Anyone watching the Olympics?
I’m catching highlights of my favorite events- gymnastics, swimming, volleyball, track and field-checking the USA medal count, and listening to athletes’ stories. I’m inspired by how they overcame insurmountable obstacles, like Italian Gianmarco Tamberi who couldn’t compete in Rio Olympics because of a near career-ending injury, but how he roared back and shared a gold metal in the high jumping event in Toyko. And hearing of athletes’ laser focus during the Olympics and how they tune out the noise around them and concentrate on their events. And learning about their sacrificial commitment to their sport, as they say no to distractions.
Thus, the Toyko Olympics has reinforced my commitment to writing. Like the olympic athletes, I want to have a laser focus on writing and make necessary sacrifices to commit to the craft. After all, I’ve overcome major (mostly internal) obstacles in my life.
That obstacle occurred in my mid- twenties and through my late thirties. I served as a pastoral assistant in an outreach ministry, first working part-time so I could dedicate time to writing. Since I didn’t have healthy boundaries in place and was very co-dependent, I allowed the ministry needs and the inertia of solving imminent daily problems take priority over writing. It wasn’t too long until vocational ministry was a 24/7 dedication.
Those days were hard, especially because I enjoyed writing so much. But the inevitable came where I set it down completely as commitments in the ministry became more intense. I regretted doing this, but succumbed to what offered the least resistance from others and my diminishing energy level, even if I paid the cost.
I felt the void of putting to death the creative expression I loved. I didn’t understand then, but I was grieving over laying down a calling God had ordained for me. But back then, I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to fully grieve or the tools to process my emotions in a healthy manner.
Fortunately, the ministry ended, and I could return to writing once again. But now, I was in my late thirties, feeling way behind. My storytelling muscles had atrophied that I struggled to relearn the craft and discipline of writing. But through the encouragement of family, friends, and writing communities, God has redeemed that lost time! Now, I’m able to write full-time. What a dream come true.
So, I’m going to put my writing career on full throttle with increased focus and commitment.
So, how does this affect you? I’m going to scale back on the blog. Instead of blogging once a week, I’m posting once a month. These posts will be mostly updates on my writing, and from time to time, include fun giveaways. If a fellow author is having a book launch, I’ll feature a separate guest post in addition to the update. (For all you authors in this community, please give me a heads up if you’d like to guest post when your book is released.)
What am I working on currently?
- Editing Love At the Mayo (my contemporary women’s fiction novel). Many of my beta readers have read it, so their feedback is trickling in. I’ll be committing time reviewing those and making edits.
- Editing Marry for Love (temporary title until I can grasp a better one), a historical fiction novel, based on my grandparents’ love story. I received the edits from my editor, so I’m revising each chapter. I want to get it in the hands of beta readers by late fall, early winter of this year.
- I just finished a 31-day platform challenge. (Thanks Karen for recommending it!) I learned more about developing an author platform and connected with fellow authors. I’ll be working on creating an improved lead magnet and improving my Instagram account.
- I started a different challenge (posed from the same writer who launched the platform challenge). This challenge is to help each other with maintaining a daily word count. We set individual goals and share them daily on the private Facebook page. It’s perfect timing because when I’m heavily editing, I don’t tend to write anything new. But, I found a writing assignment that’ll help with Love At the Mayo.
- I’m about to start a book project for my dad. I’m excited for this, but need to re-arrange my schedule to make room without compromising time working on editing my manuscripts. Any tips about meal prep? (LOL.)
That sounds like a lot, but by focusing one a day at a time and eliminating wasteful distractions, I am on my way to meeting my writing goals and fulfilling the mandate of sharing my stories to the world.
How about you? What are your writing goals? What major obstacles have you overcome? Please share in Comments. And hope for August, you’ll have productive wins, delightful surprises, and meaningful connections!
Featured Photo by Ryunosuke Kikuno on Unsplash