Keep on Keeping on, IWSG December 2019

It's IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds.IWSG is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh, our brilliant ninja leader. To find a list of contributors and to link to their posts, click here.

This month's optional question:   Let's play a game. Imagine. Role-play. How would you describe your future writer self, your life and what it looks and feels like if you were living the dream? Or if you are already there, what does it look and feel like? Tell the rest of us. What would you change or improve? The awesome co-hosts for the December posting of the IWSG are Tonja Drecker, Beverly Stowe McClure, Nicki Elson, Fundy Blue, and Tyrean Martinson.

My dreams are small. When I'm published, I’d like to talk to other writers about what it takes to be a traditionally published author. I’d tell my story, how I started writing to purge the shock of unexpected job loss, and how I challenged myself, first by publishing blog posts, then moving on to freelance articles and how finally, I dared myself to write a novel. I’d describe how the only draft of my first book attempt was such &#%* that I didn’t know how to fix it, but my second book demonstrated improvement. I'd talk about how I took writing classes, joined a writing group and how, when I queried my third book, I received requests for full reads which came to naught, but in spite of the soul-sucking disappointment of it, still,  I began querying my fourth book. 

I’d tell anyone who will listen that I made myself go back and look at that first awful book attempt, delighted to see after all the years of writing, I’d developed the skill to fix it. How now I spend my writing mornings working on a second draft, hooting at my first awful attempt, but tickled to see how much I’ve grown as a writer.

Living the dream for me means talking about never giving up, encouraging other writers to keep going, keep writing draft after draft, proof, edit, re-write, proof again, listen to critiques and edit again, then send out those darn queries until finally, finally, finally, you get where you want to be. I'd tell other writers, because that's what I tell myself now.

It’s simple, my dream. It doesn’t involve Hollywood, or fame or riches. Just a book (or four) on a shelf, with my name on the spine(s). A Google search that turns up my Amazon listing. A friend, telling me how much they love my stories. And the experience to tell other writers to just keep going. 

Then, I'd sit down again, and convince myself to do the same.