Last week I wrote about my experience with writing, and how I have grown throughout the years. If you missed that article, you can read it here.

Hannah Brencher is one of my all-time favorite authors and this past week I had the opportunity to participate in her webinar "The Year of the Book".

Hannah shared what she has learned through the process of publishing one book, and then currently writing another one. The three hours were filled with loads of helpful tips, ideas for finding your best writing process, and then an outline for picking the best agent and publishing style for you.

I have wanted to write a book since a young age, and Hannah encouraged us to take the steps needed in order to reach the goals. This time was the perfect inspiration to just sit down and start writing. Sometimes I avoid being an author because I am afraid. I am terrified of failure. I long to succeed, to have an impact on the world. Writing provides the opportunity for me to fail. Finding the perfect words is more difficult than one would think.

Writing is not a glamorous process. When I engross myself in something, I don't shower. I leave a lot of dirty dishes lying around. And sometimes I cry. Writing can bring up painful memories that I don't want to deal with, or remind me of how incapable I feel as an author.

I want the writing process to be magical. Because I expect such lofty experiences, I avoid writing when it doesn't live up to my expectations. For a day, a week, sometimes even months at a time, I do not pick up my journal or open a new word document.

Sometimes being an author involves waiting for the inspiration or the perfect words. You won't find them by avoiding the difficulties that accompany writing. As Hannah put it, you have to wait for the moody cat to come out of the crawl space. Even when it is not enjoyable, you have to make yourself sit down and try your best at putting letters into words, words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs.

You might not like what comes of it. You might love the words that flow. The important part is being consistent. It isn't easy, and it will not always be enjoyable.

This year I am committing to stick out the writing process. Why put off my dream of writing a book when I could write one today? The death of a young family friend this summer boldly screamed that we are not immortal. A month and a half later I commemorated this reminder on my arm with a tattoo of a paper airplane in flight.

Today is all I have been promised, and I am declaring this the year of the book.