I’ve written close to a thousand blog posts in the past few years, but none for my own personal blog. So here we go.
Lately, I have to keep reminding myself that I’m still figuring it all out. How to build a website. How to publish a book. How to refine my writing. How to improve my time-management. So life, basically. And the answer I keep coming back to is: I’m still figuring it all out.
Do you ever feel ill prepared? And I don’t just mean for a specific task, but just in general? This is me every. single. day. I sometimes take a step back and wonder how on earth I’ve even reached this point in my life. I must be really good at that whole ‘fake it ’til you make it’ thing, right?
Yes, I’m good at smiling through the hurt and pushing through the pain, but I’m a very firm believer that we learn as we go and gain the skills we need to prepare us for the next task. The past few years have been preparing me for this–the impending release of my first novel. I’ve been a writer my whole life, and to finally be realizing a dream is unreal. I always knew this day would come and it would be amazing. But more than anything I’m feeling–vulnerable. So much of myself is in my novel. My pain. It’s terrifying to speak my truth for all to hear, but I know I need to do this.
While my fingers are shaking with every word I type, as the days count down to the release of my novel, I have to remember to cut myself some slack, as we all do. Each of us is just figuring it out after all, aren’t we?