@AlyciaMorales

Begin with a blank page.

Request a creative download.

Ask a bunch of questions you have to come up with the answers for.

Initiate putting thoughts onto a blank page.

Notice you have a big hole.

Spend time checking email and social media.

Tear apart your closet and rearrange your hangers.

Outdoors looks fun! Take a walk.

Remember you were brainstorming your book. Return home and put butt in chair.

Make sentences that will eventually become your story.

Words start to take shape on the page.

Reach your daily word count.

Invite a friend over. You need to brainstorm more.

Take another cleaning break. Scrub the bathtub. Do the laundry. Binge watch your favorite show.

Examine your heart and return your butt to chair. Finish your rough draft.

Review the …. you have on the page.

Edit. Edit. Edit.

Write it again, making it better.

Remove all the fluffy, excess, adverbish descriptions and pet words and unnecessary things.

Investigate manuscript. Again.

Thread together lose ends.

Enjoy knowing you created something valuable. And a cup of coffee. Or tea. And a night off.

Alycia Morales is a freelance editor and writer. Her writing has been in Thriving Family magazine, Splickety Love, and several compilation books. Her editing clients have won several awards for their manuscripts, including finalist in the Selah Award. She is also a conference manager and the blog editor for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference.

When she isn’t busy hanging out with her writing friends, her husband, and her four children, Alycia enjoys reading, watching TV, hiking, and crafting.

Follow Alycia at her blogs, Life.Inspired. and The Write Editing. She can also be found on Instagram and Pinterest.