I told myself that I was DONE writ­ing his­tor­i­cal fic­tion. So, I pulled out an old man­u­script of con­tem­po­rary fic­tion and began revis­ing it.

When I sent the man­u­script to my agent, she kind­ly sug­gest­ed that I focus on the his­tor­i­cal fic­tion man­u­script instead. Dur­ing the six years that she had been my agent, I don’t recall ever dis­agree­ing with her. But this time, I did. I told my agent that I just couldn’t write his­tor­i­cal fic­tion any­more. I couldn’t write what no one was inter­est­ed in read­ing. I couldn’t write what wouldn’t sell.

My agent gra­cious­ly gave me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ven­ture out and see whether anoth­er agent was inter­est­ed in my con­tem­po­rary man­u­script while leav­ing her door open if I couldn’t find anoth­er agent. We part­ed ways on good terms, and I did find anoth­er agent who thought she could sell the con­tem­po­rary manuscript.

But … the man­u­script didn’t sell. (Or hasn’t sold yet.)

By this time, I had final­ly got­ten up the nerve to go back to the his­tor­i­cal nov­el and add some pages. I sent those pages to my new agent. She also loved the premise, the syn­op­sis, and the now 70-page sam­ple. She, how­ev­er, stat­ed that in order to try to sell on pro­pos­al, she would like to see the man­u­script reach a cer­tain turn­ing point in the sto­ry as opposed to a cer­tain page count.

So, of course, I jumped in and got to writing.

Not!!!

Again, I became dis­cour­aged and went back to a dif­fer­ent con­tem­po­rary man­u­script, a short mid­dle grade series, and a few pic­ture books. Sad­ly, I was will­ing to work on any­thing oth­er than that his­tor­i­cal fic­tion. Like the Col­lege Stu­dent Who Refused to Write that Final Essay, I just couldn’t wouldn’t bring myself to do it.

Until I did.

I was actu­al­ly inspired by the inci­dent with the Col­lege Stu­dent. It was an eye-open­ing moment which revealed to me that I was sim­ply refus­ing to show up and do the work. I was squan­der­ing my opportunity.

At this point, I’d had two agents say­ing, “Hey, work on the his­tor­i­cal nov­el.” And I wouldn’t. I even won a grant in 2025 to encour­age me to com­plete a work of mid­dle-grade fic­tion, yet I con­tin­ued to let fear hold me back.

Then, I made up my mind to fin­ish what I start­ed. I told myself that it didn’t mat­ter whether any­one want­ed to buy this man­u­script or not, I owed it to myself to fin­ish it. I owed it to myself to know how this sto­ry ends. So, I went all in and I am now beyond the point in the man­u­script where my cur­rent agent sug­gest­ed. But I am not send­ing the draft to her because I no longer care to sell the man­u­script on pro­pos­al. I care about com­plet­ing it. That’s my job as a writer — to fin­ish what I start­ed. And, I must fin­ish strong. Yes, I want to write what sells, but I also need to write what’s in my heart.

So, if you want to be a writer:

Sit down. Write. Fin­ish what you start. Fin­ish strong.

Don’t wor­ry about whether the work will sell. That part is com­plete­ly out of your con­trol. Write what you know you need to write. And write it to the best of your ability.

Side note: I did man­age to write a non­fic­tion mid­dle-grade book dur­ing my pause pro­cras­ti­na­tion on his­tor­i­cal fic­tion. All the World’s a Stage: A Young Reader’s Guide to Shakespeare’s Char­ac­ters (Illus­trat­ed by Meel Tam­phanon) will be pub­lished by Run­ning Press Kids on March 16, 2027.