[Photo caption: Author Jason Offutt and his wife Kimberly Offutt on a recent vacation at Rathbun Lake, Iowa. Yes, Iowa has lakes.] There are different levels of emotional stress that come with where a writer is in their career. Early on was rejection, until I learned that EVERY writer getsContinue Reading
My biggest emotional challenge related to writing coincided with the pandemic. I had previously spent a couple years writing a three-book fiction series, Prisoners of Hope, and released the first two in October and November of 2019. The third released in late January 2020. The books totaled more than 1,100Continue Reading
The biggest emotional challenge of being a writer is trying to balance my passion for the craft, the time commitment required to bring an idea to fruition, and the demands of full-time work and parenting. I am a full-time teacher with three young children. I am also a “sandwiched” generationContinue Reading
When I first began writing novels, the most difficult emotional challenge was rejection. I had recently retired from a law teaching career, during which I published several successful casebooks and legal treatises, gaining a reputation as a very good writer. I somehow assumed that kind of success and recognition wouldContinue Reading
Prior to getting published, the biggest emotional challenge was all of the rejection. It is easy to believe that your work really is awful. Now that I’m published I’m reeling from “imposter syndrome.” It took me a month to work up the courage to listen to my own audiobook, becauseContinue Reading
Words come easily for me and I have written all my life. As a child I wrote letters to friends and family. Stamps cost just a nickel and for a quarter I could write and get back five letters and I liked it. My letters were usually three-to-four pages longContinue Reading
For me, the biggest emotional challenges of being a writer have been self-doubt and frustration. It’s been a long journey – 20 years, to be precise – from when I first began writing The Wayward Spy to its publication. The years were marked with near successes, gutting disappointments, and uncertaintyContinue Reading
Learning to believe in myself was by far the most difficult hurdle I overcame. My introduction into adulthood started out pretty rough, and while I’d always had the urge to write, I’d internalized a lot of messages I shouldn’t have listened to and allowed them to impact just how vulnerableContinue Reading
I started writing when I was a kid and suffered from self-doubt. I had teachers and friends who cheered me on, but not so much my family. I wrote anyway. The Biggest Challenge of Being a Writer: Trying to Balance It All Later came marriage and children. I was toldContinue Reading
The biggest emotional challenge of being a writer is willing myself to do the writing. If I don’t just do it, I can’t accomplish any goals. So within that I guess there has to be depression, lack of motivation, anxiety, a feeling of being overwhelmed, a sort of paralysis arisingContinue Reading
When I retired from a successful dancing career back in May of 2011, I did so thoughtfully, and prayerfully. I’d been a professional dancer for twenty-six years, and I needed a change. I loved to write as a teen, but when I sat down to pen something significant, something thatContinue Reading
For me, one of the biggest emotional challenges of being an author is that of maintaining confidence in myself and my work. I know we all experience moments of crippling doubt at times. It has the power to halt all progress. There is such excitement when a new story ideaContinue Reading