Shout it from the rooftops!

Today's post is actually a carryover from something I tweeted a while back. As you may or may not know, I belong to a small group of indie writers known as Indie Ignites. We have a twitter account, and some of us have signed up to tweet specific days with the intention of having a camaraderie online with other indie writers. Being as I am one of the II tweeters, I save links throughout the week regarding writing posts, indie posts, reviews, my fellow IIers, and all that other stuff, so I have plenty to tweet when my day comes. Somehow, I ended up on a list of articles regarding indies in general and the right or wrong (bad or good, beneficial or not, sales-racking vs. sales-tanking... you get the point) ways to sell your books. Because, at the end of the day, most people write a book to sell. I mean, sure, that's not always the main point (it definitely wasn't for me), but it's there.

So I was going through all of these articles, and I've found that after a while of doing this, I always start to panic a little. You know what I mean... first you're all "MY THIS IS AN INTERESTING ARTICLE... GREAT POINTS!" and then a little clickety click here and there and ten articles later, you're freaking out, looking at all your stats, trying to do what so and so did and blah blah blah and you feel like a failure. OR, you decide you have to do things the way this one person did, and you change up your already decided plans to fit his suggestions which may or may not make a darn bit of difference in your situation anyway.

I'd gotten to that point where I was feeling the panic arise, not only because of the articles but the process of auditioning for the audiobook version of Pity Isn't An Option (YAY) and worrying that my "case" might not look worthy enough of being done as my indie sales are well, indie sales, and was like "Oh no..." when I felt this feeling (the Lord, I'm sure) reminding me why I wrote in the first place. Reminding me that the reason for this whole situation with Pity Isn't An Option has nothing to do with me anyway, so why am I worried about it? It was like He gently poked at my heart, bringing back the feelings I wrote for Jonas, and pointed me to what happened to Lovemuffin. Like He was saying, "Remember how things were? How you felt? Remember how incredibly sick he was? Remember what I did?" And as that all whirled and swirled in my emotions and I remembered, truly remembered the WHOLE POINT, I felt the panic slip away. I felt the truth of the writing come at me, I remembered that being a writer is HUGE and a big thing to be excited about and something to OWN.

That's when I tweeted the above quote. Because yeah, sure, we need sales, and sales tend to be the main motivator that keeps us on the interwebs (not counting interacting with friends, which I *so* do, and I love you guys, man, so much... *tear*). But I think sometimes we forget to write from our hearts. We start following all the "rules". We get anxious to push the "next thing" out. Or we allow those panic-y, "Am I doing this right? What does so and so say? I'd better look at my sales levels..." feelings determine our actions and the choices we make.

But I think it would be better if, for once, we sorta regressed. If we concentrated on WHO WE ARE and WHAT WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED instead of being in such a rush and worry to do those things that we miss what's already happened.

Hence, the title for this post. I'd rather write from my heart. I'd rather share what means most than compromise those stories and feelings because of a few rules. I'd rather have less come out more often so I can enjoy this process. I'd rather shout from the rooftops that I AM A WRITER AND I LOVE WHAT I DO then feel as though I'm never measuring up.