How To Be an Aspiring Author

Howdy. I’m Aubrey B. (last name redacted because this is the internet in 2023, data privacy is a huge concern, and, unfortunately, I have a day job), aka, Aubrey Reverie, and you’ve stumbled across my little corner of the world.

Welcome. We have snacks and a swear jar.

My Writing Journey

After 15 years of imposter syndrome and pep talks, I can finally say it:

I’m an aspiring author.

Like most writers, I’ve been telling stories since I was a kid. In totally cringe fashion, I have vague recollections of winning a few writing contests and having my “stories” published in the local newspaper. Writing has been the one constant in my life – sometimes creative expression, sometimes therapy, but always reliable.

I inherited the storytelling gene from my dad, who can sit around a dinner table with complete strangers and leave an impression folks will still be talking about a decade later. I’ve watched it happen. And no, I’m not jealous or anything.

I started to take my writing seriously in high school, and I have the truly painful teenage poetry to show for it. I studied Journalism and Creative Writing in college, concentrating in creative nonfiction. My senior year of college, I placed as runner-up in the Waitman Barbe Creative Writing Awards sponsored by the Department of English at West Virginia University, and then one of my essays was selected for publication in NPR’s This I Believe series. That was about the first time I realized that writing could be more than a hobby for me, and that just maybe, other people could enjoy my writing, too.

Since then, I’ve grown a career writing professionally for different corporate, non-profit, and higher education institutions. I spend my days as a digital content creator, writer, and digital marketer. I am a feature writer who also focuses heavily on DEI communications.

My career made (makes?) it hard to keep up with my own creative writing; who wants to write a novel after editing a 2,000 word feature story at 8 a.m., which I did just this morning? My eyes are getting old. I dedicated myself to my career, first (those student loans don’t pay themselves, kids), and put my dreams aside.

Then the Big (Ongoing) Event of 2020 That Shall Not Be Named happened, and suddenly, I didn’t have a commute anymore. I also never left my house. For the next three years (and counting), I wrote. All. The. Time. I read books at a pace I hadn’t matched since middle school. I got lost in BookTok, realized I was losing way too many hours being glued to my phone, and instead got back to work.

Before I knew it, I had the makings of a fun little tale that hit 20,000 words. Then 60,000. Then 100,000.

I was working on a separate novel, by the way. An Appalachian Gothic tale that paid tribute to my family’s heritage and was going to be my big debut as A Serious Novelist.

Pfft.

I’ve had so much more fun working on my WIP, my side project, my hobby turned accidental full-ass book.

A few months back, I decided to start taking myself seriously. To start taking this story seriously. Apparently that’s all it takes – faith in yourself. Elbow grease. 2700 hours scouring TikTok and reading writing blogs and agent-run Tumblrs for advice on what you are supposed to do, the right way, before saying fuck it and doing it your own way and hoping you aren’t damned for the consequences.

And here we are. Remind me later that I thought this was a good idea.

Work In Progress

My manuscript currently is in the “light it on fire and give up your dreams” stage, also known as the editing stage. It’s 609 printed pages, double sided. It’s sitting next to me right now, in an innocent, phonebook-sized stack, propping up a collection of used coffee mugs from this week.

I currently am rewriting the beginning to tighten it up, and I’m rewriting the ending, too, because I’m pretty sure it’s too damn long. Have I mentioned that I’m a Type A perfectionist yet? Well. Now you know. Sorry.

Over the coming weeks, there’s probably going to be plenty of swearing as I make my way through this goal. And then the actual hard work begins – querying. Finding representation. Making sure I still want this at the end of the day. Mulling over traditional publishing vs. self publishing at a near constant rate.

But that’s ok. Because I’m Aubrey and I’m an aspiring author. And Wayne Gretzky said I should try to make my dreams come true.