Shantel N. Williams's Blog: My Literary Chronicles...

The day I penned my first urban fantasy novel, “Eternally In Love with You” was a day I felt really accomplished as a writer. Now I have several books under my belt already, but this particular book really pushed me out of my comfort zone. It pushed me out of a box I didn’t even know I had put myself in. This book challenged my creativity and writing skills many days. I always wanted to write about vampires, sifters, witches, magical powers etc. for years now. But I never felt I could do it. Vampires has been written in so many ways how could I make it different from all the other books? Would I be able to pull off a witch-vampire hybrid? Uncharted territory scared me, but when then idea hit me, I took on the challenge. There were many days I tried to talk myself out of writing this book, but the characters wouldn’t stop talking to me. Over time I became confident enough to finish it. I relied on research, other fantasy novels, and my own imagination and created a book I love. A book I’m proud of. The process of writing this book was long, tiring, but also rewarding. I was writing material I thought I would never write. As an urban fiction author, writing beyond my normal topics are always important to me. This book is my first step into venturing out into other areas in the urban fiction genre. Now I’m two days away from it being released and I’m excited and nervous. Excited for myself for writing something new. Nervous as I hope people will enjoy my story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

I've been writing books ever since I was in middle school. My first book took me about five years to write. Now as an urban fiction writer, there's this big thing that you have to put out books every few weeks to gain readers. For some people it works but that can cause stress on other writers. I never been a fast writer, it used to take me months to finish a book. On average I type about 2,000 words a day. Even that leaves me feeling drained. Some people feel that if you don't write every single day or if you can't push out 10k words a day then you aren't a true author. I think that's crazy to say that about someone. Every author writer differently. We all have out different routines, writing styles, ambition, and creative processes we follow. In my personal opinion I know for sure I would not put out good work if I force myself to write or try to crank out 10k words unnaturally. This post is for all the authors who feel the need to hurry and put out books. I"m here to say you don't. This is not a race this is your career and you should always put out work you can be proud of. Everyone works at their own pace and that's okay. Keep writing!