Today’s blog post comes to us from Author Accelerator certified book coach Arra Boles.

Creativity is a wild beast in all aspects. Ask yourself this: how many people throughout history have sat down to birth a melody, sketch an idea, or write a story? Thousands? Millions? There is no way to measure it because for every piece of art that is finished and given to the world, five more pieces have been left abandoned. Artists can become frustrated at themselves, their environment, the people around them, or any number of things when a marvelous idea can’t be manifested in the physical world. Paintings can turn flat, music can lack soul, and stories can fall apart without the proper knowledge and tools needed to morph them into what they should be. This is the breaking point, the premature end of the piece, and the introduction of the trash can.

I don’t know about music and painting, but I know about writing. I’ve been putting words on paper for fifteen years — a century to someone in their mid-twenties — and I know what a good story looks like. I could wax poetic about structure and logic, dialogue and plot, and every other thing that goes into a good novel. I can look at somebody’s manuscript and make a developmental edit that brings the story to life, but I have a very distinct issue when writing my own stories. I never finish them. There’s always a strong start and an outline, but going into the thick of it reveals that I have nothing more to say on the subject; at least, that’s what I thought until very recently.

These stories, though immersive and wildly complex, always fall dead at my feet. I’ve finished other people’s stories, but never my own. I’ve always wondered why, but it was never such an issue that I’ve looked into it. In hindsight, I probably should have. Maybe if I’d found the concept of ‘why’ and ‘what’ earlier, I could have had a finished novel by the time I was legally able to drink. I’ve never asked myself these questions, and because I did not ask them, my stories didn’t have a foundation. I never even knew. Why me? Why do I, specifically, have to write this story? What’s is the point of it? What am I trying to say to the world?

They’re such simple concepts, but much like the eyeglasses that have been on your face the entire time you’ve been tearing through the house, the answer was too close to bother searching for. Author Accelerator’s Book Coach Certification program is by far the most comprehensive editing program that I have ever come across. It is so staggering that it left me, as a writer, staring dumbfounded at my computer screen. I went into this program with a very clear goal in mind, and that was to give my editing services an edge. I got much more than that.

I’m not very far into the program and, in fact, I just finished the book jacket copy lesson, but I have learned so much about writing in the past two days by simply employing the very basics of the program to my own stories. I can now tell you every single point of every single story, and I’ve discovered that the ones that have no ‘why’ or ‘what’ aren’t my stories to tell. I will see this program to the very end, get certified, and be the most splendid book coach that the state of Louisiana has ever seen. I’m going to offer this as a service and spread the word that, yes, you really can write this book, and this is how you get it done. I have always believed that anybody can create art. It’s been my mission to listen to the unheard voices of frustrated authors and keep my office open among a corridor of locked doors. I feel like I can change my tiny corner of the world and help the authors-that-might-have-been. I feel like I can blow away the literary dinosaurs and stick a sign in their ashes that reads ‘yes! You have the potential to write an amazing book! Don’t let a hundred rejection slips bother you, because you can get better!’

I would like to close this by thanking Author Accelerator. To Jennie Nash and everybody that holds this program up: thank you. I mean that sincerely. You can’t know what this means to hundreds of people, including myself, and you can’t know what this means to the thousands of others who will trip over this program in the coming years. I don’t want to be cliched and say that this has changed my life, but it has pushed my art and business to another level and I haven’t even gotten started on revisions yet. My art and my professional endeavors are big parts of my life. So, in a way, you have. Before I can get to revisions, however, I need to finish this program, so I’m going to close this with a final thank you and scuttle back to Author Accelerator. To everybody that has made this program possible, thank you. You are artists of the highest caliber, and you are making a big difference in the world.

Arra coaches as part of Axiel Editorial. Check out their website: axiel-editorial.com.