A Spec in Time Series

How is it October? What happened to the year? It feels lost in all of the chaos of the world. Will it ever calm down? I feel like I’m on a freight train barreling down a mountain pass, at full speed and no breaks. I just can’t stand it. Feeling like you are holding onto a cliff by your fingernails is not a good way to live, especially if you chew your nails. It is bad for your mind, soul, and body. Breathing, walking, news fast…. nothing seems to stop the rush of anxiety. I have no advice for this as I’m in the same whirlpool as you are. Perhaps, read my books and hope.

I have been doing a lot of tweaking on book three. All of the main sections of the story are done and being fleshed out. Sometimes I spend a whole afternoon on one paragraph. Those are the most frustrating days and the most fulfilling days. That perfect word goes into place, and the rest gets totally rewritten as it all falls into place. That is the difficult part of writing, the minutiae and details. I love the research, both the big picture for the overall story and the small details to ensure I have the specifics for that one paragraph. Overall, Book Three: Inception is going well, and I’m getting to the point of pulling it all together, weaving each section into the others, creating a consistent flow.

Next week, I go to a class to learn about marketing to agents and publishers. I have no clue what they even do. If they help sell my story, that is what I need; just writing these blogs isn’t enough. It’s great to get into a different frame of mind for a few hundred words and have a personal moment with all of you. I need my breaks; I think that was part of the lesson I needed to learn this summer. I’ve been fortunate enough to have people who pass recommendations, but me selling my own stuff – well, it is not what I’m capable of.

I’ve spent my entire life being ‘the struggling artist’, so in some ways I’m quite used to it. I know that connections are necessary to secure work. I know that you advertise when you’re up because that is when you have the money to pay for it. I also know it’s the struggle to that point that discouragement happens. The one thing I have in my pocket is that I’m doing this story for myself. Sure, it would be great to sell a few more books, yet getting the story out of my head and preserving it for others to enjoy is what I hope to accomplish.

For now, I will continue to write more, learn more, and hopefully find some help with the things I don’t understand. I hope that all of you do something you enjoy and keep learning. It may be the only thing we can do to slow the onset of fear and create happiness for ourselves.

Stay calm and read on.

pooh