Here are some more details about Dabble’s mobile support.

Store-less, no App

Dabble is being released using a new simplified delivery method. There is no app. 😱

Rather than going through Apple’s App Store or the Google Play Store, Dabble will be delivered directly through the browser as a regular website, and will provide advanced support to be installed on your phone’s home screen like a native app. This is what they call a Progressive Web App (PWA). You learned something new today!

For example, on iPhone after navigating to Dabble’s app you will click the share button at the bottom, choose Add to Home Screen, then use Dabble like you would a native app. Android has a button in the URL bar to do the same.​

This process makes the download much smaller, our updates to you much quicker, and the whole experience much easier.

Progressive Web Apps work offline and sync with the server whenever they are online like Dabble already does on desktop.

Redesigned screens

Every screen in Dabble has been redesigned to work well on mobile-sized screens and touch devices while still retaining the same layout as desktop so you don’t have another app to learn.​

​Every feature you know and love on the desktop is available on mobile. Now you never need to stop writing!

We also added a ton of new desktop features too.

Disclaimer: do not write while driving. Or sky diving. Or at the movie theater—when we can go back to the movies.

Dabble has gone mobile was originally published in Dabble Writer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Don’t know what Dabble is? It is an online/offline tool for writing novels that helps you actually write better stories.

On to the good stuff.

Refreshed Design Elements

I’ve updated Dabble’s icons to be crisper, changed the font for the user interface (buttons, labels, etc) to use your operating system’s default, and adjusted section headings in the left-hand nav for easier scanning.​

I’ve updated your preferences, profile, and billing to be easier to use, especially on touch devices.​

I updated your billing area so you can see your current plan, next payment, and past invoices.

Adjustable Sidebars

I made some nice improvements to the sidebars for you.

1. I allowed titles in the left-hand nav to use a little more room so the text doesn’t cut off as short.
2. I made the left and right-hand sidebar width adjustable — larger or smaller — by clicking the edge and dragging. Double-click the edge to restore to default.
3. When focus mode is on, the space those sidebars takes up is freed so the manuscript can have more room on smaller screens.
4. Buttons at the bottom will collapse and restore sidebars. Screenshot in the next section.

Status Bar

I’ve create your very own extra special status bar at the bottom. You can find your selected document’s word counts easier and project save & sync status.​

More Counts

You can see in this screenshot, you also have more counts. A page count is now included, which is the simple industry average calculation of 250 words per page. And when you select text, you will also get a count of the words selected appearing here.

Full Screen and Focus Toggle

I made you two Quick Buttons in the bottom-right corner to toggle and disable focus mode and go in and out of full screen.

Right click? What’s that?

Sure, websites don’t often provide a right-click menu. But a good web app probably ought to. Now you can undo/redo from the right-click menu in addition to the keyboard shortcuts.

​And the action menus in the navigation are easier to access via right-click.

Fonts and Formatting

I wanted you to work with your manuscript and story notes in the way you feel most comfortable. Per-project. So at the top of the navigation, above MANUSCRIPT, is a project doc with project settings.

Project Naming

This project doc at the top of your nav also gives you power to name your project something different than your book’s title, allowing you to identify series or multiple versions of the same book better.

Auto Dark Theme

If your desktop or mobile OS switches to a dark theme automatically (e.g. in the evening), Dabble’s dark mode now switches with it! Automatically. Not bad for a web app, huh?

A New Quote Style

If you write poetry, or include poems, song lyrics, or short blurbs at the start of your chapters, you’re going to like this.

I’ve extended the quote format to 2 different styles instead of 1. The new style is centered and italicized, allowing you to do more.​

Spread the Word

If any of this excites you, I could really use your help spreading the word about Dabble. Many still have not heard of Dabble, and most have not heard how you feel about it.

Dabble’s new desktop features was originally published in Dabble Writer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Sneak Peaks

It’s the feature you’ve all been waiting for…MOBILE!
(coming soon to a phone near you)

We are working on mobile web support at this very moment so you can bring Dabble along with you.

Soon Dabble will work on ANY device with a browser.

Versioning will allow you to go back through your project history to any given moment since its creation.

Accidentally deleted a scene? No problem. Need to remember that clever turn of phrase you deleted last month? Go get it. Just want to see how far your manuscript has come? Reminisce the old days.

More?

Fine, here’s some more.

