I took a creative writing class in community college. My creative writing class asked for small samples of fiction writing to give an idea of what my writing was like. There is an upside and downside to this. While many great writers have done short works of fiction, it is an art all on its own to do a stunning piece in 2,000 words.

Each week I write non-fiction of over 500 words. They are not all stunning masterpieces. They sometimes are only read by a small audience. I do not inspire in these 500 words, the same pictures in the novels that I write.

A short story is not a novel. There are many writers who can sit and write a short story and never finish a novel. I have done more novels than short stories. This would only be a triumph if I had continued writing after I turned 18. That was the last time I finished a novel.

At 18, my writing was very different than it is now. It came from the voice of a smart, but a naïve teenager. It was a totally different audience I was writing to at that time. I was writing to girls like me who didn't understand the world.

Things happened in my life and my writing changed and my stories were that of a woman who had faced pain and hurt. I started telling stories of women who experienced pain.

Who had been hurt so much in their lives and had been able to move on.

I started writing a few of these. I never finished them.

I never finished them, because overcoming pain and domestic violence didn't seem like that big of a deal. It didn't seem like something that someone could write a book about. It didn't seem like a hard-enough struggle because I overcame it.

I thought because my struggle didn't seem like enough, no one would want to read a book about it. The truth is there is a best-selling book out right now by an author who never went through that pain himself (at least from the woman's perspective) and is a best seller. He even wrote a book about a girl trying to choose between two men and made it into a best seller and a movie.

The truth is that when it comes to writing, no one can tell you what to write. The truth is that you are the one who decides what your story is. As writers and people, we fall into the trap of bowing to other people's demands of us. Our stories don't come from them. The great stories, the ones that burn so deep in our hearts waiting to be told, are ours alone. Writing a book is taking a piece of your soul and letting the whole world see it. It's like ripping out our hearts and letting the world dissect it.

It is a hard thing to be an author and if anyone else tells you differently, kill their character in your book. (A good death in a novel will always spice it up). The most important thing to remember as a writer, no matter if you are published or not, is you can do it. Do not let your fears overtake your spirit. The writing you have inside you is there for a reason. It may take a little work, it might not be perfect. The writing inside you is yours. It is your story to tell, and it can be done. Be an author. Write your story. Publish your work, be it with a publishing company or self-publishing. You have the story inside you, write it out, and don't be afraid to show it.