Our graveyard shift had two paid fifteen minute beaks each day, along with our unpaid thirty minute lunch breaks. Since successful writing typically involves making a habit of setting aside a time and place to write, I decided to turn my breaks into mini writing sessions. Our break room was fairly quiet, since most of my co-workers took naps during our breaks.
I kept a notebook in my lunchbox, and brought sci-fi paperbacks to adapt into screenplays. Later, after learning the authors I was adapting had been influenced by Carl Jung's archetypes, I studied his books that I got from my local used bookstore.
Slowly, steadily, I chipped away at several larger projects in fifteen-minute increments. But even more important than my progress was the fact that I was transforming myself from somebody with a notebook into a Writer. Despite all the grey clouds in my life, I focused on the silver lining: I was getting paid three hours a week to work on my writing.
This change in my mindset might seem minor, but because I kept working under this new mindset, day after day, it began affecting me positively. Perhaps it was my Subconscious picking up on my newly synchronized thoughts and deeds. Or maybe it was my Higher Self, or my Guardian Angel, or even the mystical Lady of the Library herself taking notice of my humble efforts.
Whatever internal or external forces were transforming me, I got my first professional article published while working at that factory, and then my second.
On Friday I published my first eBook compiling my first published articles, about sci-fi writers who had lived in that county, including Jack London, Frank Herbert, and Philip K Dick.
On Sunday morning my new book had 8 downloads. This morning it had 15 downloads. While that number, in itself, isn't very large, it represent many more downloads than I had just a week ago.
Slowly, steadily, the number of people reading my books will increase. Slowly, steadily, the number of books I have finished will increase. Slowly, steadily I will get paid more than three hours a week to work on my writing.
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| Slow, steady progress created my collection of notebooks. |