• Co-authoring—co-write with another author
• Share to the web — post your work online for anyone with the link to see
• Images — supercharge your story notes

We have an exciting year coming. And we couldn’t do it without you.

We rely on you to help us grow by spreading the word. Thank you for what you have done so far to get Dabble to where it is at. And keep telling your friends and family about Dabble.

🥳 Dabble turns 2! Get a sneak peek at what’s coming next. was originally published in Dabble Writer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I received a support ticket today that may echo your own feelings from time to time.

I was attracted to your product for the plot-related features, but for the price you’re charging, found them lacking, non-intuitive, and not clearly explained.

I’m tired of small, one-person startups creating yet another failed, partial-featured fiction outlining/writing app. It’s tragi-comical to see each developer get one or two parts right, but then ridiculously stumbling on other parts. Due to ignorance or stubbornness to properly consult with others before product launch, each of you are creating a hot mess, and rather than seriously revamp it, you add a few further warts, and then eventually becoming abandonware, littering the market with yet another needless failure.

—noreply@noreply.com

I appreciate the candid feedback. This individual supplied the answer to their own frustrations.

Many writers are not willing to pay much for their tools. Most other professional industries charge $20-$50/month or more, but the consumers of that software also make more. Writers often do it for the love, with a day job to support them. It makes sense they are price sensitive. I’ve even found full-time authors to be price sensitive.

Without a lot of money in this industry, investors can’t expect a great return on investment. They aren’t willing to go up against the free Google Docs or the established Microsoft Word in hopes make a return.

This leaves us with a lot of software “by writers for writers.” Just like their customers, these developers do it for the love of the craft, not the money.

There are many free tools, or tools priced too low. These die out once their builder’s need for income is greater than the passion brought. The smart ones charge enough to build a company that will last. They get pushback from individuals like Noreply above. Too expensive. You didn’t build exactly what I want. Unfortunately, writing processes are as unique as their writers. But do you really want to slog through 60,000–200,000 words in a single Word doc?

Good software costs money. In an industry with little investment dollars, the customers are the ones that end up as investors in the software. That is why companies like Dabble and Novlr publish a roadmap on their website. It is their own Kickstarter for customers. A promise of things to come, if you invest in us.

We can’t build everything before launch, but we can build enough to show you what we are about. We can sell you on the promise of where we are going. We can earn your trust through dedicated customer support.

We can get there together. You and me. We can grow Dabble into the tool you need.

We all do it for the love of the craft. And maybe, we can even get paid doing it.

If you are interested in tools for writers, please check out Dabble. Write, plot, and edit your novel in the browser or desktop, online and offline, automatic sync between computers , and many more features. But most of all, easy to use.

Behind-the-scenes: Novlr (priced the same as Dabble), only got its first full-time employee after 4 years since launch. Dabble is on track to do the same after 2 years, though I’ve been working on it for 4 years. I have invested tens of thousands of dollars into it and thousands of hours. Why? For the love! Also, my customers are the best anyone could ask for.

The Cost of Writing was originally published in Dabble Writer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

My how you have grown

It is a tradition in our home to share the birth story of each child on their birthday, complete with all the anticipation, excitement, and relief to get each child here. I’d like to do the same for Dabble.

The Big Day

It was towards the beginning of September, I was on a company trip—for the day job—working early morning on Dabble’s cloud storage solution. It was then I realized I would not finish on time. Looking back, I wasn’t even close. So I went to “plan B” which was easy and stable, though not as efficient or elegant. Instead of saving and merging each little change, I saved the whole file over the top of itself on each change.

A few days later I had implemented Cloud Sync v1. A few weeks after that Export to Word, working in a browser, and a ton of bug fixes. Then on September 27, 2017, I wrote and published Dabble Launches Today. Dabble was released with a free trial through the end of November. It was 2 months before I knew if anyone would actually pay for the thing.

The NaNoWriMo Launch

Saving my pennies to sponsor NaNoWriMo was the best thing I could have done for Dabble. It forced me to launch when I did, instead of taking my time to “get it perfect” (an unattainable goal, especially when you have no customers giving feedback), and it gave me a ton of exposure that my introverted self could not have gained through my own social media.

“Hey Dad, could you check out Dabble for me?”

I worked with the NaNoWriMo team to implement automatic word-count submission as you write and launched that mid-October with a goal tracker. It was a big hit.

