By Alycia Morales @AlyciaMorales

Begin with a blank page.

Write out a few notes on said page. Notice it’s no longer blank.

Request a creative download.

Write a few more notes on the page.

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

Initiate research mode.

Go to Facebook to check that thing you know will add real-life experience to your writing.

Realize an hour later you forgot to check that thing, but you’ve seen all the babies and kittens you need to see for the day.

Note that thing.

Start writing.

Notice you have a big hole.

Spend time checking email. Maybe now’s a good time to clean it out.

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.

Take a nap.

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.

Wonder why everyone has to text or call when you’re in the middle of a writing flow.

Thirty. Days. Later.

Finish your rough draft.

Review the junk you have on the page.

Edit. Edit. Edit.

Cry.

Call your best friend for moral support.

Write it again, making it better, stronger.

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

Investigate manuscript. Again.

Quit your writing job.

Turn to #booktok to find others who know what you’re going through.

Get distracted by the latest dance craze and shake your head, because you know you won’t be trying it.

Realize you won’t make it as a social media influencer and your book won’t finish itself.

Decide you quit too soon.

Reread your manuscript.

Edit some more.

Thread together lose ends.

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

Take a vacation.

Start again.

Alycia Morales is a freelance editor and writer. Her work has been featured in numerous magazines and several compilation books. Thanks to her mad editing skills, her clients have won multiple awards in several national contests. She’s also a sought-after ghostwriter, with years of experience working with clients across many different categories. In addition, she’s the prior Conference Assistant for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. Alycia is currently working on a nonfiction project while characters are running around in her mind waiting to be released into children’s books and YA fantasy novels.

When she isn’t busy writing, editing, and reading, Alycia enjoys spending time with her husband taking hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Carolinas or running off to the beach with friends. She loves coffee, sweet tea, crafting, and watching crime shows.

Alycia can be found at alywmorales.com. She hangs out on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.