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My Journey as
a Writer

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It is time to WAKE UP!

2/27/2016

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Wake up! It's time to get up and do something productive!

This is what I told myself this morning. Why? Because, I have been asleep, writing wise, for the last 18 months. Oh, I know, I've written a couple of small non-fiction articles, kept up with my kids blog, started a couple of novels, and have been busy promoting my newly released book, Search for the Red Ghost. However, when I look back on this last year and a half, I've been everything but productive with my writing.

When I started writing again, it was my goal to write a book a year. In 2013, I wrote the Great Camel Experiment of the Old West. In 2014, I wrote Oliver's Hunger Dragon and Search for the Red Ghost. In 2015, I wrote three picture books that are still sitting on my computer waiting to find a home and the start of three different novels. Now I said start because two of them have not made it pass the first chapter, and the third is less than 8,000 words in. So where is my finished book for 2015? There isn't one.

Now like every other procrastinator, I can come up with dozens of reasons why I have yet to finish the two good novels I have started writing. I lost my eldest daughter. I home school my 11 year old grand daughter. I'm trying to catch up with my reading. It's too cold. It's too hot. It's raining. I'm tired. All good reasons, or so I thought until this morning.

Today, like every other day, I wake to write down one or two ideas I have for books or stories. Dreams are powerful creative sources. Two weeks ago one of those dreams even coerced me into a writing flurry--the beginning of my third novel. I wrote 7,000 words in one sitting and thought "Yes, I am on my way!" But I wasn't. Oh, I dutifully write a meager 3 sentences a day which is what I said I would do for the writer support group I belong to, but any more than that--NADA. So why is today different? 

It's different because I have finally decided "No More Excuses". Life is way too short, and I have a lot of stories rattling in my brain that will be lost forever if I don't write them. Plus, both my youngest daughter and my youngest grand daughter asked me yesterday, "When is your next book coming out?" And, I couldn't answer either of them--not honestly at least. So to make up for 2015, I am going to complete two middle grade novels this year and resubmit those three picture books sitting in my computer.

2016 is the Year of the Monkey, and while that is one clever little creature, I am getting him off my back. It is definitely time to WAKE UP!


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When the rain falls . . .

2/7/2016

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This week, the rain fell and with it my desire to write. What is it about gloomy weather that makes a person want to curl up on the sofa and ignore the world?

According to the experts it's called Seasonal Affective Disorder. It is a depression that hits when winter rears its head and gobbles up all the sun. daylight, and feel good times of summer. I know about this depression because my daughter suffered from it. For her, gloomy, dark, and dreary days meant low energy, irritation, and exhaustion--mental and physical. For her, light therapy seemed to work the best. No, she didn't buy special lamps, she just turned on the lamps. I mean she opened her curtains, turned on all the lights, and resisted the temptation to head back to bed. One other thing she did was seek out friends and family and spend time at her daughter's school. It didn't work all the time, but it did seem to help.

My case is different. I don't get sad, depressed, or irritated. Instead, I get the "I have to read a good book" syndrome, or the "I need inspiration and it's not coming from me" syndrome. 

Under normal circumstances, I love the rain. I love walking in it. I love watching the drops as they slide across my window. And, I love splashing in mud puddles with the grandkids. But when the rain comes with dark, thick clouds and cold, harsh wind that takes your breath away, I loose all creativity. My mind becomes mush and all the ideas I had the day before are deep in the quagmire of brain slush. So needless to say, I have written very little this week. And, I might add, only what my encouraging writers group demands of me--three sentences a day. So, this is me, asking you "What do you do to get the creative juices flowing when it rains?"





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    Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

    Sherry Alexander

    Dreamer, believer, reader, writer

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