About 3,500 trials turned into about 550 paying customers in December after the trials. Sure, Dabble was half-priced. And sure, most of those customers either had 20%-50% coupons, putting Dabble at 1/4 its regular price, but these guys deserved the discount after putting their faith and trust into some new piece of software that was hitherto untested.

The New Year

During December I took the beloved NaNoWriMo goal tracker and turned it into goals for the rest of the year. I finished just in time to launch that on January 1st, 2018 for your New Year’s resolutions.

The Feature Drought

In January I went to work on Cloud Sync v2—the original “plan A” for sync. I taught myself about Operational Transforms, the technology behind Google Docs, and established a number of other under-the-hood improvements to go with the new sync model. This ended up needing a complete rewrite of Dabble to support the new model.

The only new feature Dabble launched this year was the Dabble forums, which could arguably be considered non-feature.

My Baby is Growing Up

Despite the outward appearance of much going on, I have been working many long hours to bring you Cloud Sync v2. Ultimately it is the right way forward for Dabble. Now that Dabble has customers and their associated feedback, I’m looking at long-term success, not shortcuts.

Full-time Investment

Then, in August 2018 after a cash-out refinance and a 2-weeks notice, I left full-time employment to give my all to Dabble. Why get investors when you can invest in yourself? And for Dabble, I’m all in.

Dabble will be supporting us well before we run out of…investment…dollars.

These last few weeks of full-time work have been very productive. Cloud Sync v2 is currently being beta tested by a few brave customers. And we should be able to release in a week or two. After that, the feature drought will be very much over. Hold onto your butts.—Jurassic Park

College, the Military, or a Mission

Imagine you have a kid. Imagine sending your kid off to college, the military, or to serve a church mission for say, a couple of years. When they come back, they look very much the same as they did when they left. Maybe they gained or lost a bit of weight. Maybe their hair is a bit different. But the changes they’ve made on the inside have completely transformed them. Made them into an adult.

When Cloud Sync v2—the complete rewrite that it is—releases, you won’t notice a huge difference right away. But Dabble has matured. Soon you won’t even know Dabble from the baby it was just one year ago.

Growing Up

Dabble has gone through its growing pains, like a baby spitting up all over your shoulder—again—and you wondering if this little thing will ever amount to much.
Well, you just watch.
See what happens when this kid becomes an adult and changes the world.

So happy birthday Dabble. Thank you for giving me so much fulfillment—and even a bit of joy—serving writers whose only desire is to create. Create, and perhaps, change the world for the better.

Dabble Turns 1 was originally published in Dabble Writer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It is true that as a history major I wrote a trillion papers. Okay, that may be an exaggeration, but it is true that I wrote more papers than the English majors did. This is not an exaggeration. My friend, who has a dual English and History degree, will back me up on this. (I understand this may not be a universal truth, but for the sake of this post we’re just gunna go with it.) Anyway, this expertise in paper-writing resulted in another form of expertise.

Procrastination.

Procrastination is my…frenemy.

Frenemy: meaning both friend and enemy.

Before we get into the “friend” part, let’s get into the “enemy” part.

First, to set the scene — You sit down at the computer. You begin typing. The words flow for a while, but soon there’s the start of that tension. You know the kind. Where it starts in the middle of your forehead and slowly spreads. It doesn’t hurt…yet…but it’s uncomfortable and you know it’s because the literary genius inside of you is running out of reserves. You need a break. You turn to one of these methods, knowing that it’ll do the trick.

