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Heather O'Brien's avatar

I definitely agree with many points here. It is important to know what you want, be clear on how you're spending your day (and alter that if it isn't taking you where you want to go). I've pulled back considerably from social media and have been concentrating on setting up some various ads and such. And I'm working on completing the setup for ad running. So ...

Also, fixing to dive virtually full-time into the true crime project (waiting on the legal stuff with that), setting up interviews, etc. So, yes, a busy time.

I'm not sure I'm as organized as you are as to knowing the path I need to take to get where I need to be. All I know is that I need more than simply a saga to show I'm not a one-trick pony. So I've been working on a collaboration (just a fun thing that's getting interesting), the true crime, etc. And I'm also trying to figure out a plan to get the interview I'd planned to do in Miami (have to do it in person) that fell through because of the canceled trip. I can't write book 5 in the saga without it. So that was a crucial setback.

In any case, it feels like (to me) I have several specific things I need to do, and that planning the long-term is dependent on those. And it feels that, in some respects, those might be coming together. But I've been wrong before. I think it's important to keep moving forward, even if we don't have as much of a specific visual as we may need. At least when the clear route presents itself, you have a bunch of work already done to start right away.

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Jody J. Sperling's avatar

I want to reflect on the whole of your message more, and I wanted to say that I understand, at least in a small way, how you're feeling with your frustrations.

One thing that leapt out at me, though, is that you could spend your whole life just sharing the saga with the world. There's a new reader born every second, and you'll never reach them all. The urge to be perceived as versatile is in you, not in your audience.

I remember telling one of my professors that I didn't want to be like Anne Tyler and write only broken family dramas, and he said to me, "I'd be happy to write even one book as good as any of her books." That hit home for me. Your saga is great. You know it. (And your other project sounds amazing), but if your purpose in doing it is to prove you are diverse, may it be cursed.

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Heather O'Brien's avatar

My purpose in the true crime is loyalty to the family, doing the story justice (vs. the current sensationalism associated w/the crime), the fact that I am connected through history with the town, etc. I feel that, given the background, my time on the original documentary, etc., that I have a right to the story - and the family is relying on me to do it. I think it will be fair, well-written, (hopefully) well-researched, and properly conveyed. If anything, I should have done it 20 years ago.

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Jody J. Sperling's avatar

You speedster, you!!!

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