Can you believe it's already August? I'm back in writing mode after a July filled with family time and directing theater camps. Now summer is nearly gone and around here school has begun.
In years past in August, I would be thinking about updating a class syllabus, choosing books for literature groups to read, and worrying about the best way to assess student learning.
Now I am doing the learning while I get Winnie Acts Up ready for the world! And when I assess my own learning, I find myself questioning whether I've made a mistake being a writer:
1. Do I have enough time?
There must be a way to do all important tasks on the same day, or at least in the same week! The list seems endless even after completing two or ten important tasks. I decided to publish independently because of the time factor. But running a website and blogging and marketing books and feeding my husband and cleaning the house and paying the bills and loving on my dog, all take time. Now I wonder whether I made a mistake and bit off more than I can chew?!
2. Do I have enough knowledge?
I tell myself I know how to write, but producing a great story is another level of skill. And everyday I see more webinars telling me that if I watch them I will create a better character, or build a stronger plot arc, or provide a stronger beginning and ending, or grab more readers. These decisions weigh me down. My writing partners and I have even made a pact that we will spend NO more money on these added "value" events until we get this first book published. But I have yet to learn how to bypass the excess email offers and fully trust the information already present in my brain. More mistakes?
3. Do I have enough energy?
Is it the "energy" I question, or the "persistence" that I need to get a job done? Sometimes, I push ahead too quickly with an online task, then struggle to understand my mistake. Maybe it's "confidence" I strive to retain when an online application refuses to remember me and no human option exists to help. As a Baby Boomer, I lack the ease that younger generations demonstrate with technology innovations, but I won't give up trying.
ANSWERS:
Winnie Acts Up is completed! This first book showed me that I had the time and I'm ready to move into the next phase or ahead with the next book. Each phase will ALWAYS take time and I have decided that I WANT to take this time.
And YES, I have the knowledge, and I have the energy, as well as the persistence to make a book happen. But there will always be QUESTIONS. Some of the answers will be within myself and some will be outside myself. I will make mistakes and I will correct them as best I can.
Eleanor Roosevelt said it best, " Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself."
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