7 Procrastination Techniques

1. Social Media — Talk about a time suck. “Oh, I’ll just get on for a minute to let myself relax a bit and the words will come back to me.” You start by checking Instagram. A few likes, a few comments, and you’re ready to move on. Facebook is next. A few likes, a few comments, a few click-bate traps, a little FB stalking…Next thing you know, the sun has gone down, the children are crying of hunger, and your husband (I’m putting you in my shoes so feel free to change the details in your head if you wish) has burnt the boxed mac ‘n cheese. And when he asks how your writing went for the day you nod and smile and hope he doesn’t notice the blush on your cheeks.
2. Cleaning — That writing tension…it can really be a beast, but you know a sure fire way to burn some of it off. Nothing is quite as satisfying as a good energetic cleaning. You start by cleaning the debris off your desk. The illegible notes you’ve made, the candy wrappers, the millionth scribble gifted to you by your toddler all end up in the trash. Well, now the trash is full so it’s gotta go out. If you’re taking out one trash, you might as well take out all of them. Oh look, there’s food on the wall behind the kitchen garbage. Might as well scrub that off. It’s a tough one and you’re gunna need to scrape it off with that razor. You search the catch-all for the razor, but it’s a disaster so you might as well organize it while you look. Oh hey! A new Air Wick scent that’s been in there for who knows how long. Might as well plug it in the bathroom. Oh, but you don’t wanna just cover up the smell. Time to pull out the bathroom cleaners…Next thing you know, the sun has gone down, the children are crying of hunger, and your husband mentions how nice the house looks. This time the blush on your cheeks is from all the exertion and, by golly, you’re gunna own that look.
3. Naps — Your eyes are just so tired and that tension isn’t helping. You’re just gunna rest for a minute. At least that’s what you tell yourself. Next thing you know, the sun has gone down, the children are crying of hunger, and your husband is asking if you’re ill. The blush on your cheeks is from a over-warm nap, but maybe he’ll buy that it’s a fever-induced flush and take care of the kids while you go to bed for the night.
4. Chatting — You just need a break and some human contact! You call your mother. That conversation lasts at least an hour. Then the kids get home. Of course, it’s important that you chat with them about school, their day, their hopes and dreams. Then, the husband gets home and he chats with you in the kitchen while you work on dinner. Next thing you know, the sun has gone down, the children are saying how yummy dinner was, and you blush because you have lots of great people to chat with.

And the first thing you notice reading these? None (save maybe the first) sound like a bad thing. And that is what makes procrastination (when it comes to writing) my frenemy. So, naturally, I scoured my brain for a way to turn all these forms of procrastination into a positive in my writing.

Relationship Development

This is the biggest. The best. The most perfect reason to procrastinate.

You can foster relationships on social media, keeping in touch with old friends, finding commonalities with new friends, and sharing family news with faraway loved ones.

And chatting. Whether it’s on the phone or in person or via text. Nothing like communication to strengthen relationships.

But! Developed relationships aren’t the only things to come from developing relationships! If you’re worried how these relationship building forms of procrastination will affect your writing think of it this way. To write a truly good book you need to have experience with many different kinds of relationships. You need to understand that there are different personalities, interactions, ways of fighting, way of making up, and a thousand other aspects of human interaction. In short, you need to have first-hand experience to be able to write relatable characters. And if you don’t have relatable characters you don’t have much of a story.

Mental Clarity

Now, there’s some sciency stuff I won’t go into, but cleanliness is SO important for your writing. As seems to be the trend, creative people aren’t the most tidy. I am the first to admit that. But I am also the first to admit that I work so much better when my surroundings are clean. When I’m not surrounded by clutter, my brain is clutter-free as well. This is just from my own experience, but there’s real-life science behind it. Google it.

Let’s not forget the science behind a rested mind. It’s common knowledge that you function better when rested. If you’re tired, your writing will suffer. I’m not even sure any of this makes sense since I haven’t had a good nights rest in…how old is my oldest? Eight years. So, take that nap and get that brain working as it should!

Take that frenemy of yours, that lovely “I”ll do it later” and cherish it. Take your procrastination from writing and turn it into a necessary part of your writing. Because, if you’re a decent writer and if you’re good at rationalizing you can make any form of procrastination a necessary part of your career.

Procrastination: A Writers Best Frenemy was originally published in Dabble Writer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Goals is one of the most requested features for Dabble. We hope this eases your NaNoWriMo Word Tracker withdrawals.

An Overview of Goals

As always we worked hard to make it simple. Without doing anything, you will see the last 30 days of writing progress across all projects automatically. To set a project goal, you click on the settings icon.

You choose what to track. You set your own goal. You optionally choose a starting point. And you choose a deadline.

You can mark days off just like the NaNoWriMo Word Tracker. These are days which you do not plan on writing. This helps calculate your daily word-count target.

New with Goals, I’ve added the ability to take off days-of-the-week. If you want to always take Sundays off, you can click the weekday header (“Sun”) to toggle all Sundays off, instead of toggling each day individually.

Each project is separate. You can have a goal for Project A which you plan to work on Mondays and another goal for Project B to work on Thursdays.

Just Another Feature

This release is just one of the features Dabble has planned, continuing to improve over time as promised. I hope Goals will help you make and keep your writing goals this year.

May you achieve every goal you make. Happy 2018!!

