I think back to the day while Mari was in the hospital and I told someone that whether Mari made it or if she passed I was thinking about writing a book about her life. I’m not exactly sure why I would have thought to do something like this as I definitely didn’t believe I was a writer.

After she passed and a little time had passed, I decided to write a book about her life. The only drawback to all of this is I had no idea what I was doing. My husband tried to help me with editing it the best he could. His main comment was that it read more like an outline than bring our daughter’s story to life.

As time continued to move forward I realized through other people’s comments and feedback that the nonfiction book I had written about her was all wrong. I learned I needed to add fiction elements to the story. The only problem is I had no idea how to do this.

Then one day I had an idea come to me about writing a fiction novel. Again, I had no clue what I was doing. I remember the first night I saw down to write about my story idea. I’d write and then read it outloud so my husband could hear it. He helped me to show more details than just tell it. He isn’t a writer but he was going off his own experience of reading novels by authors like Stephen King and Dean Koontz. He knows what draws him in and tried to help me do the same thing.

What amazing now is that that first chapter has changed quite a bit from where it was before. It has become so much better. That shows me I’ve been growing as a writer. It means I’m improving. I think that is all anyone can ask of themselves. Keep trying and trying and you will slowly but surely improve.