Self Publishing - (My Learning Curve Looks More Like a Hairpin)

The old saying goes something like, "The more I learn, the less I know".  During my recent journey to publish my novel, this little saying has popped into my mind nearly a thousand times. As I've taken each step, I've become aware of things that I didn't even contemplate before. (Who knew a query letter was a thing?) When I began the process of throwing words onto paper and rearranging them repeatedly, I had an ignorantly, blissfully, sweet way of viewing this thing called "getting published". I thought it would be as simple as creating a great story, picking an agent (little did I know the approval process would be the other way around), and finding a publisher.  Ta-dah! I would be a best selling author! Wasn't I precious?  

Fast forward four or five years later and my awareness has changed. Write a great novel- Check. Pick an agent - Leave blank. This may not happen quickly. I am a researcher. I've done my homework. To be completely honest, I haven't even approached one single agent. I think I've nearly talked myself out of it at this stage of the game. The word on the street is that for someone like me (never published, minuscule social media platform) finding a good agent at this point will be as easy as winning the figure skating competition in the Olympics after the winter of rest that I've enjoyed.

Ignored Creative Urges Equals Destruction

First, I should preempt what I'm about to say with this - I believe all human beings are creative creatures, in some form or fashion. We tend to think of artists, musicians, writers, and the like when referring to a "creative soul". The very act of creating something, to bring something into existence, to cause something as a result of one's actions, includes a vast number of things that we do in our everyday life. Artists don't have the market on creativity. An engineer is creative when designing a structure. An attorney is creative when designing a game plan to win a case. The urban gardener's creativity flows abundantly when designing a companion planting plot. When you are being creative, you can feel it in your entire body. It feels like an adventure!

In a video, a few days ago, I talked about the soul's need to dream. Not only do we need to have dreams, we also need to be creative. The creative soul not allowed to create will become destructive.  We have a vast amount of energy designed just to create. If this energy is bottled up, or leached away by the demands of life, we become negative and destructive.

Are You Letting Someone or Something Steal Your Dreams?

I've had a message heavy on my heart lately and feel compelled to write about it. But time has been in short supply over the past week as I've been busy preparing my book for publishing. I decided to make a short video instead! Do you have a dream thief in your life? How do you deal with the challenges of keeping your goals and dreams alive?