Dabble Makes Goals for the New Year was originally published in Dabble Writer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

First, you ask for advice from that one author friend of yours. They tell you not to plot. It’s so much better to have your story come to you organically. Oh, and don’t forget to have a “writing place”. You need a space that is just for writing to help you get in the zone. Also, don’t read someone else’s work while you’re busy with yours, otherwise their voice and yours will mesh and…that’s just not good (this advice is garbage, by the way.)

Second, you start looking elsewhere for tips. Books, podcasts, writing groups, classes. All involved have been doing this longer than you, so they must be pros. This “pro” says to have a time goal — thirty minutes of writing (at least) per day. This “pro” says to write 1,000 words a day. Use paper and pen because it helps the words flow. Don’t plot the ending so it’s more natural. Stay focused. Don’t edit as you go. Do this. Don’t do that.

You’ve been absorbing all this info and now you’re ready. The next step is easy. You sit down and write.

This is where the real important lessons are learned.

I kinda, sorta decided I wanted to be a writer in High School, but I lacked the confidence to actually do anything about it. I became serious about it in College, but still didn’t do anything about it. It wasn’t until recently that I decided to get to work.

Once I got serious I actually started doing the leg work it takes to figure out how to write. I received every one of the tips mentioned above (and countless others) during that time. It was pretty confusing when so many of the tips contradicted each other or just went against my instincts. But, I wasn’t a pro so they were probably right…

WRONG!

I learned a LOT of things writing my first novel. The most important lesson? My process is going to be different than yours.

My father, an author, told me to not plot. Stephen King, in his book On Writing, said he avoids plotting. He definitely knows what he’s talking about, right? I tried it. It didn’t work (for me.) I moved on from that method, did some reading on different plotting methods, and started making note cards. That worked for me.

King also says to have a writing space free of distraction. And he’s not the only one. I am a stay-at-home mom with three busy girls which means mischief, school, piano, sports, and home-work. There is no distraction-free space. There is no quiet. There is no time. I write whenever and where ever I can. Does this mean I’m doomed to never be a published author? Well, I hope not.

Through this journey of pursuing my dream I have relied on other’s tips and critiques. At times, it has been helpful, but there have been times where it has caused more harm than good. Someone is always going to have something to say about your method and your work. It’s your job to figure out whether what they have to say is actually helpful or not.

Here are some other tips/opinions I have discarded, and I’m giving you permission to do the same. Or, if they work for you, congrats! Keep at it!

• Join a writing group. I did. It was awful. One of the writer’s didn’t have any feedback, only compliments and excitement. Good for the confidence, not great when I knew I needed improvements. The other writer had his very decided opinions on my story and where it should be going. It was my story, not his. So, I quit the group and haven’t looked back. Maybe someday I’ll try this one again with different people. If I do, I’ll let ya’ know how it goes.
• Have a specific time in which you write and write every day. Neither one of these things are feasible as long as motherhood trumps being an author (and it always will for me.) I write when I can. I recently took a year off of writing. Not by choice but because morning sickness is a beast, and having a new-born is a beast, and adjusting to having three kids is a beast. It’ll take me longer to reach my goals, but I still believe I will get there.

There are really only two universal tips that I believe are a MUST.

1. Read as often as you are able.
2. Write as often as you are able.

Your method will come. How you plot, how you name characters, where you write, how you write, all of it will fall into place as you explore different tactics and find what works for you. Listen to all the advice, good and bad, and discard what you don’t need and use what works. This is your creative process. You are free to do it your way. Just keep working at it. It’ll come.

If Everybody’s Right, Then Nobody’s Right was originally published in Dabble Writer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When you participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), you are consumed by it—by your novel and your characters—for the entire month of November. Like stumbling upon a good book that keeps you reading into the early morning hours, you are swept away into another world. Only this world is of your own creation. And you spend much more time in it.

Dabble is a fan (and official sponsor) of NaNoWriMo, a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing where the goal is to write 50,000 words in one month. Winning NaNoWriMo (finishing your 50k goal) takes a lot of motivation, discipline, and hard work. Some things make this easier. Things like setting daily goals, tracking your progress, and sharing your progress with others.

This November, Dabble wants to help you conquer your goals and achieve your dreams. Today, Dabble releases NaNoWriMo goal setting and word tracking!

NaNoWriMo Word Tracking in Dabble

Dabble sets your daily goals, tracks your progress through the month, and even auto-submits your daily word count to NaNoWriMo!

