Christina Katz has produced another inspiring newsletter with her 52 Qualities of Prosperous Writers … which brings me to my post this week. 🙂 I get to run on her coattails which is a great motivator for me to post. It gives me a topic, a time to reflect, a moment to sit and think about … me. 🙂

Now this week’s thought, it’s on ‘groundedness’ which according to my WordPress spell checker, is not a word (and neither is ‘WordPress’). 🙂 But, I digress. If I were to say the word “ground…” to my kids, they’d run in horror and anticipation of being forced to clean their room, live without tv, not have a cell phone or lose the computer.

Over my years as a photographer, I’ve gotten quite the number of wonderful compliments on my work. My husband keeps my head from exploding by reminding me that our doors and windows do not expand. 😉 It’s not just about compliments … I’ve had plenty of misses too. I’ve worked my tail off only to have someone not buy a thing! It happens. It reminds me that I’m not perfect, that I don’t always do everything right and that when i don’t, I have to tweak what I’m doing to make myself happy again.

Writing is no different. I have always been ‘a writer’ but not for me. I’ve written instructional materials, project documentation, technical manuals, formal emails, press releases, marketing copy … all sorts of stuff that was meant for someone else. That person may have been a client, my boss, my family, what-have-you. I enjoyed it (mostly) but I never thought about writing for me.

Then last year (not even a year ago, but almost!) I started writing for me and boy did I start having fun! It even bled into the rest of my writing. I got more creative, more assertive and more willing to put a spin on my work (where applicable of course). I’ve proposed pieces to magazines and my local newspaper and they’ve picked them up! I’m told I write with flair, emotion and can build suspense in a short piece.

But these compliments don’t come without a big bite of humble pie as I don’t write and expect that I’m the end all … I ask for tons of help and offer what I can by way of a site called Scribophile. In writing, I spend a lot of time learning from others, double checking my methods and finding new and more efficient ways of thinking and formulating my thoughts to make them interesting.

It doesn’t always work. 🙂 But I keep trying.

By sharing and supporting others in their writing, it keeps me grounded.

For the rest of my life? All it takes is a quick look at my three kids for while I do much for myself, I do most for them.

Share your thoughts on keeping oneself grounded …