I can answer in three words:
Passion
Priorities
Promises
Only now I need more words to elaborate so here we go:
By Passion, I mean one's talent, dreams, goals, desires. And like most writers, mine was to write and be published. That happened early on. My first story sold when I was 25, and I had articles published in a local newspaper. Then my Passion became to write a novel and get it published. Guess what, that never happened until nearly 40 years later, due to Priorities. My novel House of Diamonds is about a writer who must postpone her passion due to her priorities, and yes it is autobiographical.
Priorities -- those things that one is responsible for based on choices made. Like children in my case. My husband and I had ten children, and little did my clueless self realize how much time, attention, and energy they'd take for many years to come. I absolutely was not able to focus on writing a book while I was in this child-nurturing phase. Some women may be able to do it. I couldn't. So I wrote short pieces, and journaled, and sold a couple more stories.
Promises to oneself go deep and never really go away, even when they may not happen until years later. When I was a child I promised myself I'd be a writer. I never lost the Passion. I put it on hold due to Priorities. And now I am keeping that Promise.
But there is one more P word which can derail all of it. Can you guess what that is?
Procrastination
It's one thing to postpone the work because another Priority takes precedence. Oh my this post is just full of P words! But when your time is now and still you procrastinate for no really good reason, well then just stop it! Because you owe it to yourself to keep your promises. (And this is what I tell myself on a regular basis.)
This is me with two of my Priorities who grew up to help me realize my Passion. The little boy (Billy #5) edited Farm Girl and the little girl (Liesel #6) has edited all my other books. |