Over the years I’ve met a lot of writers who often struggle to find time to write… I find this perplexing!
Especially given that I’m now approaching my 11th anniversary of creating and publishing a weekly essay. This equates to a whopping 572 weekly essays and counting.
And this doesn’t account for my two books and countless micro-fictional stories.
I’m also often asked if I struggle to find something to write about. The answer is a resounding no!
Fortunately for me I love to explore ideas and tell stories and so there is always an abundance of ideas for stories floating around in my head.
Luckily, I’ve never suffered from writer’s block, or been too busy to find time to put my essay together. I find it important to prioritize my time and energy to make it happen.
After all, to be a writer you have to write! ❤️
I generally write on Sunday mornings for a couple of hours in my office or on the back alfresco area by the pool. I find both spaces relaxing and quiet, which is just what I need to concentrate.
This creative time is now a well-entrenched act of self-love… strange as this may sound. ❤️
Now it’s one thing to have an idea for a story and an entirely another to actually pull it together into a cohesive essay.
I’m proof that to be a writer and author you don’t need to be a literary giant, but someone who’s willing to put in the hard work hard and write on a regular basis is what counts most.
Like all of my creative pursuits, of which there are many I fell in love with the art of storytelling from an early age. I can definitely thank my mum for setting me on this path.
Even today I can vividly see her, our small kitchen clouded in cigarette smoke as she told me stories…
Her stories were always so rich and colourful, she was able to bring them to life with such clarity that I could almost see the scenes before me.
Maybe it was my impressionable mind, or the way she told the stories that brought them to life, but I loved hearing them, often over and over.
Mum’s storytelling along with a love of reading sewed the seeds that would eventually lead me to begin writing. Albeit a circuitous route to be sure!
I’m often asked about my motivation to write… what drives me? And more importantly where do you find my ideas and inspiration to write so consistently that I’m able to write and publish a weekly essay.
All great questions!
So, let’s tackle them one at a time.
My motivation has evolved over the years.
Initially when I first began to write and publish a weekly story it was centered around bringing those people that sponsored me on my walk for Cancer Research across Papua New Guinea along for the ride. An insider’s view if you will…
I had recently lost my dad to Brain Cancer and so as a part of my grieving and healing process I hiked across the mountains of Papua with my best mate Craig.
It was an epic experience for all sorts of reasons, but also able to raise over $17,000 for Cancer Research.
My ideas for stories just seem to evolve each week, something may trigger me to write about a specific topic, or a childhood, but mostly a topic just resonates for that particular week.
Fortunately, for me once I start to write the words just seem to flow with little editing required. ❤️
This first series Kokoda Preparation turned out to be 17 stories in length over a three-month period. It had me hooked from the get-go.
My next series was Indelible Adventures, and the genesis of my first book by the same name which I published back in 2014 and available in my bookstore (I know – shameless right!)
I wrote and published this series between January 2012 and Dec 2017 for a total of 236 stories, with a small interlude series thrown in as Disheveled Musings (40 stories in 2014).
You can also see the evolution of my writing throughout these first three series.
Then since 2018 when I introduced my new website I’ve been publishing and utilizing my own site for all of my creative works including writing, podcasting, video, and photography.
I learned a bunch of things in this first series that I have continued on until this day. Firstly, your audience likes a consistent publishing rhythm to your stories. Therefore, I always publish on a Friday night (North American Eastern Standard Time) 8:00 pm.
Even today, now residing back in Australia I still post at the same time as a large majority of my audience is in Canada and the United States. I just pre-schedule it.
Second lesson is to keep it to between 850 – 1000 words so that the reader can consume it within 5 minutes or less. Beyond that you lose them…
The other realization I had was that I’m not a single genre writer. I don’t want to feel confined to just one topic area…
I personally like eclectic and varied topics which also seems to resonate with you, my audience. Yep, no two weeks the same, with lots of topics and ground covered over the years.
This gives me the opportunity to share my travel experiences, life with my teens and now adult children, moving countries plus a healthy range of self-help and personal development topics. You name it, I may have written about it.
All I know is that I love to write and share my stories…
Until next week
Ciao!
P.S – I’m always looking to expand my subscribers and would appreciate you passing my website to your colleagues, friends, and family. ❤️❤️❤️
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