Back On The Horse

What is it about giving good advice that makes it so painfully difficult to follow it yourself? It has, admittedly, been a while since I last posted on my blog. It's also been a while since I've taken the time to sit down and write anything. I'd say that over the last year or so, I've been doing a bit of creative soul searching - consciously and otherwise.

In the last year I've changed jobs and expanded my social circle and ultimately become wildly complacent with my creative outlets. And, honestly, it took me a while to realize that. It wasn't until ConCarolinas floated back into the picture that I realized I had gone an entire year and was none the better for it. Not just that I hadn't gotten anything published, but that I hadn't gotten a manuscript finished at all. Hell, I hadn't even started a new one after the other petered out! I was off to spend a weekend listening to incredibly talented people talk about their work and give advice, and there I was, for the 5th year in a row, having made no progress whatsoever. As someone who aspires to eventually be a peer on those panels instead of just a fan listening in, I had done an abysmal job of actually pursuing that goal.

But wallowing over my failures isn't going to change anything! All I can do at this point is to learn from my mistakes and make the changes in my life necessary to achieve my goals. So here we are! Reinvigorated, re-inspired, and ready to take my writing seriously again. I realized after a few incredibly helpful panels (I'm looking at you Imposter Syndrome) that I have, at least in part, been avoiding my writing thanks to the fear of failure. But you know what? Failure is okay. Like I said, we learn from our failures. And I'm never going to figure out what works for me until I fail a few times with other things.

So here we go, everyone! Ready, set, write!