You Have To Have Support

Today I have a special,

special,

guest.

Author 

Rona Simmons

I consider myself fortunate in that though it has taken me thirty years to get here, my real life is one of my own making. Three years before I retired from the black and white corporate world, I began planning what my next steps would be. Leaving the carefully and intentionally structured world of work for the many shades of grey was not stress-free. To overcome the anxiety, I turned to familiar territory: to what I knew and to the skills I had developed over the course of my career.
Organization and planning were two skills honed over at work (some might say they were more than honed, perhaps even bordering on obsession -- but that’s another story. Ah ha! See how these flashes of inspiration appear as if out of nowhere ... let me jot that down before I continue.). So, it was a natural transition for me to organize and plan my post-work life. I created a schedule for writing, committing to set days and times to start and stop. That worked for close to a year. I was faithful to my schedule. On days when I struggled for inspiration, I did not give up and do something else. I stuck with it and alternated writing with the research I needed to do for my novel. Again, my former life of note taking and filing came to the rescue.

Now, just over a year after retiring and embarking on my self-imposed scheduled life, I have allowed myself a bit of leeway from the schedule. After all, retirement is also about having time for friends and family, for traveling, for attending all those concerts or classes that never seemed to fit into the daily grind before. Still, I more or less adhere to my original schedule. I don’t even feel guilty now when, on occasion, I allow myself to switch a day of writing for a day of some other pleasure. In fact, I have found that having taken an unscheduled break, I not only feel refreshed but am anxious to return to writing when Monday morning rolls around.


One last item worth mentioning is my “support system”. Oh dear, I think those words might be another hangover from corporate life. In any event, it has been tremendously helpful to have the support of my family -- a husband who is very supportive of my pursuing my interests, though he hates to read himself, a sister who is a former language major and avid reader and has volunteered to serve as an initial reader and editor, another who is an artist and has been down this road before who has provided tips for websites and presentations, and of course my father who without hesitation pulled $0.99 from his wallet to be the first to purchase my recently published eBook.

__________________________

 Ms. Simmons recently retired from thirty years in the world of corporate finance to pursue the call of her long suppressed creative side, including creative writing and photography.  Though having written countless memos, letters, and reports and published business articles throughout her career, she is enjoying the freedom and creative aspects of fiction.  In one short year, she has published two articles, one showcasing her photography, completed and submitted one short novel for potential publication, and is working on the second draft of a general fiction novel.  She lives with her husband outside Atlanta, Georgia on eight wooded southern acres that provide inspiration for both her writing and photography.

 

 

Rona Simmons
https://www.ronasimmons.com
https://sites.google.com/site/ronasimmonsphotography/
Author of: Meryl's Commitment, a contemporary, southern romance novel
Sample or purchase Meryl's Commitment at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/148458