All About That Leap

Kind of random stuff here, but I thought it would be fun to post today since we only live this day every four years. I guess today’s got me thinking about where I was the last time today came around and the leap of faith it took to get to where I am now.

It was 2012, I was new to twitter, new to actively pursuing my writer’s journey, fresh out of school, and filled with optimism. I had this crazy notion that publishing was easy and there wasn’t anything else I had to learn about writing. It would all be a piece of cake.

Oh little Rachel, so young, so pure.

I thought twitter would help me find who to query in the industry and nothing more. Actually, I begrudgingly signed up. I was convinced twitter was a big waste of time and it was far better to lurk around soaking up information rather than participating. And it did help with soaking up info, for sure, but beyond gathering new knowledge, twitter introduced me to something magical: writing contests. And that’s where the leap comes in.

From the sidelines, I watched Cupid’s Blind Date contest that February and thought, “Huh. This could be really cool.” I also thought, “There’s no way I could share my writing with the entire internet. Or at least the part of the internet reading these posts. No way.” Just the thought of entering something like that made me panic.

And so as Cupid’s contest ended, another began. The Writer’s Voice. For a while I hemmed and hawed about entering, but for frack’s sake, it was a leap year! It was time to take a leap of faith! I’m pretty positive I didn’t actually think that, but for the sake of this post, let’s say I did. Honestly, I took a huge risk applying. I put my writing into the world in a way that forced me to be brave, build a thick skin, and continue to develop my craft. This was my sad entry, if you care to check it out. Hint: don’t. Please.

What happened after that contest, you ask? Well, nothing, to be quite frank. And also everything.

My entry went no where, but I started bonding with other writers over the stress of the contest, I started getting actual people to read this old blog here, I started seeing the difference between entries that were well polished and my work that was…well…not. Taking the leap to enter the Writer’s Voice contest started a whole new chapter in my life. I had no idea at the time how influential it would be, but it really changed everything from there on out.

I met almost all my CPs and betas through that contest, a lot of which have become my closest friends. I was able to find resources and outlets to continue learning about writing (because surprise! you’re never done learning) and that ultimately made me comfortable in writing something new and different. Not long after, that something new and different connected me with a lot of agents and some editors, too. Getting such positive feedback on my first publishable novel was what led me to writing another, and another. It’s what led me to entering Pitch Wars with the novel I got signed.

Creating a community on twitter from that first class of Writer’s Voice people and slowly building off it with so many awesome others also helped me become more open about the silly things I did, or nerdy stuff I liked, or even sharing my truest self with others. I found a place that let me show all of that without fear or worry of what other people might think which little by little helped me do that more with everyone in my life.

Four years ago I took a huge leap of faith. I’d say the leap is something people take for granted and don’t embrace enough. Mostly because it sounds easy, but it’s quite terrifying and sometimes can be the hardest thing you do. But if you don’t take that leap, you’ll never know. And personally, not knowing is scarier so, I took the leap and entered that contest. I can say with 100% certainty, I had no idea how it would effect my life, but it set me on a positive course that was different from anything I ever expected out of twitter or writing contests or being a writer in general.

As this new leap year comes around, I’m proud of that choice and looking forward to the leaps to come. So if I have any advice to you, it’s laugh in the face of danger/anxiety/the unknown and take the leap.