Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve loved scary stories.

You may think that sounds ridiculous, but I think it’s because horror is a genre of survival. It teaches us how to survive the most horrible things we can imagine.

And as a kid, I had lots of scary imaginings.

My friends? They never appreciated my love of scary stories as much as I did.

Growing up, there was an ancient rotting orchard between my BFF’s house and mine.

(Ancient rotting orchard? I bet you’re already thinking “uh-oh.”)

We were about thirteen when we watched Nightmare on Elm Street.

Afterwards, I’d dress up in my dad’s old sweater, and pull the sleeves long and draped over my arms.

Then I’d hide in the dark out in the orchard.

When my BFF would come running down the path to my house, I’d leap out and wave my arms like Freddy Krueger does in that creepy alley scene.

She’d scream and run around in little circles throwing her hands in the air.

I’d laugh and laugh.

Pumped on adrenaline we’d run off to watch the next scary movie.

Poltergeist. Alien.The Shining. Child’s Play. Fright Night. Evil Dead. Hellraiser.

A few days or weeks later, I’d jump out of the bushes and terrify her again.

Writing a novel can be like living a scary story, can’t it?

You’re wandering off into the dark, wondering when some crazed monster from your nightmares with a knife-glove is going to jump out of the bushes.

• The agent who requested pages wasn’t interested in your novel after all.

• The agent you signed with, dropped you.

• COVID-19. ‘Nuff said.

• Your computer died and took the draft of your novel with it.

• You get a nasty email from a reader who’s fansplaining all the things you did wrong with your plot.

• A beta reader hates your protagonist.

These are all REAL things that have happened to my clients.

Guess what? All these writers are STILL writing their novels.

In reality, it’s not a knife-glove wearing monster, it’s imposter Freddy Krueger.

Here’s why this is important:

You can either be the writer who gets rattled and stops writing. Which means you’ll never finish your novel, publish it, and get readers.

OR

You can choose to be the kind of writer who is doing this thing no matter what and gets your stories out into the world.

The authors who are successful?

It’s not that they have more talent, a better story idea, or connections in the industry -- 90% of the time it’s that when imposter Freddy Krueger jumps out at them, they feel the scary feels, and keep writing.

Hello!
My name is Jocelyn.

Story warrior, book lover, day dreamer, gardener, and creative. I help serious writers roll up their sleeves, get their novel ready for publishing, and reach readers. When I’m not elbow-deep in the story trenches, I’m outside world-building in my garden and battling weeds with my three criminal mastermind cats.