WELCOME BACK TO THE STORY OF THE WRITER SERIES!
Everyone has a goal, desire, or dream to fulfill. The motivations may be different, but we’re all seeking some kind of fulfillment in life. In other words, we each have a story. Stories are all about triumph over obstacle, forces of evil, darkness, and seemingly insurmountable odds. So who’s writing your story? It all depends on how you live it.
I love hearing the stories of writers. So let’s introduce one…
APRIL JONES
HI APRIL!
April is a mom, writer, editor, blogger, contributor at culturess.com AND a fellow Wordplayer from our awesome Facebook group.
WELCOME ABOARD APRIL!!!!!
Everyone please welcome April, aka Wonder Woman…
*What genre do you write?
Literary fiction.
I’m still trying to figure out exactly what that one is…
*What’s your current work in progress about?
My WIP is about a family trying to repair their relationships after 3 decades of trauma tore them apart. And I’m a single mother and a grandmother currently living back in the South after spending 25+ years in the Midwest. I’ve been blogging off and on since 2003 and I’m in the process of setting up my blog again at aprilpalooza.com
It’s not too late to move back to the Midwest! Hah! Just kiddin. A family trying to repair itself after three decades of trauma would take a lot of work. But it’s definitely worth the save.
*What inspired you to be a writer?
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember–stories, angsty teenage poetry, articles. Being an avid reader as a kid probably inspired me the most.
Alright, April. Can you show us some of your poetry? Pluu-leeeze?? Writing is such a release isn’t it?
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“You only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.”-Doris Lessing
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*What’s your GOAL in becoming a writer?
At this point, I’d like to just get one draft completed and hopefully published.
That’s a good first goal. You can do it, April. I’ll be one of your personal cheerleaders!!!
*What 3 things have hindered you from completing your projects? (CONFLICT)
Feeling like my writing and my ideas just aren’t good enough to be published, being mentally blocked to where I can’t translate ideas from my brain to my computer, fear of failure.
This sounds all too familiar. I can relate to every one of these. I’m realizing we need to believe in ourselves to release our true potential and be what we desire to be.
*What keeps you motivated in achieving your dream? (DESIRE)
Seeing other success stories, daydreams about success including financial rewards (example: visions of walking into a bookstore and seeing my book on the shelf), wanting my family to be proud of me
This is going to sound cheesy, but….I’M PROUD OF YOU! Seriously, you’re a single mom chasing her dream. What is else is better than that? (I’m the product of a single mom.) Being a parent in today’s world is not a small matter; and anyone who wants to be a writer is a special person in my mind. So hats off and high fives to you sis’.
*What’s your ANTAGONIST? What’s in the way?
I feel like there’s some sort of natural talent that other writers have and I just don’t, which gets me to thinking that maybe I was silly to think I could do this.
It’s hard not to compare ourselves with others in different areas. But one thing we need to remember-no one is you. You’re special, and there’s no one else like you. A diamond can be breathtakingly brilliant in all its beauty; captivating, even. But if you look closely, it’s composed of many, many, many small facets. Each facet shares and participates in the beauty displayed by the diamond. We’re all part of it. We just don’t see it. You may not see your own preciousness, but others do.
*If you have given up your dream, tell us why?
I’ll answer this because I have given up before, but not completely. Sometimes I just think that I’m kidding myself by believing that I could actually do this. I’ve watched others accomplish so much with their own writing and here I am still working on the first draft of a book I started almost 2 years ago! There’s that little voice in the back of my head that says “Bahahahaha! You’re not a WRITER!”
Writers are resilient creatures aren’t they? Believe it sister! We can do this. I had the same thoughts as you last year. Then another author told me “make a plan and do the work”. Then I realized the *only* difference between me and successful authors was exactly that. A plan and elbow grease. Don’t listen to that pesky voice in your head. I hate it when he shows up. Tell em’ to put a sock in it and watch me go to work. Keep your game face on sister, your not alone.
*Why do writers give up, quit or never complete their projects?
I think we’re just convinced that people are going to hate it so why bother? We have all this self-doubt that we’re not a GOOD writer (and why would we want to be any other kind?) and that putting our work out there puts us at risk of having others find out that we’re not good writers which then confirms our fears. Nobody likes being vulnerable and being rejected.
We spend so much time fearing not being *good* instead of just telling our story. Writing is so subjective and so is this matter of being good, or better. No one wants to be a bad writer of course. It’s a process. But I read somewhere that we should focus more on telling our story. What a relief!
If a story is in you, it has to come out. -William Faulkner
“You can make anything by writing.”-C.S. Lewis
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“To survive you must tell stories” -Umberto Eco
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“Pour your heart to the page, she always listens.”-Benjamin Thomas
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The Writing Train: Join the locomotion 