I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember. When I was a little girl, I loved to write stories about my imaginary friends. As I got older, I became obsessed with the idea of being a writer. I read everything I could get my hands on about writing, and I practiced writing every chance I got.

When I was in high school, I wrote a short story and submitted it to a literary magazine. I was ecstatic when it was accepted. It was the first story I’d ever been published in, and it made me feel like I was on top of the world. But when I read the story, I realized that I’d made a huge mistake. I’d written it in first person, and the story was all about me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was writing myself into a corner. I couldn’t think of any way to get out of it, so I ended up rewriting the story in third person. It wasn’t as good as the original, but at least I could think of a way out of the corner I’d put myself in.

## The Road to Recovery

After I graduated from college, I moved to New York City to pursue a career in writing. I spent the next few years working my way up the ladder in the publishing industry. I started out as an assistant editor, then moved on to become an editor, and finally, I was promoted to editor-in-chief of a small publishing house. I loved my job. I got to work with some of the most talented writers in the world, and my job gave me the opportunity to travel all over the world and meet new people every day. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that I wasn’t happy with my career. I felt trapped. I wanted to be a writer, not an editor. I knew that if I stayed at the publishing house, I’d never be able to do what I really wanted to do—write my own stories. So I decided to leave my job and start my own publishing company. I quit my job, packed up my belongings, and moved to a small town in upstate New York, where I started my company and began writing my first novel. It took me almost two years to finish the novel, but when I was finally done, I felt like I’d been given a new lease on life. I had finally found what I was meant to do, and now I was going to do it.

## The Writing Process

One of the things I love about writing is that it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time you try to write something. You can always go back and edit your work. If you don’t like what you’ve written, you can rewrite it until you’re happy with the result. This is one of the reasons I love writing so much. It’s like playing a game of chess. You make a move, and then you have to think about how you’re going to respond to your opponent’s next move. If your opponent makes a move that you didn’t expect, it throws you off balance, and you’re forced to make a new move to get back into the game. Writing is the same way. The more you write, the more you get to know your characters and the world they live in. You’ll start to see patterns in the things that happen to your characters, and those patterns will help you make better choices when you write the next part of your story. It takes a lot of practice to get good at writing, but once you do, you’ll find that it’s a lot more fun than you thought it would be.

## About the Author

Caitlin O’Shaughnessy is the author of the award-winning young adult novel The Girl Who Fell from the Sky. She lives in New York with her husband and two children. To learn more about Caitlin, visit her website.

## HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

This book is divided into three parts. The first part, “The Road,” tells the story of how I got into writing and how I became a published author. The second part is “The Writing Process,” which explains how to write a book from beginning to end. Finally, the third part is filled with tips, resources, and ideas to help you market your book and get it into the hands of as many people as possible. Throughout the book, I share my personal experiences as a writer and as a self-published author. I hope you enjoy reading about my journey as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section at the end of the book.