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Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
I don't agree with the whole "write a thousand words a day" thing. I write best when I'm moved to write. Once I stopped trying to get a set number of words onto a page each day, my writing has been able to flow naturally. I wait for God to challenge me with a thought or present an experience and tap into that. When I have those moments, I can write nonstop for hours and not feel tired, hungry, or creatively constipated.
Aside from being my own everything (publicists, investor, fan club president) my greatest challenge has been convincing myself to stay the course when I can't exactly see the course. For most of my life, I worked to be a scientist. Ironically, everything was by the book. I experimented with questions but not with the career itself. It's like you have your goals – starting with your grades and ending with your paycheck – and you follow the steps assigned to you by your fore-scientists.
It’s one thing to leave that path professionally and another to leave it mentally. For the last few years, I’ve been battling with the idea of putting my all in something without any clear expectations for the timing of my reward. And coming from a straight and narrow path to this one that I have to actively create myself has been terrifying as f*ck! Some days that discomfort makes me want to just bail altogether. But I have to remind myself that if I take the same determination and faith I used to fuel my success in STEM and apply it to my current goals, I’m guaranteed to reach those and then some.
So, yes and no. I’m currently working on a couple of other self-help writing projects, but I’m also writing poetry, short stories, and songs. And I intend to bring something wonderful to each genre and creative space.
My first answer is a firm No. I wrote Savings Grace because God made me do it. I seriously wasn’t trying to write a book on saving money. I wasn’t trying to write at all. It was supposed to be a small blurb about maintaining with the little money I was making as a service member for AmeriCorps. But once I started, I couldn’t stop.
I’m definitely grateful for that experience because it showed me that I could be a writer. And I also know myself well enough to stay in my lane. Savings Grace doesn’t dive into investments or retirement plans or NFTs. I only mention what I’ve been successful (or not so successful) with on my personal journey. If God forces me to write another personal finance book, then so be it. But I’m praying that won’t be the case. (Amen.)
I’ve been getting into a lot of crime novels these days. They call it noir, but I have some gripes with associating anything black or dark with delinquency and corruption. Whatever. I recently read S.A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland in three days, and it’s so friggin’ good! I’ll probably read it again before the year is over.
In this season I’m most in love with poetry. Likely because I've discovered my sense of rebellion recently, and poetry to me is writing without bounds. I don't have to say too much or polish my words to create something worth reading. I know I'll be writing poetry long after I stop writing in any other genre.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting, tending to my plant babies, testing new recipes, and trying to get out and explore more of Atlanta. If you have any suggestions on navigating any of those, please let me know!
Right now, I’m giving as much of my attention to Savings Grace as possible. I want it everywhere books are sold around the globe within the next five years.
I still write often though. I have about ten books I come back to whenever I’m moved, and I have over thirty songs and a handful of other projects ready for the Go signal.
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