Guest Post by award-winning author, Tracy Badua

They say Practice makes perfect, and oh boy, it takes a lot of practice for me to get good at things. I wish I were naturally talented at writing, but behind every book lay hours of research, spotty rough drafts, and countless late nights re-reading and polishing. I’m proud to have my sixth book published soon, but one of the scariest things I’ve had to do was trade in things I was proven to be good at to begin something new.

In my middle-grade contemporary fantasy Thea and the Mischief Makers, my main character, Thea, is a star at her Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym, which has translated into popularity at her new school. Her fellow athlete classmates convince her to sign up for a stunt summer camp that will have her flipping around obstacle courses, splashing into pools, and, to her horror, sprinting and leaping across high platforms. With everyone’s eyes on her and her hard-earned social standing at stake, heights-hating Thea has faced a task she’s not at all good at.

Channeling this sense of beginner’s anxiety wasn’t hard for me to do.

I’ve always wanted to write books. As soon as I could write, I penned tale after tale about my stuffed animals (I illustrated them too, but that wasn’t my strong suit, and I have yet to try my hand at that again). But life and the firm advice of well-meaning relatives who wanted to make sure I had savings and healthcare shifted me onto the track to becoming a lawyer.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and I had my lovely, stable law job. I was on my way to slowly paying down all the student debt that came with it. I decided to start writing with the goal of traditional publication again. I wrote what I thought was a beautiful, universal story of a child’s lunchtime woes. It turns out it wasn’t quite as beautiful as I thought, and a pile of rejections, unfortunately, meant that others agreed I should perhaps go back to the drawing board.

It wasn’t until a few years later that I tried again, but this time was different.

I’d had time to deal with the fact that I wasn’t that good…yet. I needed to learn how to become a better writer of children’s fiction, a very specific field in which I had zero experience. This meant coming to terms with the fact that, despite years as a prolific lawyer and report cards lined with As (okay, and a few other letters in there once in a while, if we’re being honest), I was terrible at something I thought I should’ve been instantly amazing at.

Thea, too, is forced to reckon with the fact she simply wasn’t that good at the skills that would help her fly through the summer camp obstacle course. Unfortunately, how she tries to address this earns her the wrath of a pair of mischievous duwendes, Filipino goblins, living in her backyard. I, luckily, didn’t anger the supernatural on my road to publication… at least, I don’t think I did.

Now, some folks out there will ask how hard it can be to write books for kids. The answer is that it can be incredibly challenging to craft a well-written, engaging, and understandable tale for an audience that is still developing the social filters that would stop them from telling you your book is terrible.

Like Thea, I had a choice: I could throw in the towel and retreat to my comfort zone, or I could steel myself for the work ahead and try to rise to the challenge (or at least fake it until I make it). However, avoiding the struggle that comes with being a beginner would mean that I’d never see the joy of being proficient. Thea couldn’t land effortlessly over the finish line without taking that first terrifying leap onto the course.

I had to take that first terrifying leap, too. I had to relinquish my now-comfy legal writing style and processes— and luxurious, unstructured free time—and trudge back to the starting line.

I took writing courses at a local university, shelled out the money for meetups and conferences, and filled my shelves with craft books, including a couple from the For Dummies series, of course. I loaded up my phone with writing and publishing podcasts so that I could at least not respond with a deer-in-the-headlights look whenever someone tried to chat industry terms with me. I asked questions that probably seemed so elementary to established authors and publishing professionals, and many were so kind and supportive of me as a fledgling author.

In the book, Thea tries everything to tackle the obstacle course, vengeful duwendes, and the reappearance of a clumsy former friend.

For me, it took many, many shelved drafts and rewritten books. I won’t spoil Thea for you, but in my case, years later, I’m so thankful to have multiple books out in the world with my name on the cover.

If you’re considering trying something new–whether it’s writing that first book, starting a sport, or signing up for that cooking class– don’t be afraid of that first leap. It’s tough to step away from what you’re comfortable with, but you can’t even run the race and reach for that trophy if you don’t put your toes on the starting line.

So go ahead: be a beginner.

Tracy Badua is an award-winning Filipino American author of books about young people with sunny hearts in a sometimes stormy world. By day, she is an attorney who works in national housing policy, and by night, she squeezes in writing, family time, and bites of her secret candy stash. She lives in San Diego, California.