The reason why I may not be a writer is that instead of stopping in the woods on a snowy evening, I stopped on the way to work on sheetrock to fold cloths.
This morning I emailed a writer in a group I participate in who has her first book published. Here is what I wrote: “
Hello Jessica,
When I finished your book last week, the last sentence “Always stay curious” has been playing over and over in my head since. Curiosity motivates me to seek answers, information, and, sometimes, gets me into trouble.
I look forward to tonight’s Stained Glass Writer’s meeting and hearing you discuss your book. When it comes to the questions part, there are two that I want to give you time to give proper thought to.
The first one is: how did you stay motivated to finish the book? I believe that writers often get discouraged, encounter self-doubt, and frequently confront roadblocks on their way to finishing their book. You even wrote about some of these in your book. It may be helpful to other writers if you share how you handled discouragement, self-doubt, and roadblocks.
The second question relates to a line early in chapter 1 where you wrote about satisfying a creative impulse that needed to be fed. Do you think there is a connection between curiosity and creativity? And, do they relate to motivation?
Technically that is three questions. but if you know me, you also know that I will always have just one more question.
Your book contains the ingredients for success. I wish it does not satisfy your curiosity or creative itch, for I would love to read more from you.
Fred
Tonight, I’ll try to capture her answer.
Now on to sheetrock work after I get off the phone with my new hosting company. I trying to resolve issues with transferring domain names.
I worked on spackling sheetrock for two hours. I had to brush up on my skills for I had not done this since 2011 when we built the wall around the new bedroom. Around 2:00 we had lunch, then took a nap. After the nap, I mowed for just over an hour. With the tractor mower deck broke down, the hand mowing is getting painful. My left leg gets painful, probably due to back issues. Also, it does stress my heart to mow so physically.
At 6:30, I participated in the Stained Glass Writer’s group meeting (via GoToMeeting).
Jessica talked about her book. She did answer my questions. The one on motivation she pointed out she was driven by her support people – Joan, Kathy (who helped her do genealogy research), and writer group members. She did say she felt the common ‘imposter syndrome’ once the publisher agreed to accept the book.