The Power of NOT Giving Up

Sometimes I feel like I’m putting out content no one cares about. Do you know what I do then? I keep going. I keep creating and I don’t give up.

One of the hardest things on anyone who puts out content is silence. It’s worse than low book sales or even long periods of low sales and lack of reviews. It’s the kind of thing that makes you want to sit on the corner with a tin cup with the work “likes” on the side.

In reality, it is just another obstacle. It gives me cause to regroup and refocus on my goals and remind myself why I’m posting that content in the first place. Yes, I want my audience to see it. I want to grow that audience for the art, the stories, and everything else. The only way I can do that, is to keep building first and foremost.

That isn’t to say I’m not looking for new ways to market myself. I’m a one man band still and marketing is the hardest part of the job. It requires people and I’m incredibly thankful for the few I have. It requires advertising, and that is the one major budget issue I lack.

The simple truth is, if I don’t build and hopefully improve what people see, there won’t be anything to market in the first place.

And there are a hundred more creators, thousands, just like me. The competition is staggering and getting people into new characters and stories isn’t as easy as it sounds.

There there’s my health. With my new diagnosis of diabetes that doesn’t play well with Multiple Sclerosis, I’m challenged even further in my abilities to continue. To say that I work through adversity is putting it lightly. Some days, I can’t create at all and it always feels like a major setback when I don’t get any of it done because I’m laid up recuperating from an MS flare up. And now you might wonder if this is all I have to contend with in my path. It isn’t.

Because I am published through Amazon (yes self published) there is a terrible conception that a self published author isn’t a real author. And yes, that statement has been delivered to me more than once. I brush it off and keep going. When that person goes, “Oh, you’re self published” with that slight expression of disdain; I just smile and nod.

I keep a list of reasons not to give up. And I value those reasons more than I give credence to my obstacles. As I keep teaching my son, attitude is everything.

So I hope you enjoy these black and whites of characters that I recently finished and maybe can apply this to your own goals in creativity or whatever. Meanwhile, I have more creating to do. How about you?