Creative Juices | The Official Heather Quarnstrom Blog

Catching up… Or “Yes, I’m still alive and kicking.”

Posted by Heather | Posted in Family, General Announcements, Update, Writing | Posted on 05-02-2010

Tags: about, creative juices, Family, fear, obstacles, personal, self, Update, welcome, Writing

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Hi everyone!

I’d like to apologize for the long hiatus. Many things have been going on in my personal life. I won’t go in to too much detail, but I’ve had a lot of health issues and a couple of surgeries in the interim time. I’ve also lost three close family members in the space of the last couple of years that have thrown me and I have still not really absorbed their loss.

Another reason that I have been absent so long is that I’ve also had a lot of self-doubt as a writer. I have actually gotten some writing done, as well as a bit of my first novel started. After the first bit I was hit so hard with doubt of my skills that I allowed myself to be hit with the biggest case of writer’s block that I have ever had.

On the positive side, we have also welcomed a new member to our family. We have grown from a family of six to seven, and the youngest has everyone wrapped around his little finger already. Hard to believe that he is already two years old. We also welcomed a new nephew that is only a month older than our little guy. It will be great for them to be able to grow up together, though I know if my nephew is anything like my brother they will be adding some serious gray to my hair.

I have again decided that the only was that I will ever know for sure if I can make my dream come true is if I actually write. Even if what I produce is absolutely horrible, I can always clean it up in editing. I’ve realized it’s a little difficult to edit a blank page.

So with that decided, I felt my next step was to resurrect my old blog as a way to motivate myself to actually produce. Not only will it let me warm up with writing and get my creative juices flowing, but now I have people to answer to if I don’t follow through. (I figure there should be one or two of you that will call me on it if I don’t start writing about having something ready for submission.)

I have also decided that I will refocus to a smaller beginning. I plan to hone my skills on some short stories first. Then submit them to paying markets and see what the response is. My initial goal of producing a complete novel is just so large that it seemed to overwhelm me to the point that I couldn’t function. Yes, I know I will be risking rejection, but I have tried to prepare myself for it. I will not let myself be stopped, because I realize no matter how good my writing may (or may not) be, it could still be rejected for various reasons not related to what I have written. (Not the least of which may be this wonderful economy that I am sure has been effecting the writer’s market as well.)

So, that’s basically where I’m at with everything. I will be posting progress along with my usual bits of this and that. My pledge is a minimum of one post per week, though I am hoping for more. Feel free to yell at me if I don’t.