Guiding First-Time Writers: A Supportive Blog for New Authors

Are you a first-time writer looking to stay on top of releasing content? Is social media looking more and more daunting with each day? Or are you just looking for a weekly blog to read that can help fuel you toward accomplishing your writing dreams? 

No matter what it is, you’ve come to the right place!

The Halls of Valhalla

As some of you readers may know, my name is Gabriella Dennany, and my self-published YA Norse Mythology-inspired fantasy book came out in early May of this year. The Halls of Valhalla has been available wherever you buy your books, and even received the Literary Titan Review Gold Fiction Book Award for August!

This summer has been a wild ride, from first-time author meet-ups to struggling to publicize on the ever-changing social media. Not only that, but being a self-published author isn’t even my full-time job.

Bummer - I know!

Locally, I’m running amok in a fast-paced bistro, daydreaming in the corner about what I could be writing. In between long shifts, content creation is where you’ll find me. Whether it’s thirty-second videos to be posted on Tiktok, or cutesy vector graphics displayed dreamily over Instagram, the laptop is my home away from home. Recently, I have started to broaden my horizons as a writer, and am working on some freelance opportunities, like ghostwriting and developmental editing.

At the start of this new month, I decided it was time to get back into something I promised myself I’d do at the beginning of the year. Steadily publish a blog. Three times a week, post a blog post geared towards helping other first-time writers succeed. It doesn’t matter if you’re publishing the fifteenth book or the first, every author needs some kind of support. Our lives are spent pouring pieces of ourselves on the page for others to read. We expose our vulnerable sides in the hopes someone on this planet can resonate with it and feel the same. Even though this blog isn’t fiction, it’s what I strive to do here! 

In some shape or form, every first-time writer deals with imposter syndrome. If you didn’t know, the National Institutes of Health is defined as a “behaviorial phenomenon” that inflicts feelings of “self-doubt of…skills or accomplishments among high achieving individuals”. In layman’s terms, we can’t help but think whatever we create isn’t good enough because of all the good stuff already out there. A thought I grapple on a daily basis: “how can I write a good mythology retelling, when authors like Rick Riordan and Madeline Miller exist?” 

The purpose of this blog would be to help all of us remove this thought process from our lives. All it does is hinder the important work we have chosen to do. What everyone else makes doesn’t matter, because in the end, there is only one you, and that you, can only make that one thing in your head. The story you tell can only be told by you! I wish I could be writing this with the ethos of being a master at this, but that wouldn’t be honest. This blog is not only for first-time writers searching for a bit of humanly support, but also as a way for me to cope. Even if no one reads, or no other author finds anything within these posts, I find comfort in just reaching out. 

As I mentioned before, blog posts will be made three times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each week will have a little theme I’ll loosely follow, ranging from how I outline a manuscript to everything I do when I’m in the middle of heavy writer’s block. There will be baking - I am a very avid baker - and the recipes so you can follow along. There will be some birdwatching, one of my other hobbies when I’m not a little goblin in front of the computer screen. Fun fact: my favorite birds are the Canada Goose and the Eastern Bluebird. 

A few weeks are going to feature writing prompts relating to that particular season, like Halloween. As we get to those days, I’ll include the prompts, and whether or not you’re an avid writer, I encourage you to give it a shot! They will always be pretty simple, but in that way, the possibilities are endless. In the comments, everyone is more than welcome to share their thoughts/tips and tricks. This is all to build a writer community, so please join in! 

In this first week of September, we will dive into how to use the new month to further excel in our writing plans. Even if you only want to get one short story done in this month, now is the time to start planning. Since we are also in a leap year, some months get to be extra fun for our meticulous brains: a few of the first days of the month begin on a Sunday! How fun is that?

Probably not fun for a lot of you, but you get the point.

Technically, the first day of the week is a Sunday. Even though we like to assign that spot to the dreaded Monday, all calendars begin the week on Sunday and ends on a Saturday. The fun about September is that it follows that structure! For someone like me, this helps to make planning a little easier. It fits into that little bit of me that’s OCD. (if you know, you know)

For this new month, my goal will be to get back on track. This is the time to jump back on the bandwagon toward all those things you promised yourself you’d do at the beginning of the year! In my case, this means following a writing schedule to start churning out the first draft for my second book. It even means getting on schedule with my blog, and some other fun creative outlets I’ll be partaking in once again. 

{one of these fun things is my podcast! The Buttfull and The Buttless is available wherever you listen to podcasts - for free! It is hosted by myself and my best friend, Caitlin Allen, where we talk about everything and anything under the sun. There’s something for everyone to get excited for! Check it out on Tuesdays!}

So, my friends, mark your calendars! Today starts the regular scheduling of blog posts three times a week. We will go over a lot of things that can prove helpful for the beginning of writing season (like National Writing Month), so make sure you stay tuned. Please leave a comment if you have anything you’d like to read about in the future! I’d love to hear from you! 

Thanks for tuning in. See you soon :)