To a New Beginning

Happy New Year! But Liz, it’s the 30th of April, isn’t this a bit late? Well, maybe, but I’m convinced that when you want to change something in your life, there’s no better day than today. Okay, enough with the cliches. For the past two and a half years I’ve been trying to build a career as a professional writer, focusing on sexual content. And so far that has amounted to…nothing. Well, very little. But over the past couple of weeks, I’ve found that I can still write, both fiction and non-fiction. So instead of moping and continuing to scroll through Reddit mindlessly, I have made the decision to take action.

And the first step is starting a blog. This is something I’ve always avoided since it’s tough for me to stick to a schedule and I thought I had little to say. But I’ve come to the conclusion that it may be beneficial to me and the career path that I have chosen for myself. So let’s see.

Where I’m Coming From

First of all, I’m not new to writing. I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember, with writing sexual content for about twenty years now, off and on. In November 2014 I published my first title ‘One Summer Safe’ on Amazon. Don’t bother looking it up now, I took it offline since it was unedited and just…pretty bad. But I did sell some copies, much to my surprise. Multiple titles followed, all with different successes. Everything I published last year failed miserably. Some because the content simply wasn’t that good, and others just didn’t receive the attention the story deserved. It has killed me. I lost all motivation, drive, feelings of self-worth, self-confidence. I lost all the components you need to continue building your career.

Sex Toys All the Way

But there is one thing that I have continued to do over the past seven years: writing sex toy reviews. And the company I write for is still happy with my work. So last month I’ve decided to expand that part of my business. I’m in the process of starting my own blog so that I have more control over my reviews and so that I can reach out to other companies as well. I’ve hired someone to do my branding, and it looks very slick. I only need to finish up the design of the website and reach out to the company that I’m writing for right now for their go-ahead. Then that site can go live, and I can share my reviews with a broader audience.

Blood is Thicker than Water

To be completely honest: I quit fiction writing. I felt like it amounted to nothing anyway. Even my Nanowrimo story is a bust and is too much of a monstrosity to get in whatever shape. But then I went to a rock concert in the Spring and being there inspired me to start two new stories. More like scenes actually, but I wrote. To be honest, they’re not stories I can turn into e-books and monetize, but I had so much fun writing them. So yesterday I put one of them on Booksiesilk, and I received two positive comments. I cried when I read them. I so needed to hear that I can still write. This does mean I need to expand that one scene and deliver a well-written story to my new-found fans. That’s precisely the kind of motivation I needed.

Back for Good

So the good news here is: Liz is again writing fiction. I’ve always known I’d get back into it because I cannot live without writing stories. It’s what I do, and it’s what I live by. I’m also very good at convincing myself it’s hopeless and that I’ll never make it anyway. Slight imposter syndrome, I guess. So am I going to make it? That depends on your ‘it.’ I’m not going to write a best-seller. That’s not my wish. What I am going to do, is write again. I’m gonna create worlds and stories for people to enjoy and I hope to reach an audience. I don’t care if it’s an audience of one, one hundred or one million, as long as I can share my work with people.

So Happy New Year everyone, here are my resolutions: I’m going to write: sex toys reviews, blog posts, and fiction. I need to write. Else I’ll perish.