When Do You Know Your Story Is Ready

October 5 IWSG Question: When do you know your story is ready?

You just do.

I say that like it's so easy.

But when I was writing my first book (get ready for a shameless plug here) Creating A Joyful Life: The Lessons I Learned From Yoga and My Mom , I thought the book was finished more than once. Actually probably a few times.

Finish #1: I had completed the first draft. Years of thinking about writing and 9 months of writing had finally brought me to the point I WROTE A BOOK! Life is good. I have accomplished something.

Just a couple weeks later I got the unexpected news I was getting divorced. And it was not the nice amicable kind of divorce. I was so devastated I thought my life was over and my book was crap so I literally picked up the manuscript and threw it in the trash. Dumb, I know.

About a year later I was flying home to help my dad and I found the manuscript on my hard drive. I realized my life was not over - it just needed a rewrite!

Finish #2: The rewrite is complete! My book is complete! My life isn't over! And I sent draft number 2 off to the editor. She loved it. Life is good.

And... then I had a crisis with one of my children. Book? What book? My life was consumed with doctors, hospitals, therapists, blame and tears.

This lasted probably another 6 months.

Then, and I swear this is true, I awoke from sleeping in the middle of the night and wrote the ending to my book.

Just like that. It was finished.

And, this time, I knew it was ready.

It sure would have been nice not to have to go through those years of trauma and drama, but I can honestly say it made my book better because it made it real. Everything I wrote in that book I lived and learned. That book was truly my blood, sweat, tears, heart and soul.

I'm now in the process of contemplating book 2. It's in my head, I'm just having some trouble getting it on paper.

Hopefully it won't take so many years and so much heartache this time around.

This post is a part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, a monthly meeting of writers who over think, under write and just want people to like them. 

Of Atoms And Stories #Reverb15

Muriel Rukeyser once wrote: The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms. And I could not agree more. Our stories are our own but, in sharing them, they become universal. And timeless. 

What stories touched you this year? Which stories of your own are you glad you shared?

2015 has been the year I finally told my story.

It's the year I published my book Creating A Joyful Life: The Lessons I Learned From Yoga & My Mom. It's also the year I finally told the story of my abusive marriage. And, it's the year I finally told the story of living in a family of addiction. And how addiction affects the whole family.

My story has been met with criticism, denial and even some who have tried to discredit me and call me a liar.  But, it's also been met with the tears and gratitude of those who believe me, because they too are living my same story.

Over and over again I hear people tell me they thought they were the only one, that no one else understands, that they feel so alone. I get it. I also have felt so alone. For many years I was afraid to speak up because no one would believe me. And I was too ashamed to admit the truth.

So, in silence, I suffered.

It's sometimes tough to write the truth, and even more difficult to allow it to be published knowing the anonymous Internet trolls are there waiting to tear me (or anyone) down. But I can't suffer in silence any more. I have to speak up to try to save not just my family, but myself as well.

Writing my story has helped to heal me.

By writing my story, I've given a voice to so many more people out there trying to save themselves as well.

And that is why I will continue to write. 

This post is part of #Reverb15, a series of daily writing prompts found at Kat McNally Words To Soothe The Weary Soul.