Daily Goals

Dabble calculates your daily goal based on the number of words and days you have left. Reach this goal each day and you will reach your 50,000 word goal by the end of the month!

In a perfect world, you can write every day in November. But the world is not perfect. And sometimes you have work, family, or other commitments that take precedence. Dabble allows you to mark the days off you know you can not write. You could even take some days off at the end of the month to account for the unexpected, then put them back on when you miss a day or as you get closer to the end of the month.

You can also pick your own goal if you want to participate but cannot reach 50,000 words with your schedule. If you are an over-achiever and want to do more than 50k words, more power to you!

Tracking and Auto-Submission

Dabble tracks your word count throughout the month. In the sidebar of your chosen NaNoWriMo book, you will see your daily word-count goal and how many words you have left for the day. There is a bar graph which will visually show your progress through the month.

In addition to tracking your words, Dabble automatically updates your word count through a special integration with NaNoWriMo. Now you don’t have to worry about updating your word count! Dabble will do this while you are online, every 30 seconds, same as cloud sync. Clicking the cloud to force a sync will also force the update.

​Learn more about Dabble’s NaNoWriMo word tracking on our help site.

Try It Out

Tell us what you think! You can find us on Twitter and Facebook. Follow me here on Medium. Chat with us on the NaNoWriMo forums. And contact us via Dabble’s “Chat with Support” feature.

What is Dabble?

Dabble is a desktop and web app for plotting and writing novels. With a great plotting tool to help you prepare for NaNoWriMo, and super focus features to help you get your words down, it is a great option for putting your unedited soul onto the page for a month. Now, with first class support for tracking your NaNoWriMo goals, and with a free trial through the month of November, why not try it out?

The NaNoWriMo Feature You Never Knew You Wanted was originally published in Dabble Writer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

There are the ancient Egyptians with their goddess Hathor. She represented joy, love, music, and dance. And don’t forget Seshat, goddess of reading, writing, and architecture. And also Thoth, god of writing, wisdom, and knowledge.

Then there’s Saraswati, a Hindu goddess. Bragi, a Norse god. Kokopelli, a shared southwestern Native American deity. And Lono, a Hawaiian goddess.

I’m sure I could go on and on, but this isn’t a research paper. Though, in doing my five minute research on “muses in other cultures” an idea has begun to form. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the point of this article.

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

How true, Ms. Plath.

Writing is the only career that has ever really called to me. Sadly, up until my mid-twenties I was under the impression that to become a writer I would have to be struck by the idea fairy. And those dang muses weren’t speakin’ to me.

At the age of 25 I had the technical skills, thanks to a fantastic high school english teacher, and two fantastic Latin professors. (For the love! Why doesn’t the english language make any sense until you understand latin? But I digress.) But I had no burning ideas. Then something life-altering happened to our family and I took to writing as a sort of therapy. I wrote 100 pages and realized that maybe others would like to hear our story. Thanks to my father being an author, he has passed some of his connections on to me. I utilized one of those connections and sent those 100 pages to one of his friends in the biz. And she said she liked what I had written!

Here’s where my first real idea came from. Wanna hear what it was? Well, I’ll tell you. My first real idea was, ANYTHING can be a story. In this case, it was literally my journal. I hadn’t embellished or improvised. It was exactly what we were going through at the time. It was interesting because life was difficult at the time and us humans, well, we love a little drama (or a lot.) My life right now is less captivating. Does that mean I couldn’t write about it now? Heck no! It would just take a little more imagination, an embellishment here, a dragon there, and voila! A story for the ages.

This realization has changed how I look at writing. It’s changed how I look at the world really. There’s a story around every corner, in every closet (or wardrobe!) and all we have to do is have the guts to make it ours. (The wardrobe one is already taken. Sorry.) There aren’t any muses who are going to shoot the perfect, best-selling, award-winning idea into our head. We have to look for it. So pay attention to the world around you. Keep a dream journal (those suckers are just crazy enough to make for some pretty epic sci-fi.) And always have a notebook with you. Always! Even if that notebook is on your phone and you’re “Hey, Siri”-ing while you’re in the shower. Some ideas will be garbage, but some will be gold. And some of that garbage can be turned into gold.

Have the guts, and the imagination to get that story you’ve been waiting for. Don’t doubt yourself and be your own idea fairy.

The Idea Fairy was originally published in Dabble Writer on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.