I have seen the endless prerequisites required to become a successful author. You must get an agent, submit your work, set up your platform, suck it up as 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 something brilliant. The list is long, daunting and impossible to master in a short timeframe.  No wonder people quit.

I’ve made a radical decision. I plan to ignore the mandatory requirements and helpful advice, opting instead to compose stories. There is a saying that states, “when the student is ready the teacher will appear.” I trust the devices and skills will arrive at the point in my journey when I need them. I intend to keep an open mind, learn whatever I can today and continue to write with the tools at my disposal. I have decided the only prerequisite needed to become a published author, is to write.

What is your favorite writing tool?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I’m not a patient person. My modus operandi is setting huge goals and compiling long to-do lists as I schedule my daily and weekly tasks.  Friends and family council me, telling me I am too optimistic, too unrealistic and too driven. They caution me to decrease my breakneck pace, saying I will burn out and quit.

I have a slow speed. Sometimes I downshift into a lower gear. I recognize it is necessary and healthy to disengage and relax, and I take days away from my work. I can manage to do nothing… for a while. Extended periods of rest and relaxation increases my stress, it grates on my nerves, my anxiety escalates, and I can’t sit still. I pace the floors, roaming from room to room, desperate to find an activity to keep my hands and mind engaged.  I know I will attain my goals because I cannot stop.

Once upon a time, I ran headlong into burnout, and I swore I would never allow myself to reach that state again. Sundays are the day I hold for me. I assess the prior week and plan next week’s schedule. I fill my agenda to fit my pace, setting aside time to rest and recover from my activities. It is a fickle balancing act, but each day I step forward.

How do you relax?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Often the most difficult tasks to achieve, appear to be the easiest. As we struggle to succeed, it is easy to compare our skills and our progress with everyone else. We listen to advise from teachers, family members, and friends, without realizing their advice represents their choices. If we neglect to choose our path in favor of a consensus, we lose ourselves. Doubts cloud our judgment and we succumb to our insecurities and fears.

Honoring our authentic selves means determining what matters most. We must place less reliance on the opinions of those around us, since trying to satisfy everyone is a guaranteed way to please no one and to make ourselves miserable in the process. Regardless of our choices, we will never gain everyone’s approval. Releasing the need to subjugate our genuine desires is an important step towards discovering who we really are.

How will you be true to yourself today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Outsiders often think creative people can do whatever they wish. You wield great power when you are the boss. But freedom comes with an equal measure of responsibility. The creative must manage every step in the creative process, from idea generation, creating the work, marketing, selling, managing submissions, to staying organized and on target. With luck, they invent a strategy that gets results.

It is a wonderful feeling when you devise a blueprint that works. The design’s strictures can lead us to question the wisdom of messing with the constructs of a proven method. Success raises the cost of failure. Making an adjustment is intimidating, choosing a different path is frightening. We can’t stop taking risks or trying a fresh direction. Picasso’s works exemplified radical change. He began with realism, switching to what they now call his Blue Period and his work continued to evolve. Each innovation he undertook, carried the prospect that no one would buy his art. But each stage allowed him to grow as an artist. His evolution strengthened him.

Is there a project which frightens you?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer