Leap Day

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

Happy Leap Day everyone! It's February 29th, a date that comes only once every four years. How cool is that?

We were just discussing Leap Day actually, as we were watching the news. People are celebrating birthdays and anniversaries that technically only come once every four years. I mean, it must be kind of fun to be born on such a unique day of the year, but at the same time it's probably sad not having a real birthday to celebrate each year. Sure, you're still getting older and still celebrating your special day, but it's not on the date you were born. It's kind of crazy.

I saw a lot of talk about Leap Day on social media, and it seemed that a lot of people were trying to do something good with our extra day. Now, I was much too tired (and lazy) to do any kind of world saving today (as if I do it any other day), but I did celebrate with my mom. Alright, it wasn't so much of a celebration as an answer to our stomachs growling like crazy this morning... we went out to breakfast, just the two of us, while everyone else was out of the house. It was so nice to have some mother-daughter time outside of the living room, especially after a week of sickness running through the family.

I also managed to get a lot of writing done this afternoon! I actually finished up another chapter in my Young Adult novel! What's really exciting is that my next chapter is actually mostly written already, as I had started to write out of order a while back, so I just need to fill in some details and make sure things still make sense now that the preceding chapter is complete. It seems like everything is suddenly making sense and coming together. Picture a puzzle that's being put together. You do the frame first, which is like my original outline. Then you find the pieces that attach to the frame, which were my first few chapters. The further into the middle of the puzzle you get, the more complete the picture starts to look. That's the same way my book has been working, because as each chapter has come together, I have a clearer picture in my mind of how I want the rest of the story to come together. I had a plan for what I wanted to happen in each chapter, but it seems like the more I write, the more the story is telling me what it needs me to fill in. Pieces that I didn't think I needed suddenly seem important to the plot, while pieces that I thought would make the story better don't seem necessary anymore.

I'm so close to the end of this novel that it makes me want to drop everything else in my life and just live in front of the computer. The last few chapters all have at least a couple of pages written already because inspiration struck at random times. I have so many notes jotted down for myself; pages of tiny notebooks litter my desk so that nothing is ever more than an arm's length away from me. It seems that my brain is working much more quickly than my fingers can type, so now I just have to hope that all of my notes make enough sense when I'm typing out full sentences for the book.

I started this book in October 2013. I've been slowly writing for two years and four months (well, almost five months I guess). That's probably the longest I've ever worked on anything in my whole life. This book means so much to me, and I feel like the more I work on it, the more I grow as a person and as an author. I can't wait to finish writing it and start the editing process, because I know that there's still so much more work to go. That's the nice part about writing; even when you finish one part, you don't have to feel sad that it's over because there's another step to start on.

How did you spend your Leap Day? I hope everyone used the extra day for something good, whether it was for yourself or for others. Let me know if you did something special in the comments below!

Your continued support means the world to me. From foster care to novels, and family to work experiences, I look forward to sharing more of my life with you each day. Don't hesitate to share your own stories with me or ask me questions about my life. Please don't forget to like and share my Facebook author page as well!

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Thanks!
Taylor

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