What I Learned from Writing My First Novel

Writing has always been part of my life in some way shape or form in whatever job or occupation I’ve had. It wasn’t necessarily artistic, as I was writing promotional material, training manuals, treatment menu descriptions, marketing copy, and business plans. At the time I started Lonely Dove, I was a wellness coach, and I regularly posted articles on health and wellness.

Lonely Dove was one of the first manuscripts I started writing and I began working on it six years ago, in January of 2018. The book was published four and a half years later, in September of 2022.

My first lesson was recognizing that when I found my passion — writing — it didn’t feel like work at all.

I loved writing, but what I really wanted to do was creative writing, not just non-fiction. The novel was born out of a desire to explore stories I held within. I started writing the novel on the side. I had the idea for the story in my head for a long time and had attempted many times to write portions of Lonely Dove. I had written short stories but nothing too long or complete.

When I began working on the manuscript in earnest, I didn’t know if I had it in me to finish a novel. It turned out I enjoyed working on the novel so much, that soon enough, I spent more time writing my book than doing my wellness coaching work.