By Latisha Sexton | April 29th, 2021
Every author has a different story to tell. My author’s journey has been a complicated one, with lots of twists and turns. The biggest twist is that I’ve hated writing for years. But, before we get too far, let’s start at the beginning.
There are some people who were born to be and do something specific and more than that, they could sense from a very early age that this thing is what they were created for. They have always had a clear and powerful purpose driving them in their choices and decisions. Because they’ve always had a destination of where they want to go in life.
I was never one of those people.
My Author’s Journey: How it Began
You see, I never had a desire to do anything in particular.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that I was lazy (although I do enjoy a good lazy day with my coffee and books). My issue was that I had a huge lack of self-confidence. I found it hard to push myself and try new things because I always felt:
- As if I wasn’t good enough
- That I fell short in everything I tried. So why try?
Homeschooling & Comfort Zones
Here’s a little background on where these confidence issues came from. I was homeschooled and even though I wouldn’t go back and change it for anything, I do think that being homeschooled in such a small town made it so much easier for me to retreat into myself. And frankly, it gave me a reason to not push myself out of my comfort zone.
In a World of My Own
When I was young, I remember staying up till 2 and 3 am in the mornings reading or sketching. Most of my days (and nights) were spent daydreaming as I created stories in my head and played out scenario after scenario. I preferred this life of reading and art to the real world outside. Because let’s face it, sometimes the real world sucks.
The Hatred was Real
However, as much as I love reading and creating stories in my head, I really, really hated writing.
In fact, I hated it so much, that I remember crying whenever my mom would give me a writing assignment for school. Sorry, Mom!
Confidence was not my forte, to say the least. And the longer that I stayed in that lack of self-confidence, the harder it was for me to get out. It has taken years and years for me to even gain the confidence to attempt to write down one of the many stories that I have floating around in my head.
My Author’s Journey: The Turning of the Tide
And here is where the beginning of my author’s journey truly began. Although at the time, I never dreamed it would lead to any of this.
I had been working for over three years at our local V.A. Clinic. At this point in time, because we had three kids all three years and younger (yes, it’s a madhouse here), I was only working part-time.
As with a lot of workplaces, there was a whole lot of drama. I mean a LOT. More importantly, I wasn’t happy there. Some days it felt like the very life was being sucked right out of me. I had to get away.
I remember being stopped at a red light on my way to Wal-Mart (exciting, right?) when I had the craziest thought come to me. As I waited for the light to turn green, a single thought popped into my head.
“I should start a blog.”
I remember that I literally laughed out loud at the empty car (Wal-Mart trips are my “me” time). Why would I start a blog? What could I possibly blog about? Furthermore, I despised writing!
The Seed
But, the seed was planted. At least, the seed to do something of my own. The writing wouldn’t come around until much later.
I began thinking about what jobs that I could do from home. I knew we wanted to homeschool and I also wanted to be home with my children full-time.
However, the only jobs that I thought you could do at home were call centers. I was absolutely clueless to the entire online entrepreneurial world.
Doors Opened
A few months had passed since that trip to Wal-Mart and I was still working at the life-sucking job. I was feeling desperate and had been praying for God to open up doors to something else. Anything else.
One night, I was scrolling on Facebook and an ad caught my eye. It was an ad for “becoming a Pinterest VA.” I stopped my scroll and read the description. Over and over. I was intrigued and totally confused.
What the heck is a Pinterest VA?
For those that may not know, a VA stands for “virtual assistant”. It is someone who helps you with specific tasks for your business. A Pinterest VA is someone who helps you manage your Pinterest account.
This one Facebook ad changed my life forever. However, I didn’t become a Pinterest VA. After much research and pouring myself into all the YouTube videos, free trainings, paid courses, and even coaching, I began my own business as a Social Media Manager.
And this is what I did for almost three years. I learned valuable skills during this time.
Skills like:
- Social Media Marketing
- How to Blog
- How to create compelling messaging to draw clients to me
And guess what? I was successful, with happy, paying clients. People referred me to others.
But, I wasn’t happy or fulfilled.
My Author’s Journey: 2020 The Year of The Pandemic
Ahh…the year that none of us will ever forget. The year that Covid hit and knocked us all on our feet. Now, regardless of what your views are (this isn’t a post about Covid) the fact is, all of us had our lives changed in 2020.
For me, the little nagging that had been at the back of my mind for months started to surface. I became dissatisfied with being a social media manager. Yes, I was good at it. I was good at teaching other’s how to do it for themselves.
But, I just wasn’t satisfied.
However, I pushed and pushed and pushed myself to keep going. To keep doing the next thing that was expected of me. To keep trying different ways to turn my social media skills into a larger income.
But, life isn’t always about a paycheck.
My Author’s Journey: Where I Am Now
Enter 2021. The immediate stress of Covid had lapsed. We had all fallen into a routine with the way our world was operating.
However, I was stressed, overwhelmed, and even a little depressed. Every day I prayed that God would open doors for me and lead me to something else. I had taken time off social media in December, but that time stretched into January.
Even when I came back online, my heart wasn’t in it.
I’m honestly not sure what happened, but one night in late February or early March (I can’t remember the month), there was a story in my mind. But this time, instead of just thinking it through in my mind until the next one came along, I decided to do something different.
I wrote it down.
As I secretly worked on my story during that first week, I kept asking myself what I was doing. However, the more that I worked on it, the more that I fell in love and wanted to do more.
FInally, after getting two and a half chapters done, I decided to show it to my mom, my sister, and my husband. I wanted their opinions before I did anymore.
They loved it. And that was the confidence boost that I needed to keep going.
At the time of this blog, I am 71% of the way done with that very story, turned novel. This book will be the first of a set of three.
God’s Leading in My Journey to Becoming an Author
Looking back, I can’t believe how God has brought me from the girl who cried anytime she had to write, to the woman who now loves writing so much now that she’s writing professionally! Because of my journey as a social media manager, I learned valuable marketing skills and also grew my confidence in writing.
God put me in the exact place that I needed to be in order to help me learn how to grow a business online through social media and also to become a better writer! Now, I not only get to use these skills for my social media clients (yes, I’m still a social media manager 😉), but I get to use them to help me market my own books!
I hope that through my story, you will find the faith to try the things that you’ve always wanted to do, but never had the courage to try.
If you would like to continue following my journey as an author (hopefully a published one by the end of this year!) then be sure to follow me on Instagram and on Facebook