“The End” is Just the Beginning

Job Loss by Covid

After losing my job like millions of others due to COVID, I lost my creative juice needed to write. I felt sorry for myself for a couple of days, grateful that I acquired my real estate license in December 2019, so I fell back on it. It’s a hard business to get going, but I could do it! Then tornado’s hit my town in Tennessee. I dusted off my jeans, called our insurance adjuster, and back to work, hoping someone would trust me enough to give me a shot. I was ready, had to reinvent myself, so I picked myself up by the bootstraps day-after-day, with some success picking up my first client in July and two more in 2020. In 2021, I will close on over a million dollars in property sales by February 10th. Where there’s a will…

Creative Support

However, I let my writing pretty much fall off to the wayside and only tweaked it a couple of times a week. I lost my joy. My saving grace is my critique group/partner, my besties who are always there with a supportive word, an honesty only they can deliver with grace in our biweekly zoom meetings and phone calls. Without this thread of support, I would never continue. But, in this solitary lifestyle of being an author/writer, you must finish the story, you must write. That’s totally on you. You must set your nose to the grindstone and sit your ass in the chair. Stephen King’s On Writing ([I listen in my car like he’s talking directly to me.] and in this author’s opinion, a must-have reference) said the following in the conversation about writing daily: “Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.” When published royalty speaks, I listen.

Nose – Grindstone

So, I’m shoveling shit from a sitting position after speaking with a critique partner, published author, Monica McCabe, on how to insert a picture within a paragraph, then fell down a rabbit hole into WordPress how-to videos. As you can see, I was successful, somewhat, and hopeful that his image fades in, albeit not in the above paragraph. It’s a work in progress – just like writing! You’ll not have the perfect submission after writing ‘The End’ the first time, no matter how good of a writer. ‘The End’ is just the Beginning! That’s an article for another day. Right now, you need your peeps, your besties, your tribe because although you’re an island, you must be within reach of the mainland; a phone call, text, or the valued zoom meeting to discuss the oasis that is your imagination.

Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help

I recently requested my critique group for help. I need some accountability and they joined me in setting goals, deadlines, and moderation during our recent zoom critique meeting. It went better than expected because accountability to me is daunting. We came up with short-term goals for writing and working on the craft. Reading – I’ve joined Jody Wallace in a light book reading club. She also is our grammar wench and editorial genius and is advising me on going deeper – that is in POV. We all bring different aspects to our writer family, and these variables are imperative to my success. Of my four critters, three are published, Monica as indicated above, Dr. Dana Sieders, and yes, she’s keeping her doctor title. Check out her stand-alone work as well as writing with Jody Wallace in the Dragons of Tarakona series. Jody has over forty novels ready for your reading pleasure as well. For me, supporting my fellow authors gives me a boost and inspiration to write as I hang on to their coattails to publication.

Help

If you have a second, I would love a follow and share if you’re so inclined. I promise your info is just for me. I won’t fill your box every day, hardly once every couple of weeks and probably once a month if I am lucky.

I’ll see you in the bookstores – socially distanced of course.

~Kolin

Find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.