I made a horrible mistake. Saying I dislike shopping is an understatement. The past months have done nothing to increase my enjoyment of the process. My reluctant trips for necessities don’t register on my bucket list. I delay them, waiting until they attain dire importance status. Then, I prepare my list, gather my mask, gloves, and hand sanitizer before heading out.

My grocery list is organized to follow the layout of a favorite familiar store. The produce section is my first stop where I make careful selections. I move quickly since I want to minimize the total time spent in the shop. I navigate one-way aisles, fill my cart, avoid close contact with other shoppers, and proceed to the checkout line.

The fun doesn’t end when I get my packages home, as I place the purchases in quarantine, just in case. The most important reason for my trip was to restock my dwindling coffee supply. You can imagine my horror when I liberated my favorite caffeinated morning brew only to discover that it was marked “decaf.” I wanted to cry. Instead, I grabbed my personal protective gear and raced back to the store. Some things you just don’t joke about.

What makes you rush to the store?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

We’ve had ample rain, and as y’all have heard April showers bring Mayflowers. Right? Except we are approaching the end of May, and the precipitation continues. Forecasters predict a never-ending parade of wetness from Saturday afternoon through Friday. We renamed the swale at the backyard property line, Walden Pond. The newly formed water feature is deep enough to accommodate a rowboat, a pair of mallard ducks, and a robust growth of algae.

The yard resembles a grass-green raft floating on a sea of mud. But my gardening genes yearn for dryer weather. It is time to transplant the seedlings I’ve been nurturing under grow lights in my makeshift nursery. Tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, squash, and onions are ready to be hardened offed to prepare them for summer in the sun.

This week, warm temps, cloudy days, and frequent showers provide the perfect conditions for the transition. I stage flats and small pots in a protected area of the patio. Despite my plotting and planning, I feel panicked. My garden is a vast blank slate. The spot earmarked for one vegetable looks far too large, while another seedling will overrun the bed I prepared.

My garden plots need adjustments, some transplants require editing, and I must shop for more veggies, or maybe flowers to fill gaping holes. Writing a story and creating a garden have many similarities. The picture in your head never quite materializes. You tinker, fiddle, fuss, and then take a step back to see the work in its totality. Serendipity conspires with creativity, and just when you are about to throw in the trowel, you discover a sight worth beholding.

How does your garden grow?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

They tell us success requires a laser-like focus on a single goal. Then they suggest we create a work-life balance. They say it is necessary to spend equal time on our finances, personal growth, health, career, family, relationships, social activities, spirituality, creativity, attitude, and amusement. The demands are overwhelming, and the wheel of life bumps over us imitating the proverbial bus.

The creatives among us are perhaps more sensitive to the underlying need for harmony. We wrestle with the tension, channeling it into our creations. The stress creates conflict, which we try to harness and incorporate into our work. If we are successful, we convey those feelings to our readers. It allows us to form a connection and tell a story that resonates.

How do you maintain balance in your life?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I detest having to deal with trivial tasks that do nothing to move me closer to achieving my goals. I ignore, delegate, or pay to minimize them. Still, certain obligations require my attention. Since I like to pretend to be a responsible person, there is only so long I can delay the inevitable. So, I set another goal, one where I accomplish the dirty deeds in the most efficient, and least disruptive manner possible. Grouping these repugnant duties, and dispatching them all at once, makes them less obnoxious. Every few weeks, I schedule a busy-ness day.

On the appointed day, I create a game plan and trick myself into completing as many of the horrible necessities as I can manage. I map my route, and with my agenda in my hand, I stand at the starting line. The starter’s gun fires and the race begins. I dash around the house, a maniac on a mission, while the clock measures my efficiency, and I frantically cross items from my list. Time expires, I collapse, exhausted. There is a touch of self-satisfaction, and of course, a well-deserved reward. Tomorrow I can return to more productive and fruitful work.

How do you ensure your busy day bears fruit?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The start of each new day provides an opportunity to recommit to your path. It is human nature to stray, to falter, and sometimes fall. It is easy to listen to the naysayers who spread doubts and question your sanity. They laugh, saying you will never reach your dreams, and they encourage you to abandon your plans, thereby pulling you to their comfort level. They want to discourage you because your victories highlight their failures.

The closer you move toward your success the more insistent they become. As difficult as it may be, following your true direction could mean your friendship is at an end. If you are open, you will discover new friends on a similar journey. Perhaps they will share your dream, urge you forward, and rejoice when you succeed.

How do you stay on your path?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I have seen the endless prerequisites listed for becoming a successful author. You must get an agent, submit your work, set up your platform, suck it up when they reject your work, start a newsletter, cultivate your voice, love reading, build your street team, read everything in your category, manage your brand, decide on your genre, learn your craft, daydream, and find your compelling reason for writing. What am I forgetting? Oh yeah, you also need to create brilliant work. The list is endless, daunting, and impossible to master in a short timeframe.  No wonder people quit.

