#39: Turning a corner

I believe I have turned a corner this week.

It’s the kind of corner that makes you wonder how many more are there before I will reach what I am seeking.

I guess it is the result of spending the past two weeks with Jack (my inner critic) and learning about myself through him. To my surprise, he knows more about me than even I do.

The book I am writing with him (and about him) turned out more of an exercise to figure out what I am doing and where I am going. I can see the amount of creative energy I am wasting on activities such as audience building, branding, marketing, long-term author strategy, etc. while pushing the actual work I want to do on the back burner.

I am not making much progress with them anyway and that is causing a lot of frustration. Jack made me see my limitations.

I learned as much as I could from reading free and well-meaning advice from blogs, books, and courses. I am finally ready to admit that I can’t do it myself and I need professional help (not the psychiatric kind, although if I continue on this path very soon, I will need that too).

I have decided to invest in proper author marketing strategy, website, and social media strategy.

Although some say creativity flourishes without boundaries I have found unfocused creativity and unstructured marketing leave you unfulfilled and drained. I have spent almost two and half years trying to figure out how to establish myself as an author and pursue my writing career independently. Now I am building a team around me.

Today is the last day of the self-imposed deadline for the first draft of the book (Working title Conversations with Jack). This book turned out to be a completely different beast. Unlike the first one, which was well-structured and hence much easier to write, this one was more of discovery writing. I worked in spurts of creativity, which flowed in gushes on some days and was completely dry on others.

But I managed to collect 20K words towards it. I reckon more than half will be gone in editing. I have also decided to include illustrations in this book so the word count maybe even less. But I am leaving this book at a happy place, with a good ending and lots of interesting conversations. But the structure is still not settled. That is why I am leaving it for a few months hoping that it will come to me.

Someday.

Somehow.

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Here are the links to this week’s articles on Medium.

Ephesus and the House of Virgin Mary

Enjoy!

That’s it from me this week.

Take care.

Neera Mahajan

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