U is for Unbelievable!

For some reason, I was having a hard time coming up with a blog post for the letter U. It may be because my head is a little fuzzy. Why? Because I was awake last night, in the middle of the night around three a.m., thinking about a young author (age nineteen) who this year, wrote a book in two weeks, did one week of revisions, and submitted it to agents with an offer for representation a week later.

Unbelievable. Unsusual, yes. And still, always unbelievable to hear stories like that. Stephanie Meyer was one of those in the "unbelievable" category too, and though rare, these writers are out there.

I was awake thinking about what I was doing at nineteen. Wanting to write, but not thinking I could sit down a write a book. It's amazing how all authors find the road to their writing, and how most of the roads are similar and very different, too. I was in college, studying literature at that age. I was writing too many papers to even think about writing a book that I wanted to write. I was also working part time, trying to also (unsuccesfully) keep a social life, and still have fun.

But, why didn't I think of writing a book? That would have been fabulous practice. Oh well. I'm too old for regrets. Life is the way it is for a reason. It takes some writers decades to learn how to write, and others, a couple of years or less.

I suppose for this age nineteen author -- her name is Taryn, and here's her blog. She's also a literary intern, freelance writer, YA writer extraordinaire --  found her calling early on. And she wrote, studied, wrote and editing a ton before she wrote this agented book. She worked hard! It also helps to be a literary intern. Perhaps, every writer should be that. It teaches one how to write (after seeing so much of the same, boring, uninteresting, blah queries and manuscripts). Lucky her. I hope she sticks with it. Because if she can whip something up that an editor likes in a few weeks, what could she write if she spent a few months on it?

Unbelievable, unusual and very inspirational at the same time. I hope you are inspired to keep writing. Because when I hear stories like that, it makes me want to get back to writing and writing and writing, so I can be unbelievable too.