Tenacious Tuesday & the Indie Author

Welcome to Tenacious Tuesday! According to Dictionary.com tenacious is...

Te·na·cious

adjective

1. holding fast; characterized by keeping a firm hold (often followed by of ): a tenacious grip on my arm; tenacious of old habits.

2. highly retentive: a tenacious memory.

3. pertinacious, persistent, stubborn, or obstinate.

4. adhesive or sticky; viscous or glutinous.

5. holding together; cohesive; not easily pulled asunder; tough.

Hmmm, not too bad of a quality to have for everyone including indie authors.

When my children were much younger, they had hamsters. Not just two or three but six! At first it was only two and then lo and behold babies, and then more babies. We started out with just an aquarium but ended up having a hamster city on my six foot antique sideboard. This contraption had tubes rising up almost to the ceiling with rooms for this or that...I plead insanity brought on by my children, honest!

Now that I've set the stage...I know you've all seen those wheels the hamsters run around on? They will run round and round getting nowhere, but still they run. Until they fall into an exhausted sleep from the exercise.

That's what being tenacious is like. As a writer, I keep plugging away day in and day out. Some days, I may write forty words in any given manuscript, remember I write multiple genres at the same time. While other days, I'll write 10K words.

The point is...I'm tenacious. I hold fast to my goal of finishing the novel. I'm a Taurus so I'm naturally stubborn which is another definition of tenacity. My work is high retentive. I mean really four or five story lines and projects at the same time? Heck, I put my photo and phonographic memories through a workout each and every single day while just living and breathing! "Hey Mom, remember..., Honey, do you know what I did with..., let me see I killed off this character yesterday so who dies today, I left Baby Ruth crying because she's scared, oh I forgot Dr. XYZ's appt." You see what I mean?

But I'm the glue which holds things together. Of course, they could all do without me, but would they even want to try? Except maybe the characters I leave in the middle of something. They can't do anything except what I tell them to do. <wicked evil laughter> Yeah I love writing. In a world where I've given up all things to God, it allows me to control something. I do not sweat the small stuff. In fact, I do not sweat the big stuff either. I keep going one step at a time until goals are met or until I'm so exhausted I can't keep my eyes open. Believe me, there have been quite a few nights I've dozed off at my desk with a novel on my computer screen. But I'll get up go to bed, awake refreshed and start again.

Being stubborn, er, um, tenacious, I refuse to give up. I don't care if I get a thousand bad reviews, well maybe a little if the number were that high. I won't quit writing. I will learn new things to make my writing better each day. Remember, I am the forever student too. There is always room for improvement. What is perfect today may not be perfect tomorrow. Each day brings something new to life's table.

So what are you tenacious about?

Keep writing and loving the Lord.