Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Indie Life: Showing Up

When I was younger, I didn't realize that showing up is more than half the battle. I might withdraw, disappear, or otherwise absent myself with relatively minor excuses, and certainly I felt justified in not showing up when larger, easier to rationalize events occurred.

All this achieved was missing out on a lot of wonderful opportunities, experiences, and relationships.

Fortunately, I've since learned that showing up does a lot of the work for you. 

Two examples. The first, Indie Recon. I was in the middle of that first draft of the third book in my series. My goal was to finish it by the Friday of the following week. It was hard to convince myself that I could attend both the con and get that draft done, even though I could attend the con in my pajamas. Which I did, once I reminded myself that all I had to do was show up.

Turn my computer on, get to the IndieRecon website, and follow along with the schedule as best I could.

Thank goodness I did. I was inspired, motivated, educated and had tons of fun. I even got the nerve up to ask some questions in the virtual sessions. The responses I got from the presenters were more than helpful. And I'd never participated in a Twitter chat before, so I did, and loved it. I also won a first chapter critique from best selling indie author, Denise Grover Swank.

It all began with showing up.

Then the con was over.

It felt pretty much like every single fuse in my brain had been blown. I had been exposed to so much information that I was on overload. Certainly, it would be impossible to finish that draft on schedule.

Here's the second example. Showing up for writing. I coaxed myself. Turn on the computer and start pressing some keys. String together a few words. Go for a sentence. I did. And I finished the draft on schedule. 

Why? 

Because a lot of times all we really need to do to succeed, to have a wonderful time, or to experience a life-changing moment is show up. And I'm beginning to believe that one of the most valuable things we can do as indie authors is: Show up.

Show up for writing, show up for our blogs, show up for twitter … show up for our readers.