HOW THE LAST FOUR YEARS CHANGED THIS WRITER

The whole world changed after 2020. Pandemic, politics, isolation, fear, and I can go on and on. But of course, it’s never about what happened, is it? It’s always about how we get through it. How we recovered from Covid shutdowns, financial challenges, worry, and the loss of loved ones tells the real story.

And the STORY is what I wanted to chat about today. As you can see from my blog posts here at Writaholic—the last dating from 2019—I’ve pretty much gone dark. Against everything that made me tick, I stopped Facebooking and tweeting, stopped blogging, and even put an end to teaching author marketing workshops, which was my bread and butter up to that point. Talk about isolation! But I’m better for it all and life has mutated into something very different. I’m excited to share it all with the world.

At the beginning of 2020 I actually believed I’d get through any difficulty pretty easily. I was working on four, count’em four, books at the same time. Three fictions and a nonfiction. This frenetic energy was common for me before the world dropped on our heads. I loved the sensation that I could continue writing, no matter what. Hit a wall? Shift to another project. Easy peasy.

I had a wonderful book I’ve been researching and writing for a few years, another all-new dark medieval fantasy, the third book in the Lost Race series, and a nonfiction focusing on an entirely new creative approach to, well, everything. I was dancing back and forth, happy, and feeling very productive.

Then I wasn’t.

Can’t say why. I’m sure there are psychological explanations, and I’m sure I’m not the only writer to experience that black hole. It lasted until January of 2023, then without warning I tripped and fell onto a different path. First, I decided to promote and experiment with my new creative process and began teaching the Creative Brilliance Academy online and live.

Then I suddenly found myself drawn to an inspiration I always had but never seriously explored. I assumed I wasn’t savvy enough with the subject but discovered otherwise. See, I have always written fantasy about vampires and angels, mystical elements, witches, breathing gargoyles, and well, the general population of that universe. Real people were boring. I thought.

During a decades-long binge reading of anything written by Lee Child, L.T. Ryan and Nelson DeMille, followed by binge watching TV’s Reacher, The Night Agent, and Jack Ryan I had to bite the bullet and acknowledge a long-hidden obsession. Geeze, as a Russell Crowe fan, my favorite character is Terry Thorne from the film Proof of Life. Give me a damaged, honorable, focused savior of people in dire situations and I’m a sloppy puddle. However, I never imagined writing such a story.

Post Covid me sees the world a lot differently. Having always been fascinated with military and paramilitary careers—and nope, I’m not a prepper, don’t own a gun, never served, and have no serious interest in living the life—I started seeking out more information about people who do.  I discovered Orlando Wilson, a private investigator, security consultant, and author. A real-life Terry Thorne telling it like it is. Okay, I was still just feeding my secret obsession.

Then one day I slipped onto a whole new lane. The proverbial what if lane. I sat still as stone for hours in my chair, ignoring YouTube, the phone, even hunger and explored something I never imagined doing before. Personal Creative Brilliance itself had sparked a serious flame. But could I do it? Write a story that brings in that admirable, flawed character and make it something people simply had to read? How would my Jack Ryan be different?

So, what if a really focused, elite military trained character must deal with the strange? The inexplicable? What would happen? How would such a thing play out?

My brain was off to the races. It took a full year to write, and much of that time was just researching and imagining. A pragmatic, practical guy would struggle but prevail. All I had to do was figure out how to get him from point A to Z. Like many writers, until I know the ending of a story I can’t even begin to write it. One day I knew. So, I wrote. And wrote. And wrote.

What did I write? I wrote a speculative military thriller.

My fourth draft of Guiding Hope is on its way to an excellent developmental editor. My lovely beta readers have done a read through and given me the great advice they always do. My heart is already on book two of the series, and my excitement is too big for isolation. I’m actually looking forward to pitching literary agents! Go figure.

I’m back on Facebook and LinkedIn promoting the Creative Brilliance Academy workshops and sharing daily Creative Brilliance challenges with my followers. And I’m back to blogging, one of my favorite activities.

See, I’m determined to avoid the solitude that has always plagued me as a writer. I wish to share the journey I’m taking with this new book, new direction, and new-to-me genre!

And… I want to know what you’re writing too! Let’s support each other. Let’s raise each other and write like the community we’re meant to be.

Tell me how you survived the past four years. Are you well and writing? What have you discovered?

Deb’s Creative Brilliance Challenge: FLIP IT – START FROM THE END. Close your eyes for a few moments and think about your current story in progress. How does it look if you start telling that story from the end? Can it unfold as dramatically as it does from the start? Are there elements or scenes that prove unnecessary? Are there a few scenes that should be added? #CreativeBrilliance  #CreativeThinking  #Mindfulness  #CreativeWriting