Signs, the sequel

I believe in signs. That’s not news to people who know me, but recently I have become unbalanced as far as my writing is concerned. I switched schools early in the year (I teach high school students) and have lost lots of valuable writing time to the commute I have. By the time I get home I’m exhausted. I can barely stay awake to watch Jeopardy with my family much less write.

Maybe I’m not disciplined enough, because there are those that would say that if I wanted it badly enough I’d make time to write. I’d give up something. Well, that’s a post for another time. Actually, I already wrote about it here.

This post is about signs even though I’ve already written about that, too. (You can read that one here. Or here.)

The story starts with a post I read by Jeff Goins about becoming a full time writer. That’s my goal for 2016. And, of course, it’s totally doable if I don’t watch Jeopardy with my family, or if I only get five hours of sleep a night, or if I don’t do any number of other things that eat away my time. But to get back to the point, this article by Goins (read it here) was about what he did to go full-time. And the first thing he did was go pro, or start calling himself a writer. He faked it until he made it. Once he started treating his writing like his real job, it led to others seeing him as a professional.

So, where does the sign come in? With online desk shopping. I took Goins’ advice and told myself that if I wanted others to treat my writing as a real job, I had to start doing it. So, I hopped online and surfed for small desks that would fit into a corner of my bedroom, and began planning my converted office space. However, I couldn’t justify paying $75-$125 for a new desk right now. My two TV trays would have to continue to suffice until I could save up the money.

But Tracie, you say, you still haven’t gotten to the sign. Patience, friend, it’s coming.

As I was out today shopping at my local Goodwill for a dress for prom (I have to chaperon), what do I find? That’s right, a desk! And very similar to the ones I’d been ogling at Target.com. The difference? Goodwill had it marked for $30.

You could call it luck that I found a desk that just fit in the corner of my room that is now my office space, but I call it a sign. God (or, if you choose, the universe) put that desk there for me to find just as I am starting to once again make writing my priority. I see it as his way of telling me that I need to shift my focus to back what I really love doing.

Now I’m on a mission to find paying work that will allow me the time to pursue my writing. It’d be great to find writing work that would pay well enough for me to write my novels, but I think the freelance market is too saturated. Plus, I don’t want to resent writing pieces I don’t feel passionate about just to make money. I want to continue to love writing.

So, the search for paying work continues.

But not the search for a sign of what to do next. Or a prom dress.