As y’all know, February turned kinda hectic and twisty when it came to my health. There’s a lot of mental stuff going on, as well as the physical part of healing from the surgeries. That comes as no surprise. It’s put me even further behind schedule but it also explains some of the slowdowns I’ve had this past year. And it is a bit of a relief to finally know what’s up, what can be fixed, and what will have to be adjusted to. Life is what it is and I should never be surprised when life imitates fiction and vice versa. This missive from the Universe appeared in my inbox recently and boy, did it speak to me on both a personal and professional level!

Silver, haven’t you always found your way?

Hasn’t there always been a light in the darkness?

Haven’t you always gotten back up?

Haven’t there always been serendipitous surprises, unexpected twists, and triumphant comebacks?

And haven’t you always had someone to love?

Coincidences? Or maybe, do you think, you, too, have always been loved?

Yours,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

P.S. And Silver, what of all your dreams that have already come true?

Let’s focus on the “professional” for the rest of this bit of musing. Line by line, as regards to writing: Finding the way. We always manage to muddle through, despite writer’s block, time crunches, typos, recalcitrant characters, and all the other pitfalls of writing a book from start to finish.

Finding the light in the darkness: Inject a little humor. Make sure the dark moment is dark but that the light on the other side is NOT a train barreling. True story. I stopped reading a very popular author’s series because unrelenting bad stuff happened to the main couple book after book after book. I quit after six books. Don’t be that writer. Go to the light. You can’t miss.

Get back up: Yeah, as writers, we’ve all been there, from rejections to bad reviews. Writers keep writing and eventually, we stop getting knocked down. It’s the same with our characters. They need a character arc–they need to grow, to develop, to redeem themselves. Yeah?

Surprises, twists, and comebacks: Again, this relates to both writer and our book’s plots and characters. Readers want to be surprised. We need to throw some twists in to keep them interested and guessing, And who doesn’t love a good combeback?

Someone to love: I write romance. There’s always someone to love. But looking at the advice I gave above, that love story can’t be too easy. The couple has to work for it, they have to need and want and deserve. They need to mess up, fix things, and grab that HEA before it gets away.

And finally, yeah, when I signed my first contract, held my first book in my hands, and then went on to write 50 more, my dream had come true. Now get out there and make your dreams come true. That’s for everybody–wirters and readers both!