Haley Walden, Author ✨

Free epic fantasy novella: Ballad of Stallions! Synopsis: Historian and horseman Aidryn Tarlach has spent his entire nineteen years waging silent war and secretly wielding a power he isn't supposed to have. As his world begins to crumble around him, he must choose between pursuing and protecting the woman he loves. This novella fits best between the first 2 installments of The Witness Tree Chronicles, but can be read as a standalone. Get your copy here: authorhaleywalden.com/ballad…

"The book already exists. We just need to write it." Throughout our collaborative ghostwriting process, my client Diana and I have often discussed the very real emotional wrestling that comes along with writing a book. It's a massive macro-level project that can feel insurmountable to a new author, especially when you think about the end product during the beginning stages. When you start writing a book (whether or not you hire a ghostwriter to assist), it's great to have a vision of where you want the journey to conclude - but you probably shouldn't spend too much time agonizing over HOW you're going to get from point A to point C. The how will trip you up. And along the way, you'll start losing your grip on the idea that inspired you to start in the first place. Instead, take one small step at a time. That's all any of us can do, anyway! You can't leap over a suspension bridge to get to the opposite side of the gorge. The bridge serves the most important purpose of all! (And in this case, your creation process IS the bridge.) Focus on the small, measured steps that will carry you safely across. By the same token, don't think of your book-in-progress as completely nonexistent. It does exist - otherwise you wouldn't be writing it. Can you hold it in your hand right now? No, because it's still a concept. But that's how all books begin. Your book exists in one form now; and in the not-so-distant future, you'll be signing a copy for someone, marveling at how you came so far.

Don't judge your book's progress if it's not where you want it to be yet. Even if you haven't started it and the idea is shadowy and abstract, the story is still taking shape. Every story starts as some messy, nebulous thing. There's a reason we writers call the first pass our "sh*tty first draft." It's tongue-in-cheek (mostly), but all of us secretly wish we could churn out the one perfect first draft that needs nothing and is magically ready for the proofreader when we finish. Instead, we wrestle with how we want to convey the story. Sometimes we grapple with our characters or the plot. Life happens and we work more slowly than we want to, or ever intended to. Circumstances both within and outside our control swoop in to derail our creative aspirations. This craft is a bit like tending a garden; some years, everything blooms beautifully, and other years, for an array of reasons, you can't seem to achieve the same growth. But when you love your garden, you don't abandon it; you keep tending it. If you've built a relationship with the natural world, you keep speaking life to your plants. Your book is very much the same. Judge it, abandon it, speak ill of it, and you risk losing the connection you had to the story when the idea first sparked. (Duality exists here; it's possible to feel transient hatred toward your creative work as you develop it. Just don't get stuck in it!) Speak life to your story. Talk about it as though you're excited for what you're creating. Regard yourself as creative, because you are. Take one day at a time, and keep nurturing that book, even if it means planting and watering one seed at a time.

Hot take: Thinking is writing. We tend to get dogmatic and literal when we think about writing. In my mind, writing has just as much to do with what happens between your ears as what you type or scribble. You might be surprised what sorts of story snarls you can untangle by thinking through your plot in the shower or on a walk around the block. Sometimes all it takes to get unstuck is putting the laptop away and getting away from the desk for a little while. Move your body. Talk to yourself (or your characters - they talk back!). Let your ideas flow. Don't relegate yourself to thinking that writing is ONLY the act of writing. Sometimes you have to stop trying to force words out and visit your inner world instead.

RIP Dolly 😞