I made a radical decision. I plan to ignore the mandatory requirements, and helpful advice, opting instead to compose stories. There is a saying which says, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” I trust the devices, tools, instructions, and skills will arrive at the appropriate point in my journey. I intend to keep an open mind, learn what I can today, and continue to write with the tools I have.

What is your favorite writing tool?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Everyone knows JK Rowling got her inspiration for Harry Potter on a train ride from Manchester to London in 1990 and wrote the manuscript in a series of Edinburgh cafes. But John le Carré used his daily commute on train rides from Buckinghamshire to London to draft his debut novel, Call for the Dead. Gertrude Stein reportedly wrote in her Model T Ford parked in various parking lots, while Maya Angelou chose hotel rooms with everything removed from the walls to minimize distractions.  D. H. Lawrence wrote alfresco, in pine forests, and Dame Edith Sitwell opted for a pine box. Yes, as in a coffin.

With quarantine restrictions easing I am eager to explore alternative possibilities for inspiring locations. Writing on trains conjures romantic thoughts of the Orient Express, the 1930s, and Agatha Christie. But you won’t find me attempting to write in any moving vehicle due to my motion sickness. Pre-lockdown, coffee shops were an excellent solution, but I am not brave enough to entertain the logistics required to maintain proper physical distance while distracted. Parking lots with access to free WiFi would be an option, except that I drive a tiny two-seat sports car. Her steering wheel eats into any space available for my laptop. And I will have to give a coffin a hard pass.

In the past, I have written in doctor offices, hospital rooms, waiting areas, stairwells, lobbies, grocery store lines, and airport boarding zones. None of them are appealing now. The best I can hope for is warmer weather, sunshine, and a comfy chair on the patio.

Have you considered alternate locations?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Before Harry Potter, my childhood included a vast array of books, and I devoured each one I opened. My mother insisted on mandatory trips to the library during school breaks. I eagerly checked out the maximum they allowed. A few days later, I would beg her for another trip, which elicited groans from my siblings. To make my reading material last longer, I added my excess to their weekly allotment of one easy read and snatched them back as we headed to the car.

I remember impressive titles like Where the Wild Things Are, Watership Down, A Wrinkle in Time, Artemis Fowl, The Polar Express, and The Neverending Story. I also read every entry on the school’s summer reading list and borrowed the recommendations from the next grade level to feed my habit. During my freshman year in high school, I encountered a tale that changed everything. The Once and Future King by T. H. White altered my reading trajectory. The worlds of science fiction and fantasy fit. Huge tomes and epic series guaranteed I would never run short of magnificent work, favorite characters, and escape.

Tolkien, Asimov, Huxley, Well, and Bradbury became household names. Robert Jordan ensured countless hours of full immersion into a Wheel of Time and created a gaping void of sadness when he passed. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Dune, Fahrenheit 451, and The Mists Of Avalon can transport me to the exact place where I first read them. They whispered to me, woke my sleeping muse, and ignited a fire. Those authors stand behind me, taunting me, they dare me to defy the undeniable urge, they challenge me to write the stories living in my imagination.

What book altered your reading?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Mother Nature forges ahead with her own agenda. She doesn’t wait for everything to be perfect before she begins. To herald the season’s metamorphosis, she sends spring flowers. Late snowstorms dump two feet of the white fluffy stuff way past the date the calendar says it should snow. Thunderstorms, torrential downpours, flash flooding, and tornados don’t keep her from coaxing crocus, tulips, lily of the valley, and blood-red peony stalks above ground.

They brave inclement weather and hostile conditions. They may hope for gentle breezes, sunny skies, and tender rain, but life gives them no guarantees. If they have any hope of growing, blooming, and reaching their full potential, they must take risks. Faced with uncertainty, they begin anyway.

Are you dreaming of a beginning?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Prince was an amazing artist. Reports differ on how many songs he composed, but estimates range between 2,000 and 4,000. If we consider only the lower estimate, the math reveals he wrote one song per week during his adult years. Critics debate the quality of his released albums, but his most popular singles have staying power. Who can forget, “1999,” “Little Red Corvette,” “Raspberry Beret,” or “Purple Rain?” He also created songs for other artists that also attained bestseller status. His vast vault is an inspiration. If only 5% of his total works were blockbuster hits, the list would include between 100 and 200 tracks.

Another artist who shares the limelight in terms of productivity was Picasso. During his lifetime he amassed 13,500 paintings and designs, 100,000 prints and engravings, 34,000 book illustrations, and 300 sculptures and ceramics. Barbara Cartland holds a Guinness World Record for most books written in a single year. She completed 23 stories for the win. In total, she produced over 720 romance novels during her writing career. She makes Isaac Asimov’s 500 published works, which covers almost the entire Dewey Decimal System, look like he was slacking.

The lesson is obvious. Create work. Start. Finish. Follow through. Don’t stress about quality. Focus on creating. Do your best today, and vow to complete the story. No one will rave about everything you write. Critics need a job too, and they are counting on you to justify their existence. Then suck it up, realize destiny ensures you will write some garbage, and do it anyway. The key is to remember 5% of nothing, is a big fat zero.

What will you create today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer