Wednesday: Some Thoughts on Guiding Principles

So it’s the first Wednesday Blog in the New Year…and I’ve got nothing Okay, I still plan to revamp Wednesdays into something more when I can. But I must write Primal Magic. It’s so easy to let life interfere, which is what I’ve been doing. Now I’m committed, so I’m making sure I prioritize writing the book over other content. 

I will talk about one career related thing—guiding principles. Throughout our careers, we make choices that define us, and reflect our principles. Sometimes we have to make those choices in the middle of a massive upset in our lives. It’s a zillion times harder to make decisions when things are going wrong, emotions are running high and panic is setting in. 

But your core principles can and will guide you. For instance, when I say I’m “family first,” I’m serious. I’ve stopped by career for my family when crap happened and someone in my family needed me. At the time, I was NOT the sole breadwinner, so that helped a lot. But when it came time to make a hard choice, I didn’t hesitated. Family comes before my career, and that’s the principle that guided my choice. It’s also the reason I won’t destroy a family relationship over politics (if possible–there’s always two people in a relationship and I can only control my actions). 

It’s important to know our core principles. Any time I’ve ignored that principle, I’ve regretted it. I can’t think of an example off the top of my head, which is annoying.

All this brings me to why I fought through my physical issues I was having to finish the Savaged Illusions Trilogy even though I knew it wouldn’t make a huge splash. Time had gone by, and the heated anticipation for the third book cooled. That’s normal. Some would say the smarter decision would have been to not finish it, and move onto something that had more earning potential. That’s true if we’re talking about that one book’s earning potential.

But what about building or maintaining reader trust in me as an author over a career? That’s very important to me. In my mind, I needed to finish the last book, particularly because the first and second books in the trilogy ended on cliffhangers. Otherwise I was breaking an implied promise when I published those first two books with the cliffhangers. Readers had every right to expect the third book to finish the story. So I did what I believed to be the right thing in accordance to my core principles.  

It wasn’t a hard decision, it was the right one for me.

The Wing Slayer Hunters has a little of that too, but those books all ended with the hero and heroines story wrapped up. I could have walked away with a clear enough conscience. But I love the world, readers seem interested and want to write Primal Magic and Fallen Magic.

Once those books are done, then I’ll re-evaluate. 

So to anyone publishing or thinking about it, I would suggest this: Know your core principles. Because when tough times or the curveballs of life hit, you’ll be able to see your next step more clearly. Because tough times find us all sooner or later.

Trust me, it’s much easier to be guided by principles and sheer panic.

Just my 2 cents

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