Thursday, September 8, 2011

What do you dream of accomplishing with your writing? (AR BlogHop4Authors)

"Reach high for the stars hidden in your soul.
Dream deep, for every dream procedes the goal."
~P. Vaull Starr
Lets just say that like everything has, what I originally dreamed of getting out of my writing has changed as I have. In fact for every year I've been writing professionally, my dream has changed.  When I first started writing I did it for the pure pleasure and escapism from my daily grind. That was my original dream - to find a way to let out my stifled creativity - and believe me it was stifled.  Dealing with three kids, a full time physically demanding job and a husband who was just as growl-y as I was due to lack of sleep (we both worked overnights at the  time), does not promote creativity. (Unless of course, you count the ways you dreamed of duck taping your children  to the ceiling without getting thrown in jail because they got up at 3 am and tried to make themselves breakfast. *shakes head* Aren't kids grand?) 

Then two years ago, during my second year of writing, my dream changed again.  I lost my job due to downsizing and I was at a lost.  So I became more opportunistic.  I still loved to write as a way of escaping the daily grind but now I added the need to create better writing to my original dream, so I could sell more books. Of course this was about the same time, I celebrated my first anniversary as a published author and was well into my second year as a published author. Now with no jobs, considering there was no jobs with the market being flooded with 1200 other people in the same boat as me, I decided to look at my writing more as a business - something that could help supplement my unemployment while I was going back to school.  I had a goal, it was to reach six hundred dollars in sales a quarter. While that doesn't seem like much for three months of work (it figures out to 200 a month) it was enough to justify the hours I spent in front of the computer hammering away at a story - at least to myself.  I'm happy to say that by the end of my second year I fulfilled that dream, so once again it's changed. 

Now well into my third year of writing, I'm still conscious of my sales numbers but now I'm more focused on my writing - learning to be a better writer. I want to be able to create a story, a world where the reader won't be able to put down the book and will fall just as madly in love with characters as I have. The need to create something that public loves is a strong motivation.  My husband says this a trying to become famous but I say it's giving the reader what they want. So entertaining folks with humorous erotic romances and dark, sultry tales of domination is what I dream of now. 

Of course in each every dream I've had about what I accomplish with my writing, is the underlying need to get the demanding voices out of my head - but I know it futile.  They're never gonna go completely away or new ones will simply replace the older ones as they fight for dominance in my brain. :D

4 comments:

  1. I can relate to you wanting to get the voices out of your head and down on paper. I have so many stories clammering for attention, I need another few hours added to every day to get the time I need.

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  2. Hi, Dakota, I know where you're coming from. I feel like I am in that time myself where all I'm trying to do is get down my stories whether or not they sell. My view has changed over the novel I've written, though. I really want it to be published and yearn for an old-time publisher to do it. If we weren't so flexible, I doubt any of us could every realize our dreams. Good post, good thoughts.

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  3. Dianne...if you figure out how to do it...please let me know. Cause I need about five of them :D thanks for stopping by.

    Dakota

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  4. lprobinson64...thanks for the comments...and I too at times wish I would've gone the more traditional route with a New York style publisher just to say I've had the experience...but then I realized I have to get an agent and all that and say...naw - I'll stick to my ebooks.

    Dakota

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