Hey guys, welcome back! Here we are, the final week of August and today is Starbucks PSL launch day…my happy season hath begun! However, life deals the good and the bad and lately it’s been a roller coaster. Lots of crazy stuff going on these days. And still, no writing.

If you are new here, welcome! Quick backstory, I have written two novels, both in deep edits. For the last year and a half, I have been working hard on one that I want to get out first and over that time, I’ve only missed working on the manuscript for maybe a day or two here and there. I’m now going on weeks since I’ve touched it and in some ways, it has made me feel like a failure.

I was fully planning on opening it up this morning to work on it and while rereading a book I love, Beach Read by Emily Henry, I read passage that was like a freaking beacon reminding me just why I love to write.

If you are unfamiliar with the book in question, it’s about two writers who are blocked and make a bet. Each must write a book in the other’s genre. They do research trips, get to know each other and being a romance, well, things happen. However, for me, it’s the dynamic of them being writers that draws me in every time I read this. (Annual Summer book.) Reading about their struggle of staring at the blank page before them, losing their spark, their motivation and then remembering just why they love what they do, gives me the inspiration to keep going.

This is the passage: “The nights spent writing until the sun came up and my back hurt from needing to pee but not wanting to stop working because nothing felt more important than the book, than giving these fictional lovers the ending they deserved, giving my readers the ending they deserved.”

Reading this book at this particular time was like getting the sign I needed to keep going. I’ve worked too damned hard to stop…not that I ever would completely. I believe in this story so much that nothing will stop me from finishing it. But maybe this step back that I’ve taken will let me look at it now with fresher eyes than I’ve had. After all, when you are reading the same thing over and over for a year+ it can become almost like white noise for your senses. Not having even opened it in a month? Maybe this is just what I needed. A sort of refresh.

During the time off of writing and editing the book, I have come up with some new ideas that may tighten up the storyline a bit. What I’ve needed though is to sit and actually write them out. Instead, I have been doing everything but that. There is a line in my book that I wrote: Show me a writer and I’ll show you a professional procrastinator. 

Oh how true that is.

So while not writing I’ve been creating more designs for my online shops. I’ve added more pieces to my eBay listings, I’ve scrubbed the bathroom until I could see myself in the tile. I’ve also started to work out a little and that has been great for working off the stress and anger that has been coursing through me.

Now, it is time to write. To get back to my true love. My purpose. What I have always wanted to do. And maybe, just maybe, the timing of rereading this book was the final message that I needed to get going again. The final push.

Anyway, I hope you got something out of this, whether you write or not, motivation is motivation. Maybe you have been feeling a little lost as well and have been looking for some sign to get going? I hope this was it. I hope this helped.

And that is where I will leave you for today. Until next time folks…be well and get yourself a PSL. Tis the season after all!

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To follow me on social, including my #booktok, Amazon storefront (where you will find Beach Read and other Emily Henry books) as well as my other links, click: HERE

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To find my other shops, click: HERE

(If you click there and scroll down to ‘stuffwefind’ click that for my eBay listings.)

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If you’ve made it this far, I thank you and will see you soon! 🙂