Broken Ballerina | Celebrating Writing My 4th Novel |

 

Broken Ballerina 

| Celebrating Writing My 4th Novel |

Hello, Sweet Friend! 

Eek! Friends!!! I FINISHED BROKEN BALLERINA!!!! Ahhhh!!! I can’t believe I finished it! This is the fourth book I have written and the first of 2023!!! Ack! That’s so cool to say! 

I’m a bundle of emotions right now. I don’t really know what to think of how to feel right now. I’m done. I finished my 4th book!

I am so excited because I finished Broken Ballerina and it was beautiful and the ending was so incredible and emotional and perfect but I AM THEN FINISHED! WHAT!? I feel like I just started and it’s done. What do I do with my life? This was so much a part of my life for over a month (that might not sound the longest but it felt long, especially with how last week was going) and it’s done. I am both celebrating, screaming *internally*, and crying *mostly internally*, and exploding with emotions! This book was a roller coaster and it was beautiful but now it's over and I’m feeling sorta sad. But then I am so excited and want to scream excitedly at everyone that I finished my book! SO MUCH EMOTIONS!!! XD

Growing as a writer 

This was just a different book, as all of them are. This was a slow, older, more grown up feeling book. I know I’ve matured a lot since I wrote my first book November 2021 to now. It shows in my writing and the themes. The main characters are also older (by a year) than my previous stories, the MCs are 18 & 19 instead of late teens (16–18). I also felt like the pacing was like It’s A Wonderful Life, slow at the start but beautiful and cozy with big family themes. 

It’s really cool seeing my growth as a writer and person since that first book. I really took my time with this story, letting it grow and change and giving the characters control in their story. It may sound odd but they really do become real to me, they feel real. They become friends in my mind and I know them. I know their struggles, imperfections, their growth, their strengths, everything. 

I’m taking time with my writing, I’m prioritizing the growth of my characters, making sure my characters become & feel real. I’m prioritizing the themes and making the stories impactful and able to help people and last. I’m realizing that along with strong relatable characters you need incredible themes to be not only successful but last. I use C. S. Lewis as a writing mentor, looking at his books, his writing, and how he was able to write books that have lasted is what I use for a lot of my writing tips. He has THE MOST AMAZING AND IMPACTFUL THEMES! He is the kind of writer I aspire to be. 

(Soon I might do a post about the authors who inspire me in my writing and who I look to for story advice through what they have written). 

The final scene & the *unofficial* blurb 

In honor of finishing Broken Ballerina, I want to share the final lines of the book. The whole last scene was so incredible and emotional for me to write. I decided to do an epilogue set two years after the events of the book. It was so amazing seeing my characters grow up including cameo appearances from A Hawaiian Summer, A Pumpkin Hill Story, and The Summer Camp (a book I have only outlined not written but the characters are very dear to my heart) some years after their own stories! I am so excited for this novel and all the novels in this “series “. All the contemporary books I write have connections and cameo appearances of other characters I’ve written and it is so fun and like I haven’t really left these characters and stories, which as a writer who gets VERY connected to my characters, it is absolutely amazing (and emotional)! 

So without further ado, the final scene: 

“This isn’t the end of our story. There is a whole lifetime in front of us, a whole life together we have yet to live. Children we have yet to have. A world of beauty still left to explore. For no longer are we broken, for we are whole in Him. Jesus healed us and made us whole. I can’t wait to see the next chapter unfold.” 

THE END 

Also, I thought it’s about time I tell you a little bit about the story and what the plot is even about. If you didn’t know, I’m very protective and private about my characters and what my stories are about. This story just hit differently in that I’m ready to talk about it more and what the story is about (though the character names are still secret). So…here is the unofficial blurb: 

Broken Ballerina is a winter story about a girl who dreams of being a ballerina only to get in an accident that takes her legs. Now struggling to even get around her house, she has to grip with the loss of what she thought made her life matter—dance. With the help of her best friend, she has to learn to trust God in every situation and find out that just maybe God has a greater plan for her than dancing. 

While this is happening her best friend has to come to terms with his own struggles and problems. His mother leaving his family took a toll on him, making him think he can’t trust others or let them close. With God's guidance, can he heal and find out that God has a plan for him—a wonderful plan that involves him opening up and loving others despite his fears? 

Can God heal these two broken people? Can they trust in God’s plan for their lives? In a story of brokenness we find that God can heal and make us whole. In Him we are no longer broken but whole in Him. We can live knowing God has a plan for our lives and he will HEAL us. 

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More posts about BROKEN BALLERINA…

• How i got the idea for BROKEN BALLERINA  

• Outlining BROKEN BALLERINA  

• On writing characters & how my main guy character in BROKEN BALLERINA came to be 

• A special winter preview from BROKEN BALLERINA  

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Discussion Time

I hope you liked this post about Broken Ballerina!!! It was so amazing getting to write this book and I’m so excited for the day I get to share this with all of you! Thank you so much for reading this post! <3 

I want to hear from you! Meet me in the comments and tell me something you’re excited about in 2023? Are you working on any new projects? Are you excited about Broken Ballerina? I would love to chat! 

If you have any questions or want to talk, make sure to comment down below! Be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay in the know because I post new content here every week. ALSO, If you want to hear more about my writing and read snippets from my stories, make sure you are subscribed because I am doing special updates for BLOG SUBSCRIBERS ONLY! 

XOXO Moriyah 🤎