The first step to being professional

The creation of the website and the blog came about after a scheduled panic over not knowing what to do. As a writer my journey has been rail-roaded for a while, with the BA and then MA and then the rush to finish the manuscript. After May 2018 my writing life slowed down slightly, but I managed to pick my energy back up after working a really busy retail Christmas at the end of 2018. By the end of March I had a complete and edited stand-alone novel, the first one I started and finished since education, and the first one I felt so passionate about.

The question since then has been, what now?

I have started the querying process. Having gone through it the first time with my Superhero series Children of Tomorrow, I knew what to do, while also trying to promote a stand-alone novel, something I'd never done before. Talking to people about this project, which is the complete article, the beginning and end, has been interesting, and despite three months of querying and a few rejections back, I'm singing my praises for the current book.

But again, what now?

I have three separate started novels. Two of my own and one that I'm dual-writing with someone close to me. The narrative I'm sharing is the one I'm most focused on, despite knowing that career wise it will take a lot of time and will not make a good follow-up novel, and relies on the two of us feeling like we want to show anyone anyway. Really, my writing energy is wanting to work on things that are practice rather than the next step forward. But that's what I got sad about. I knew I needed to do something for me now, to help me develop my writing identity.

My housemate told me that I should do more short stories and practice writings. I was reminiscing about how I would be given genres I usually don't touch on the creative writing courses, and even though I was grumpy about some of them at the time because I was so determined to do my project, I liked how it did make you think outside your bubble. The plan for the near future, as well as showing some older stuff that I still like, is to do short story challenges.

So enjoy the website, something I should have done a while ago, along with the blog. Better late than never.

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