New Beginnings Do Not Mean Starting Over
I started from the beginning last month – a blank Google Doc on my screen and the outline of a new story perched next to my steaming coffee. And then I wrote. With each clacking keyboard stroke I felt lighter, freer. You see, back in April I decided that I would finish my first novel and immediately begin a second one. If you’ve read my post It’s Time to Move Forward, you’ll understand the frustrations that drove me to begin my second book. I made a goal. I accomplished the goal, and now I am beginning something new, but it would be a mistake to say that I am starting over.
Creators vs Consumers
Choosing to be a writer at times feels akin to watching your pal Sisyphus attempting to roll his boulder up the mountain. You see him fail several times and instead of shaking your head and leaving, you pat him on his much-more-muscular-than-yours back and willingly trade places with him. You struggle with rolling the proverbial writer’s boulder because it’s what you do – your “being” as I mentioned in a previous post.
It’s Time to Move Forward
Finishing a piece of writing is leaving behind a stone marker along my creative path. The biggest stone I want to unload is my first novel. And yet, as I sit here today, I’m on the precipice of a fourth (and hopefully, final) revision. Really, it’s a complete overhaul, and exactly as daunting as that sounds.
You Have a Job. Do It.
I’d been injured playing basketball before. Beyond the little fingernail scrapes and bruises, I had just gotten back from a rib injury. Even now, my big toe is black from bruising. Basketball is a contact sport and I’m no spring chicken anymore. I took a deep breath and asked him the question I’d been so worried to ask. It’d been churning in my mind for a week, “should I quit basketball if I keep getting injured?”
You Are What You Do — Then I’ll Be A Writer
What makes a writer? Learn how I took ownership of my dreams and followed the motto: you are what you do.
