I had to shelve this book project for months—sometimes years—at a time. Life happened. Fires, loss, business demands, the whole messy parade of being human. But then the pandemic hit, and suddenly I had something I hadn't had in years: time and headspace. I dove back in—editing, rewriting, hunting for the right illustrator.
Working with the incredibly talented Sidney Meireles was its own adventure. He lives in Brazil. There's a language barrier. Communication required patience, persistence, and probably more Google Translate than either of us would care to admit. But we made it work. Because that's what you do when you care about something.
If my convoluted creative journey can serve as encouragement to anyone else sitting on a half-finished project gathering dust, here's what I learned:
Break it into bite-sized chunks. Accomplishable pieces. Work a little, review. Work a little, review. Wash, rinse, repeat for as long as it takes. Some projects take months. Some take years. That's fine. Progress is progress.
Manage your expectations. Personal perceptions and misaligned timelines will jack up your frustration level faster than anything else. Let go of the fantasy that it'll be easy or quick. It won't be. Do it anyway.
Silence that whiny inner voice. You know the one—the petty little saboteur that whispers, "But I'll be __ years old by the time I finish this thing." Here's the truth: You'll still be __ years old if you don't finish it. So you might as well have something to show for it.
And if you're anything like me (my condolences if you actually are), you probably enjoy telling that voice to shut the f@#& up.
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