating?
Worth is a complex word, isn't it? Even in its simplest definition—value—the layers of meaning we attach to this word are as unique as a person's fingerprint. Over the last year, in particular, worth has become a more prominent fixture in my life. It's been a challenge, finding a comfortable place in my mind for the word to live in daily.
Yet worth found a home in there, my brain, and began turning away the self-doubts that came knocking on its door.
The catalyst for all of this was—no shock here—Time for Once. So, yes, the story was worth creating. It brought me into my own, it released the grip I had on a fear I no longer wanted to control, it allowed me to express myself and grow and share what we, as humans, are built to do. Obviously, writing isn't meant for all of us, but we are built for it—creating. Your manipulation of this gift is what you're meant to do.
Next week's question: Am I nervous for friends and family to read it?
Thanks for being here,
—Jes
Time for Once is a women’s fiction / contemporary fiction story that spans over a ten-year period and focuses on a woman (Jolie) and a man (Jace) from age twenty to thirty. Yes, the story takes you down a well-worn road of typical coming-of-age struggles like young love, uncertain futures, and dead-end jobs. But the story also veers onto that dirt road shadowed by a canopy of unkempt trees, where the bumps are harder to see. Which is my way of saying there are less popular struggles explored in the story as well.