I recently read an article in which J.K. Rowling discusses how to be successful. I appreciated her candor and frankness regarding her success and how she got there. For her, it did not happen overnight, nor did she follow the conventional rules.
This article resonated with me quite a bit and I have been pondering over the concepts the last couple of days. She spoke that often the fear of failure is what holds most people back, something that I too brought up in our recent eBook, Coloring Outside The Lines: Integrating Project Management and Creativity.
I find myself second guessing how I do things and how I should proceed – out of fear more than anything. Will this be good enough? Is this what I should do? What happens if it doesn’t work? I struggle with the “what ifs” and “I should.” I believe that acknowledging the fear is part of overcoming it. The key to being true to oneself is to face the fear and just move on. Without moving on, the fear wins and unfortunately some great writing may not see the light of day or have the opportunity for success.
Brett and I have received some writing advice, a lot of which is different than what runs true to ourselves. We have been told that it is better to stick with one genre, it is better to do that so that we can build a better fan base. Although there is some merit to this for sure, Brett and I have discussed that it is not who we are. We are individuals who truly follow different paths and want to continue to explore those distinct pieces of our personalities. As such, we are following our hearts in whichever way it leads us.
While we concentrate on valuable character traits to continue to move us and our writing forward, we are taking a step closer to our success. At its core, this success is to be able to create something that is a part of us and that we can share with others. And hopefully, provide our readers with some sort of enjoyment.