What is “Forgotten?”
Hello readers! Thanks for stopping by!
I’ve gotten so many questions asking for an update on my novel, Forgotten. Many have also asked if I’ve heard results for the contests I submitted to in May for unpublished authors and unpublished novels. I have not heard back yet (results will be coming mid-late August), but figured giving you some backstory while we wait would be useful and fun! To know where Forgotten stands today, you have to understand where the story itself came to be and appreciate the journey we’ve been through together…
Flashback to November 2009: I’m 18 years old and while writing papers for college is a way to pass the time, I much prefer the worlds of fiction within my mind. I sign up for my second NaNoWriMo and encourage a few of my friends to join in the challenge of writing 50,000 words in just 30 days. I have an idea stuck in my mind that is aching to be explored: what if your imaginary friend wasn’t so imaginary after all? I spend all of my free time in November 2009 throwing everything I have at that story, then called Forget Forgetting You (not my best work, title-wise, but let’s blame it on my age, inexperience, and pure excitement to get this story out).
After NaNoWriMo 2009 ended, I hadn’t quite met my 50,000-word goal, but I was awful close and absolutely in love with the characters. I was able to get a simple proof version just for myself that made it all feel so real, but over the next 15 years, the manuscript would sit in a navy blue binder among several other “chunky” works in progress. I’d dust off this story again and again when the FanFiction no longer scratched my itch, not sure of how this story was evolving and growing with me; not sure how it wanted to be told, but knowing there was still life in those pages, waiting for me to bring them into the light.
Flashforward to February 2024: I’ve been put on a mental health leave of absence from my job to allow me space to properly grieve the death of my mother (not just take a week off of work), process childhood trauma, and to generally breathe life back into myself. Depression and anxiety are consuming me, but my doctors, friends, and husband all encourage me to “pursue my passions” and to “find happiness.” The problem is that I have no clue what I am even passionate about anymore. For 11 years (and far beyond), I had been told to give all of myself to “a career” and then I had nothing substantial to show for it besides a pat on the back and a pizza party (and crippling student loan debt, but let’s save that story for another day).
“I had been told by many that my dream of becoming an author was just that: a dream. And a dream it will stay, unless I take back the time and energy I had so freely given to everyone and everything else.”
So, I decided not return to work as I’ve known it and decided to use my project management skills to set a small goal for myself to submit some of the best 3,000 words I’ve ever written to a local contest by May 1st: The Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards Contest. As I thought on all the stories I’ve written, all the novels in binders beneath my desk, one called to me again and again as it refused to be “forgotten.” I dusted off Forget Forgetting You and began the process of reviving my long-lost love, starting with a more fitting title: Forgotten. That one goal snowballed into a larger goal to finish the story begging to be told: I owe it to my characters and the hours my past self put into this to see it through.
Today, I sit here breathing life into this novel as it breathes life into me. Forgotten is far from my first story, but something about it is personally significant. Pages upon pages are pouring out of me, filled with all of my pain, my self-discovery, and more importantly: my love. It’s been therapeutic to focus on something for me; to write a story I’ve wanted to read since 2009, but it wasn’t ready yet - neither was I.
By this August, I will have Forgotten fully drafted and ready for whatever comes next and I’m not looking back. Forgotten is over a quarter of the way drafted and on track to be completed by the time competition results come in August. Come along with me as I find my freedom through fiction and stay tuned for updates as I progress this summer!
