Welcome to you, Patty, and to all of your followers! Patty’s new release, New Hope Sweethearts, is now available on Amazon.

Today, Patty shares encouragement for novel-writing … and for life.  Enjoy!

Going the Distance

This past weekend, I decided to decipher all the information on my iPod’s pedometer. It’s like a fitbit, keeping track of how many steps and how long you’ve walked over any given time period. I’m an avid walker but this is the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity to find out exactly how many miles I’ve walked since the middle of May. To learn I’ve walked almost 175 miles was HUGE, considering that three short years ago, I thought I’d never walk without pain again.

That spring, I had a spinal fusion on my lower back. I’m not going to go into all the details but will say that I couldn’t stand, sit or walk without indescribable pain. But I was determined to get some semblance of my life back. When I asked the surgeon what I could do to speed up my recovery, I was surprised when he told me to start walking. I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage that—just the act of putting one step in front of the other had been so incredibly painful for the few years leading up to my surgery, I couldn’t imagine putting myself through that. But if it helped me get better, I’d try anything. Two days after my surgery, I made it around our cul-de-sac.

Once.

But I kept at it. Before I knew it, I graduated to the walking track at the park next door. One lap soon became two; two became four. I began carving out time to walk and guarded it because I realized the doctor was right. For the first time in years, my pain was controllable. I was feeling better.

Writing is a lot like that. You look at the possibility of churning out a 90K novel and ask yourself if it’s even possible, or life gets in the way and you only get down 100 words for the day. How are you ever going to finish your book at that pace?

It’s all about pushing ahead, building up your endurance. Realizing you can’t run a marathon on your first day. If we’re honest, every writer wonders, at one time or another, if we can finish a book. Even now, after all the books I’ve written, that fear still gets a hold of me. It’s when we don’t give up, when we push ourselves further than we thought possible that that book becomes a reality. It’s about making daily writing goals and sticking with them.

Here’s a little food for thought: One page(250 words) over 365 days equals a 90K novel for every publishing house. Two pages or 500 words equals two. Two 90K books a year just from writing two pages a day.

That novel doesn’t seem quite as impossible now, does it?

Patty Smith-Hall is a multi-published author with Love Inspired Historical and Heartsong.  She currently serves as president of the ACFW-Atlanta chapter. She calls North Georgia her home which she shares with her husband of 30+ years, Danny; two gorgeous daughters and a future son-in-love. Her next release, New Hope Sweethearts is now available on Amazon.