Confirmations to Just Keep Writing

I’m 2 sleeps from back to school. My last day of Summer break is tomorrow. I’ve gotten a lot accomplished this Summer in my writing. I’m trying to meet a few more goals this week before I get back to teaching art full time.

I’ve made the most progress on the themed memoir I started in January. I think this is because it’s the genre I’m most experienced in as a writer. It comes easy to me so, I’ve decided to set aside my fiction for a bit and finish these 45,000 words so that I can at least have a first draft of a long form book finished in August!

I had several confirmations, one that I wrote down in my journal from a co-worker at the end of May. It was one of those moments that stopped me in my tracks for a moment because she recognized something in me that I didn’t see for myself. She said it out loud, I took it to heart, I took note of it and revisited her words today.

What she was conveying in the conversation was that I pointed people to see the bigger spiritual picture.

Another friend was helping me decide my next steps with my writing and she told me she had a printable that I made in 2020 (that I’d forgotten about). She told me to revisit my words. This put me on a similar path back towards prioritizing the memoir.

Then, the quote that I had written months ago right smack dab on the first page of this manuscript was plastered as big as a billboard right beside me on Hwy 51 last week. I got the hint and the God wink that this was my third reminder that I needed to revisit the memoir.

As I drove to Ripley one day this week, it dawned on me that my whole life creative ideas have flown through the open windows of my mind. My brain works much like those old Pop Up Videos from the 90’s on VHI.

Just like right now, I have three great book ideas started and two of them pretty far along. If I’m not careful though, my brain gets too jumbled, overwhelm sets in, and I get fearful of sitting in the chair to write because I don’t know where to start.

This is how my brain feels when I’m driving, washing dishes, folding clothes, etc. when I’m in the middle of a creative project.

So, today I made some more headway on the memoir and have a plan and word goal for each day of August and a reminder to myself at the top of the page to keep it simple!

I’ll keep you updated as I progress.
-Em