Life Cycle of a Writer – Onto the next chapter…

It’s been an amazing old time at Romaniac HQ of late. There’s been news on a scale we could never have imagined and it’s been made more magnificent by the fact it’s coming from every quarter.

My new shiny cover that was revealed yesterday!

And this isn’t like some kind of band break-up message. We’re not saying we’ve reached our peak -let’s end on a high. We’ve never been in a position to support each other more and celebrate at every stage.

But it has made me think about chapters. About how you never know what is coming in the story, but you have to hope it’s gonna be good. (And I’m not on about the chapters that we write and in theory are in charge of, I’m on about life chapters.)

We’ve had lots of that happening recently… chapters ending, stories coming to conclusions. It’s safe to say that the finales of those tales, of those personal endurances over time, they’ve all come good.

It’s also fair to say that some of those stories are still mid-chapter. They are still at the point where we don’t know what’s going to happen. Personally, I’m in the midst of a chapter that has proved to be a test of character. But that’s okay. I’m not stuck here because the trick is to keep going. And no matter how many chapters it takes to find your conclusion… keep going.

This is what it is to be a writer. And sometimes, this is what it takes to survive.

So, even for those of us who’ve recently had conclusions. For those of us (like me) who’ve recently finished books, despite writing The End, really it is just The Beginning. There will always be another book. There will always be the next thing that needs to be achieved.

And I never write The Beginning when I start a book. I always spend my time striving for The End. Striving to achieve the goal. When sometimes I need to appreciate the stage I am at.

Right now, The Romaniacs are in a new phase. Personally and professionally there’s a lot to be excited about. So, we are at The Beginning. We are once again faced with chapters that we have no idea how it ends up. Or how long we’ll be stuck mid-chapter. There’s a few things we do know though. We know we’ll have each other as support. We know half of the fun is in the journey. We know we’re never giving up.

For me, I am at The Beginning. Both personally and professionally there is so much to look forward to, even if I don’t know quite how the next chapter starts. All that matters is I show up and write it. And as my character Olive would say…