Guest Blogger Jacqui Jacoby: Forward Motion

Forward motion makes the world go round in a very real, astronomical way. All that gravity and stuff...spinning planets, etc. It’s not something we really think of as we sit down to our computer to open our Facebook, check Twitters, open the day planner and then, finally, open that file we either love or hate, depending on the day of the week.
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Forward motion creates and maintains a writer’s career, it writes the books in that file. It moves us in the right direction every time we start to type.
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If you are a writer just starting out, that new cursor blinking at you, waiting for you to type, the first words can be scary. You have that whole novel in front of you and do not know what to expect. .
If you are close to finishing your first story, then you have entered it in a few contests. You are awaiting the results, hoping for the agent or editor to say you did this right.
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If you have finished that first book, won that contest, the book is now polished, ready to be submitted for representation.
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Once you get representation, you wait for that first contract.
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You get that first contact and then you wait for the second.
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Then the five book deal...

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...it does not matter how many steps you take in your writing; there are more to go. If you attend a conference and you go to the luncheon, there will be someone sitting to your right at the table who is four steps behind you, looking to you for support and encouragement. They will think wherever you are is where they wish they could be. To your left is a person four steps ahead. You will want to ask them questions about their journey.
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Because all of us have a journey. All of us have a place to go as well as a place we have been. The secret to surviving and thriving is learning to juggle the two with equality. I learned from some of the best: Dean Kootnz, Suzanne Brockmann, Nora Roberts. There is a talent to “arriving” in our job, to selling that book, that article, that--whatever. You will be excited, but you have to, as they did, keep a level of humility that makes it possible to turn to that person four steps behind and ask “what can I do for you?"

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You have paid your dues, now is time to teach some of what you know to the next generation coming up behind. .
I got an e-mail just this week telling me I was famous.
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I, of course, had to print this out and save it just so I could jokingly show my kids and prove to them that yes, I really do things at the computer besides update my blog and look at YouTube clips, that there is more in the package than “Mere Mom.”
But the e-mail made me pause. Made me wonder. Why? Why would someone say that? It was flattering, of course, and I don’t report it just so everyone realizes it happened. I say it because...don’t all of us deserve that e-mail? Haven’t all of us done something to deserve that message?
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Fame has never been a big deal with me. Either obtaining it or sitting across from it or sending it a letter. Whether a person is just starting out or already arrived, my tone of voice, my familiarity with the person I am speaking to, it will always be the same. I can think of at least two people high up on the fame food chain who would probably wish I was more reserved and less friendly and I can promise them, I am working on it--it’s just--well--besides the fact they are fun to talk to? I can blame it on Clive Cussler in one of the lessons he taught me when I sat with him in a bookstore, just the two of us: you have to keep looking back, remembering that you were once at the beginning, too. Remembering that is the only way you will ever move forward with class. His candor, his friendliness, passed off to me? I hope I have what he has and I can pass it on, too.
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Sitting down to write a book has got to be one of the most dedicated, mind numbing professions on the planet. We are creating real worlds with real people who otherwise would never be heard and that is an amazing feat.
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But every step we take in our career, from that first blinking cursor to the day we hit send on the copy we are submitting, to a book on a shelf, it is all about forward motion. Every time we type--forward motion. Everything thing we do in this job, in our lives, each and every day--forward motion.
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The trick, the balancing act, is to continue that forward motion on a daily basis, while looking over our shoulder at our past and remembering that even the people behind us, they are on the forward motion journey, too, and we can reach back and lend them a hand, making our forward motion even more amazing.
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Enjoy the trip because the experience is as good as the reward.
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Share with us today where YOU are in this “forward motion” – and what you are offering those coming along behind you.
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If you’d like to be entered in a drawing to win a “Gone With The Wind” Barnes & Noble book bag, leave your mail addy with your comment (remembering “at” and “dot”).
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Award winning author and 2009 Golden Heart Finalist, Jacqui Jacoby lives and writes in the mountains of Northern Arizona. She is a working mom whose career includes writing books, penning short non-fiction and teaching online and live courses. Jacqui can be reached via her website at http://www.jacquijacoby.com/.

Surviving the Abyss

By Jacqui Jacoby
“Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow.” L. Ron Hubbard

Life comes at you from all directions, sometimes being nice, sometimes hitting your plans right between the eyes. It might be something as simple as “I’m going to work today at three-thirty” and then, before three-thirty even rolls around, you have been smacked by every red light you can imagine and your work day is done before it even got started.

