Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Funny how small the world can be sometimes...


I've been struggling again with this whole publishing journey.


I know all the best practices from a money-making stand point. But what's best for me?

Sure, I'd love to have a steady income stream in order to pay off debt and fix up the house and leave something to my kids. Unfortunately, publishing on the type of schedule that maximizes my money-making potential is stressing me out. All my friends are very encouraging. "You can do it, Jen." "I have every confidence in you, Jen."

And it's not that I don't think I can--eventually. I just can't yet. I've still got some learning to do.

On one of the Facebook groups to which I belong, someone shared a blog post from an author who I created a series bible for last year. I enjoyed all her books tremendously. But, as it turns out, this poor woman suffers with depression and really struggled to meet the deadline of the publisher she signed a contract with.

She talked about pinpointing when the writing was fun for her, i.e. not a chore, when she was most productive. She talked about what it means to be a writer. What "THEY" say... and what the realities are.

The fact is, we're all different. We all have a personal ecosystem going inside of us which includes not only physical health, but mental health, among other things. Each writer gets to decide for him- or herself what their writing life looks like in order to balance that ecosystem and get out of writing what they want or need from it.

I love writing and I don't think I'll ever stop, even if it ends up just be fan fiction. But I also think I can make money with my writing. So I want to try, but I have to keep the process realistic for my abilities and needs at any given time. Do I think in the future I can write faster and get where I want to be in terms of output? Yes, I do. But just like getting the physical body in shape, getting your writing abilities in shape takes time and effort as well.

So, with yet another timely "tale from the trench," I'm gonna do need/what I want to do to have fun on this journey.


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