Author Journey | Journal Entry 07
It's common for people to think of a suddenly famous author, "who came out of nowhere", as an overnight success. At least it is for the general public who haven't been following the creator's work for a decade or more. But the truth is, a lot of life happens while the art gets created, the words get written and the body of work gets produced. Businesses get started, children get raised and years pass in the process of putting all of the thoughts and ideas into well constructed sentences, years of observations into organized chapters and hundreds of pages of research notes formatted into a series of books.
It's also common for people to romanticize an author's creative life. But even for those who can and do write full-time, it's work like any other work. Only mentally fatiguing and lonely, with their creativity on demand daily. Any writer, professional or amateur, will tell you the life of a writer is not at all glamorous. It's difficult work, sometimes painfully slow, and full of challenges to both their unique creative process and their personal lives.
There's a lot that lies beneath the cover of a book. A fellow human. A real life.
I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows.
~ Ernest Hemingway
This year has been the most challenging yet. Rent was raised three times since the global economic shut down and every other living expense keeps going up. My monthly income went to zero. A year ago, ALL of my Reiki, coaching and mastery clients cancelled their monthly memberships, due to finances. (Completely understandable given the economy.) Now, they're slowly coming back.
Oh, the joys of having only "non-essential" services and offerings!
So, I've had to spend time away from writing to look and apply for virtual assistant positions and do graphic design, copywriting, editing and proofreading work. People ask me to apply for positions and then don't reply when I do. Even people who know me, who say they are hiring, don't hire me.
So, I got creative with growing and promoting my own business. I've learned new modalities, created new coaching packages and added new offerings to my already lengthly list of services. I'm in the process of rebranding my business and building two new websites for new domains, each with their own monthly membership subscriptions. All while working my way through The 8 Elements™, embodying each one so I can write about them.
The Yellow Earth has brought a year of severe drought to my business. With inflation, Reiki and Feng Shui cannot be prioritized over food and gas. Growth through referrals has slowed to a trickle. And the referrals I do get, don't follow through on booking their session. (I refer clients to Reiki Masters I've worked with and they don't reciprocate or even acknowledge the referral or take a moment to express their appreciation.)
Engagement with the blogs on my websites and posts on my social media accounts is nearly non-existent. Almost no likes, shares or comments. Most of my clients aren't even subscribed to my blogs. I'm shadow banned on IG because they think censorship and silencing dissent is their right and sacred duty in service of protecting the not-to-be-questioned official narrative. In the past, when I've asked clients and friends to comment on a certain post about intellectual property theft, one person chose to include a comment about not being (or having) a good web designer.
I'm not silent online about my interesting pov regarding the current state of the world. And that might be my downfall. But honestly, that's ok. People who might be offended aren't my clients anyway. I didn't come here to do coaching sessions and consultations. I came to help humanity raise their consciousness, remember who they really are, choose to know the truth, be free and embody their sovereignty.
I'm a writer. And many people don't read much anymore. So, I decided to go where the readers are. You can subscribe to my Substack, launched today, here. It's free to subscribe and would help to show your support of my work and business. Thank you!
I've been asked (and told) to start a YouTube channel. I have no interest in filming and editing videos for a dozen hours a week. Nor do I plan to spend that many hours of my life creating free content, giving my work away to copycats or working for Google.
The elements have inspired some ideas and action steps I wouldn't have taken without their influence. And for that I'm truly grateful. Hard Metal inspired the creation of my coaching packages. I started working on a podcast when I was Soft Metal. I might need to revisit that element again to get the podcast launched. I signed up for a bunch of webinars (8 in fact!) while I was Mountain Earth. Learned some interesting things, but since then, I've unsubscribed from their email lists. I bought new domains and started building new websites while embodying Mother Earth. Hopefully moving from Wordpress to Squarespace will make me look like a "good web designer", so that's not such a huge drawback for visitors and traffic from new Substack subscribers.
Oversharing? Yes! And...it's what lies beneath the calm and collected, privacy protecting and inner peace valuing me. That's what these Author Journey journal entries are for. Sharing what's really happening in my life and going on behind the scenes in my business as I work toward getting published.
Having a super challenging Yellow Earth year too? Or is it just me? Share your experiences of the past year (or years) in the comments below.
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