I've been on a journey with my writing recently. I've discovered that I've been holding myself back, writing what I thought I should be writing, rather than what I wanted to write.

I'm currently working on a women's fiction story (yes, there's still a love story element) about a woman who thought she had the world by the tail, until her husband dies suddenly and she's left with a mountain of debt, a company stripped bare and a dilapidated motor home. Oh, and she also has a daughter who's lost her way into materialism and needs to find her own power to escape an emotionally abusive husband.

According to excellent writing friends who've read parts of it, it's the best writing I've ever done. Boy, do I hope so. The words are flowing and it's really coming together. Which is good, because the RWA conference is next week and I'm looking forward to talking about it there.

Since my last journal entry, I've moved back home to California and opened the doors on my business-to-business marketing strategy consulting firm, Marketing Interactions. I've been doing a lot of research, business writing and strategic development and I have to tell you, I love it. When asked the other day how I can create personas for marketing programs so well, put myself in the customer's shoes, I finally figured out that it's a combination of my service industry experience and the ability to build characters and worlds for them. I can actually put myself there. I can see it.

So go out and try new things with your writing and experiment. Never believe you have to write one specific genre or conform to what you see others doing. Expand your reading and embrace new concepts and genres and play with ideas. Better yet, find out how you can use your creativity from writing to help bring new insights to other parts of your life.

And thanks for dropping by.

Ardath