Happy 2023, friends! I am alive! Reports of my untimely demise were greatly exaggerated. Although, a part of me has been put to rest ever since I had my baby girl last May. Okay, I swear I’m not being melodramatic (no more than usual). Let me explain.
If you follow my witterings, you've probably heard me talk about the choices we make. It follows the same vein as how you make a daily habit. You put in the minutes, the time to literally do. And if you aren't doing, chances are, you aren't seeing results, right? That's how a book gets written, or you stay in serviceable shape. It's ten minutes of your day, more or less, where you put in the time. It seems so pithy, but trust me when I say it adds up.
The best advice I can offer you is to not be your worst enemy. You’ll always find someone out there who is better (or more experienced) than you are. But when you focus too much on how much better someone else seems to be or be doing, it’s way too easy to lose sight of your progress. Remember, if you’re writing, you’re constantly growing your craft. It won’t happen overnight. It’s going to take time, hard work, and little thanks in the beginning (sometimes longer).
Most creatives I know reach that point where the cup runs empty. You struggle to find inspiration, the muse leaves you, or you can't seem to find ways to replenish your creativity. For fun, and on a variation of a theme, I wanted to share some of what has inspired me lately. Are you ready?
I no longer beat myself up for not accomplishing what I set out to do or compromising in order to keep up my emotional and interpersonal health. Like I tell my six-year-old, so long as you try your best, that's what counts. These days, I am trying my best to do better in every aspect of my life. With the mental and emotional room to turn to business and the business of writing, I'm approaching 2022 with a fresh attitude.
It's been a while since I wrote about writing. Probably because I've had something of a love/hate relationship with my passion for the past year. The older I get, the harder it becomes to simply throw myself into a story the way I did pre-kid and pre-adulting. I can no longer blindly write into the night. If I want to get anything accomplished in any of my current projects, it needs to become habit.
After a year’s hiatus, I came back to publishing to a whole new world. Many of the authors I had followed were no longer publishing. The ones still around either rocketed to stardom or cut comfortable corners into their perspective niches. Many of the methods I had utilized at the start of my career were null and void, I just wasn’t aware until it was too late.
About a month before watching Cathy Hay's video, I pulled out my high school journals "for research." I've had an idea for a YA novel/novella series for some time, but I wanted to step back into the shoes of Fifteen. Boy, did my journals deliver.
It's hard writing into the void sometimes. With traditional and original fiction, you often write something that people may or not read. Then they may or may not leave a review. If they bother leaving a review (this is not counting book bloggers btw) that's either because they loved your story, or they hated it. The average G.I. Jane doesn't review unless your story moved them to a strong feeling.
When you write, you tend to spend a lot of time in your head, and it’s easy to become discouraged and disheartened. It’s even easier to fall into a pit that doesn’t seem to have a way out.
Jennifer Silverwood 