Says 2009 Golden Heart Winner, Anne Marie Becker: “Some days are just ‘do-over days.’ You may have grand plans, but life grabs you and says, ‘Nope. We're going this way today. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.’ On days like that, when whatever crisis popped up has settled down, I'll take 20 minutes to re-center myself. This could be a quick nap, after which it's like waking up to a brand new day. It could be a quick walk around the block. A game of solitaire. Whatever you need to regroup. Then, I re-prioritize and decide what needs to be done, and what can realistically be done in the amount of time left. It's about flexibility and setting priorities.”

Sometimes it’s a little bit more serious. All of a sudden you are broadsided by something you didn’t see coming: financial, marital, death in the family – something catastrophic and you are dumb struck, looking at the horizon trying to figure out what’s next.

For me, Jacqui Jacoby, my odyssey into the abyss started two days after the RWA National Conference in Washington DC, 2009. A Golden Heart finalist, my husband and flown out to share the experience, extending the trip in order to enjoy the sites. Only two days later I woke up feeling – different. Not sure what was wrong, we tried to go ahead with our plans, but it didn’t work. When I tried to stay longer so that we might see those things we couldn’t see, he insisted on leaving. “We need to get you home.”

For the first week or two I tried to sleep it off. When I finally saw the doctor they began to run tests. Though anything potentially “serious” was ruled out they did find an infection they could not isolate. Bed rest, they said. It will go away.

For months I set my alarm for eight-thirty in the morning, planning on getting to work. I had deadlines to make, obligations, not to mention another book to get to my agent. More days than not, I was still in bed at noon, trying to work it out in my head. What’s wrong? Why can’t they stop it? Why do the tests keep saying I’m sick after so long? Why won’t my fever go down?

The weight loss? I suppose that was a benefit. But people I hadn’t seen in awhile would comment how good I looked. “My god, how did you do it?” I refrained from saying “Plague and Starvation. I don’t recommend it.”

By February not only was I not writing, but I had to drop out of school, something I loved.

There comes a time in this process, after it has gone on for too long when it becomes hard to get up and tell yourself “I am a writer. I have to work.” The psychology is playing on your mind. You start to doubt yourself and your ability to bounce back to where you used to love to live.

When the doctor says there will be another couple months of bed rest, you have two choices. Continue to lay there and think “Poor me. Why me?” Or you can finally sit up, slap yourself upside the head and think “Like hell. I have a life and I am going to reclaim it.”

Bed rest. Fine. I called Victoria Secret and bought two of the cutest pajama sets they had. If I was going to be lying around, I was going to look good doing it. Pants, a cute little tank top with a matching light jacket and slippers. It might be noon when I dragged myself to the shower, but after the hair and make-up was done, regardless of how I felt when I got out of bed, I was feeling much better. Not quite? A splash of Channel #5 – the good stuff because even a weak, sniveling body deserves the best – and I was ready to rock the cosmos.

Norman Cousins’ wrote: “The more serious the illness, the more important it is for you to fight back, mobilizing all your resources-spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical.”

It isn’t easy when faced with things even you can’t understand and no one can explain. There are the days you do want to feel sorry for yourself, and you have to learn to kick those in the butt and show them the door. Bad things happen to good people. We have been taught that our whole lives and there are those times when you are that good person. You can use the negative thoughts to bring you down and let them win or you can turn them around and think positively, reveling in the smallest accomplishments.

• I wrote a page today.
• I answered all my e-mail.
• I spoke to two writing friends via computer.
• I judged one entry in a contest

And it is hard some days. But you keep going. And you keep smiling. And you watch funny things on TV to make you laugh. YouTube clips. Thinking positively, even if you only got to the computer for an hour in a day full of things you don’t want to think about. You think about that hour. You move forward and in a small way, keep your presence known in the real world of literary production.

I lost a year of my life, my work, to something that never got a name. Eventually, the fevers went away. The white blood cells came down. But, no, they could never put a name to it. “Weird virus. We’ll never know.”

Today I walk two to four miles a day. I go to the gym. I am back at work on the next books, sharing my experience and trying to let people know you can keep going.

I will never get that year back. I can either sit back and think about what I missed or understand that for that one year, that is what I had to do. I still have a good thirty in front of me and I want to enjoy them. I won’t do that by continuing to look at the past. So I look forward. To the next project. The next hero that curls my toes. The next short story that comes out of the blue. The next … who knows!! I just know I can’t wait to see it arrive.
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Bio: An award winning writer and a ten year veteran of martial arts, Jacqui Jacoby’s career is multi- faceted. With her trusted computerized day planner, Miguel, by her side, she is able to work in many aspects of the writing community: as an author and contributor to the Kiss of Death as well as RWR Magazine; as a chapter volunteer and contest judge, and as a workshop presenter, both live and online.

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