Motivational Letter No. 2

I have met with my high-school classmates just recently. It was an anniversary of our graduation from the so-called International Baccalaureate Program. We told each other what kind of jobs we have naturally. I said I was a writer. Naturally. What else could I have said? Well, it’s not exactly a job. I am a financially supported wife. But it’s what I do.

Deep inside I have my doubts though. Am I really a writer? Well, I am writing this blog post, aren’t I? Does this make me a writer? Am I a bad writer? Do I really really suck as a writer? Maybe. But I try to do my best. Scout’s honor.

In the last 5 years I have written on average 10 blog posts a year. The absolute low point was the first year of COVID, when I wrote only one poem about how COVID anxiety blocked my writing entirely. Before 2017 I was able to produce 25 blog posts a year, so you can understand my apprehension.

Blog on the side, the number of book pages written from the beginning of 2017 to the end of 2021 was zero. Am I still a book writer then? Well, I have read a lot during these years. I was doing a writing exercise inspired by Benjamin Franklin. I named it the Jane Austen Exercise.

Let me tell you the whole story. In 2015 I published my first fantasy romance novel: Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf: Book 1. Its continuation was finished in 2016. But it was no good. A writer’s block set in. I was doing the Jane Austen Exercise and thinking about how to rewrite Book 2. Then, finally at the beginning of 2020 I realized I would have to write it again from scratch. I started to work on an outline, but COVID anxiety blocked me entirely. So I finished the outline in 2021 and now, finally, I  have a few pages written. 4 to be exact. It might not seem much to you, but for someone, who had just overcome a 5-year-long writer’s block, it’s a start.

My classmate at the high-school graduation anniversary remembered we had had to write a motivational letter as a part of the application for the International Baccalaureate Program. Well, now, I must say, this blog post is my Motivational Letter No. 2.

Take care,

Helena Smole, author of:

– a fantasy novel with romance Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf: A series about relationships

– Balancing the Beast, a book offering a bright view of schizoaffective disorder ˗ bipolar or manic-depressive type