How many times have you felt down in the dumps over…well, anything? It could be that you have been sick too long, your last job interview didn’t go well, or you’ve had writer’s block. The last one occurred to me recently. I prayed about being stuck, but apparently, I wasn’t open to receiving an answer. Yep! This was me…

I was excited to hear from one of my author friends, who took time out from her full-time job to encourage me—not to give me answers on how to finish the book, but to reassure me that I could continue with my writing. What a blessing to have someone like that in your life. Maybe you have someone in your life who encourages you or you can remember a time when special person gave you an intellectual or emotional boost. I’m thankful for my friend. Her words gave me more ideas to continue with my work in progress. We writers say “WIP.”

Writing can be much like any job. You need to set a time for your hours of writing, you can take breaks and even have lunch (if you’re a daytime writer). Distractions need to be few (turn off your phone and shoo family members away while you’re writing). The greatest reward of being an author is seeing your book published.

But there’s more…income. It depends on whether you have a publishing house taking care of your editing and publishing your book. If you do it yourself as an independent author, there’s more work involved. The satisfaction of self-publishing means you have more control over how you want your book presented to readers. Marketing is involved. The internet is full of information on how to market your book, but, be careful. Talk to other authors, and be sure no one takes your money up front before you publish with a publishing company.

It’s fun to talk about my “job,” but now I have to return to my WIP because my author friend gave me much-needed encouragement.

Have a wonderful month!