If it ever feels to anyone else like I’ve been working on my novel for forever, it’s because I have. Today is the ninth anniversary of the initial idea spark, and may the Muses haunt me if I do not finish before its tenth.

There’s something to be said, though, for letting an idea percolate through your thoughts, settle into the spaces between your memories, and slowly absorb everything you are. The ideas that ground themselves in your core are then reflected back onto the world in every gesture you make, every word you speak, every thought you have. You live with this idea, developing it until it blossoms into something far greater than the small spark it began with. At last, it reaches its full potential, and now is the time to write it.

Not that I haven’t worked on it—and even written full drafts of it—in the preceding years. For an idea to grow, you need to nurture and nourish it, as in all things. I just knew it wasn’t quite there yet, and I didn’t force it into existence.

I’m so glad I listened to that feeling in my gut.

Once upon a time, I thought this would be a standalone novel. Once upon a time, I knew how to write a beautiful sentence, but I knew nothing of story craft and structure. Once upon a time, I didn’t realize that those things could be taught. How innocent—and naive—I was back then!

In many ways, writing was easier when I didn’t know better. That adage, “Innocence is bliss?” Definitely applies here. However, I’m better equipped to tell this story now, and there’s a much better chance of this story inhabiting the life and form it deserves now.

The idea I started with is the same story that I have now, to an extent. The premise is the same, but the world and characters now are so much richer than I ever thought possible. The scope of the full story has expanded exponentially, and a driving force behind getting this first novel done is my wanting to get to future aspects of the story, to share its whole with the world. While I have other book ideas, other projects I want to work on, I’m convinced this particular series will be the one I write for the rest of my life, regardless of its financial success. It encapsulates everything I am and everything I want to give the world. A struggle now is feeling worthy of executing this beautiful, grand idea, but that will just require time, knowledge, and revision, revision, revision.

None of this would exist, however, if I didn’t have the courage to take a step back, ignore the naysayers who say, “If you don’t write a book in five years, you’ll never write it,” and let the idea take seed within my soul and grow.

Today, I don’t bemoan the ninth anniversary of a book idea that doesn’t fully exist outside of my head yet. I celebrate the idea choosing me in the first place, the growth we’ve both had in the ensuing years, and the journey that has led me here.

I celebrate Creativity, and Thought, and Life.