Adapting Day by Day

It’s been a month now since I made the fully fledged commitment to go back to writing as more than just a hobby for my free time. I won’t lie, there have been some rough patches. First, there was the overabundance of information available on self-publishing. I’m just like any other would-be writer and introvert – I’m a fan of rabbit holes. But this particular rabbit hole was more like an entire warren – think Watership Down and then multiply, by like a lot.

One of the most productive pieces of advice I have found in trying to test the waters of the new written world I’m finding myself in is to build an audience. Now, as a very firm introvert, this can be a bit difficult (and tomorrow’s blog will be a shares-ie with Confessions of an Introvert about this very problem). In my research, I found two platforms to try, Wattpad and Booksie. And, because I have close to 30 completed works (or, at the very least, the rough draft is completed ) I thought (foolishly in retrospect) why not try both at the same time??

My first week felt like two. I couldn’t believe that I survived editing, posting, and following through on both stories for an entire week. The second week was much the same, with some benefits of winning a Sci-Fi award on Wattpad and earning several bronze badges on Booksie for total reads. Things were looking up, maybe I wasn’t crazy, maybe I could do this. Then reality decided to knock me over with a baseball bat. Multiple times over.

Part of what pushed me to go back to writing was the time lost last year to my own battle with COVID-19. I am now a part of what is referred to as “long haulers”, and while I am far better off than I was nearly a year ago, there are still VERY bad days. I had back to back to back bad days due to working in the cold for up to 6 hours a day, and my writing suffered. This week, I made an effort not to let myself fall into the same patterns, to protect my health, but even then, I needed a week of recovery, and, again, my writing suffered.

Now, completely snowed in without a place to go (and no Starbucks!!), I can truly take a deep breath, regroup, and then let myself focus on my writing. If there is one thing that COVID taught me, it’s that I need to be adaptable. COVID “flares”, as I call them, don’t tend to always come with a warning. Work doesn’t always tell me in advance when I’m going to be faced with a 14 hour day and a 60+ hour week. But these last two weeks have taught me something too. Writing needs to remain adaptable. Those of us who are would-be writers, we do not stay would-be writers because we lack the drive to become more. We stay would-be writers because sometimes life just happens, and all we can do is learn to roll with the punches.

This would-be writer is determined to change my fate – and it helps that the Brave sound track is up on my Pandora play list right now. If I can learn to be adaptable when it comes to my body and long haul COVID, then I can learn to be adaptable when it comes to when I shut out the world and just WRITE. And the more I write, the more I can focus on something more – PUBLISHING. So little by little, bit by bit, I can become a would-be author, and then, a bonafide author.

For now, I’m going to make my self some hot chocolate, watch the snow for a bit, and then just let my thoughts go – for I know they will take me back to my current works in progress. And for today, that will be enough.

Until next time –

L.E.