I’ve been a member of the SCBWI for about a year now, and before the conference I had only attended one other event (a cool event where I found an amazing critique group to be a part of).

I didn’t expect that I would leave the conference with my creative confidence back.

But I did.

It wasn’t that any session taught me anything revolutionary. I learned a good amount that I can’t wait to implement into my writing craft, but it wasn’t anything that I was surprised by.

What was revolutionary (at least to me, personally) was the raw and honest keynote talks & panels. Authors and illustrators talked about their journeys to publication, and further proved that it takes perseverance and a vow to be true to yourself to make it in the publishing industry. Writing stories true to yourself means that your best work can show through and speak for itself.

Writing stories true to yourself means that your best work can show through and speak for itself.

Nova Ren Suma, author of The Walls Around Us gave me three ways to pull myself out of a rut. Judy Blume, author of ALL THE BOOKS, told me that writing saved her life and gave her a good life. Stephanie Garber, author of Caraval, gave me four tips for writing that included:

• Write the book you’re brutally obsessed with.
• Do the things you’re afraid of.
• Let go.
• Read widely.

It’s hard to put into words what this conference gave to me. I guess there’s just something to being around a thousand other people who are passionate about the same thing I am. Or maybe it’s the fact that these people aren’t afraid to be vulnerable with their stories.

Either way, I left with more than I could have expected.

So here I was, 28 years old, having a creative existential crisis, as one does, and I suddenly felt whole again listening to this band that meant so much to me when I was 14.

The windows were down, my arm hung out onto the hot black metal of the first car I bought 10 years ago as a graduation gift for myself. The weather was the epitome of a perfect Northern California summer day. Not too hot, but sunny as could be.

I was thinking about my life, and about the novel I’m trying to write and put into the world. I was thinking about my to-do list at work. I was thinking about the grad school applications I needed to get done, and the essays I needed to write. And suddenly I was taken aback by how much I loved it all.

My nostalgia trip reminded me what it was like to love something so much that you would do anything to be close to it. In the same way that my 14 year old self was going to small dingy punk rock clubs and screaming at the top of my lungs for this band she loved so much, 28 year old me is doing anything she can to get close to writing. Applying to grad school. Working in book publishing. Writing (maybe terrible) novel drafts. And that’s really that’s all that matters at the end of the day.

If you’re ever in a creative lull, some advice: Remind yourself why you started. Whether it’s reading a book that meant everything to you as a kid, or listening to a song that you had on repeat so much that you scratched your CD, or looking up pieces of art that made you feel something. Breathe it in, and remind yourself why you’re here and that what you are doing matters.

I enjoy half marathons not because I enjoy running, but because I enjoy accountability. If I skip a run or don’t train for a race, I’m going to show up and regret every moment I chose to spend not running.

It’s the same way with writing a novel (except for I actually enjoy writing, most of the time). Writing a novel requires that you step up every day, and you stick to your daily goal which all filters into the larger goal.

With half marathon training, you are building and strengthening your body up to race day where it will all be tested.

It’s the same way with writing a novel. Each writing day is building your story, your voice, your characters, and at the end, in your final draft, all of those things will be tested.

With half marathon training, the hardest part is that you have to run every day, even when you don’t feel like showing up. When your body is sore from the long Saturday run that took you from the Embarcadero Ferry Building all the way to the Sausalito Ferry building, and you don’t want to do your recovery run on Sunday, you still have to do it. Some runs may feel awful and torturous, I know I had a lot of those, but you still have to do them. It’s part of the process.

It’s the same with writing a novel. Mentally, some days you just aren’t going to feel like writing, and in the same way a run may feel awful, a writing day will feel awful. You’ll feel like you’re the worst writer in the world, and that you’ll never be good enough so you may as well quit. But you have to sit down and do it, because if you miss a writing day, you are missing a day toward the finishing your novel.

Tips For Writing

• If you’re having trouble starting, try a writing challenge like National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). This organization really helped me in showing me what it was like to have a writing goal, a deadline, and a training program.
• Set a realistic word count goal per day, or a writing time frame (i.e. 1600 words a day or 2 hours a day), whatever works for you. If it helps you, even try giving yourself a deadline for when you want a first draft of your manuscript to be done.
• Set yourself up a writing ritual. For me, when I’m working on my novel, I like to have a cup of coffee, dimmed lights, and a Cozy Sweater scented candle.
• Stick to it. Show up to your laptop every day, and don’t skip any writing sessions. Hold yourself accountable.
• Finish your novel.

Tips For Running

• Choose a race that interests you, and give yourself at least a three month training window. Some races I’ve done are the Star Wars Half Marathon in Disneyland, The Golden Gate Half Series, and the Runner’s Path Half Marathon in Santa Cruz.
• Choose a training program that works for you. Personally, I like Nike Run Club because they have a coaching option where it’s really easy to set up a program that works for you. For me, it was running 4 days a week and doing my longer runs on Saturdays. The app also updates weekly by your progress.
• Run. Show up to every run, and push through your physical and mental blocks. They’re the same blocks that are keeping you from writing that novel.
• Finish your race.

Why Writing A Novel is Like Running A Half Marathon was originally published in Friends of National Novel Writing Month on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.