“Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope–a slight change, and all patterns alter.” Sharon Salzberg
I have had a slight change in my life this past week with my decision to give up my career as a Realtor. It was a very difficult decision for me to make because I really felt I was a good Realtor and that I was making a difference with the people I worked with. Even though it was apparant that some people ranked Realtors either right above or right below Used Car Salesmen and Lawyers, I felt that finding someone a home was an honorable profession and I worked with some very nice people who I now consider my friends. This was one time that I had to do what was best for my family so I gave up my business and now I’m turning a page in my life, a new adventure.
As far as What Have I Been Doing This Week? The best answer would be not writing. At least not putting words on paper. I have been plotting and I did start working on a short story but my novel has been on hold.
This week, I have been cleaning out my office, figuring out what to do with my signs, selling lock boxes, mailing back my lock box key, selling office equipment and notifying my clients that I am no longer in the business.
The rest of my time I have spent searching for a “real” job, along with who knows how many other unemployed Iowans. It can be depressing but I am working hard not to go there. I have exceptional office skills. Before getting my real estate license, I had been an Administrative Assistant for one of the largest insurance companies in Des Moines and before that, I worked in the group underwriting department calculating group rates. And yes, I finally found a need for algebra, twenty years after graduating from high school. Before that, I was a Commissions Clerk for another insurance company and before that I was an Office Coordinator. So as you can see, I really do have a lot of experience. Now all I need to do is catch the attention of the right human resource person.
I also did a mailing for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I like volunteering for charities. It is one thing I do that gives me immediate gratification. Up until this past year, I have gone to jail for MDA. Really you don’t go to jail, you go to a local Italian restaurant at a scheduled time for a few hours and call everyone you know to see if they will donate money to get you released. I enjoyed that because it gave me a good reason to talk to most of my past clients. I normally raised a few hundred dollars, each time.
This coming week, I will continue my job search, try to relax and not worry, and write. I promise to make some progress on my novel and the short story. As far as author interviews, I have several that I am waiting for, Donna Ball and Cindy Gerard are two of them. I will be posting them within the next few weeks.
When dealing with crisis situations in your personal life, does it make it easier or more difficult for you to write? Do you immerse yourself in the writing or do you find it hard to focus? How do you get past the worry to where you need to be to write? Are any of you sharing this same experience of job hunting right now? How is your job search going? Do you know somone who could use a good Administrative Assistant?
I did make a change on my Blog Site. In case you didn’t notice, I did change my heading and my tag line. I realized that Virginia’s View On Novel Writing really was too long. Drop one letter and I disappear. I liked my tag line. It’s shorter and easier to type. Hope you like the change. Let me know what you think about that too.
Until next time,
Virginia
Thank you so much for commenting. I have found it a little difficult to work on my wip but the blog has been a lifeline. It allows me to write about writing and I feel like it is keeping me from sinking into a total writers’ block.
You have a really interesting question. I have never been put into a situation like that where I had to make a decision that could affect getting published. I do believe that most writer’s would make the suggested changes knowing that the publisher is looking out for everyone’s best interest. The publisher knows you want to get published and if they publish your book, they want to make money. It should be a win-win situation but their is that being true to yourself thing you have to consider.
If you haven’t already done it, I would suggest running the change by my writer’s groups. Whenever I critique, I may not listen to only one person’s suggestion but if several people catch something and suggest I change it, that gives it a little more weight. Run it buy your critique partners, see what they say.
I wish I could give you an easy answer but as always, you are the writer and it is your work so what you do is up to you.
If you don’t mind though, I am going to add this question to my interview questions and see what some of the published authors out there say they would do. In fact, I will send the question to the authors I’ve already interviewed and see what kind of a response I get and post it in a future blog.
In the meantime, know that what ever you decide to do is what is meant to happen. I guess I am a fatalist.
Keep writing, cause that’s what really matters.
Virginia
Like the new heading and tag line – looks good. I enjoy your blog and the writer interviews – gives me hope that there is a publisher out there somewhere for me.
As far as writing goes, I have been writing for as long as I can remember – even before I was ten years old. Between ten and twelve I was published in a magazine for a short, short story and I was really hooked then. However, life does get in the way and I find that I don’t write when I’m stressed or have other major things going on in my life.
I have a question – if you write a book and have it professionally critiqued by a publisher and they tell you that you have to change the ending or they won’t even consider publishing it…do you change it or move on to a new publisher? What if the story was your first complete novel and you LOVE it just the way it is? Should writers sacrifice their storyline to be published? Most people I ask say yes but I can’t bring myself to do it. I started rewriting and became so discouraged that I haven’t written on the story for months.