Author Donneil Jackson.........."Writing Was My Passion"

                                                   "Writing Was My Passion"

On my website, I say I write because it's an escape. Truth be told, it is. The moment my fingers began clicking against the buttons on my keyboard, or the moment my hand gripped a pen and the words begin to flow fluently on the pages of my notebook.  Donneil D. Jackson has left reality headed straight for La La Land. When I was younger, this used to fun. Escaping was something I looked forward to doing each day. These days-not so much.

There is a scene in the movie, Love and Basketball where Q asks Monica why she stopped playing ball. She told him he it wasn't fun anymore and to leave it alone when he continued to probe. This is how I feel about my current state of writing. Writing is something I have loved forever. Yet it no longer fun.

As quickly as I published my first novel, Chante's Song, my love for writing changed. It was no longer an escape, it was a job. Well let me correct that, writing was the easy part. It was still an escape. Yet, it's all the things that come afterwards that spoiled my milk. Producing a book is simple, writing, editing, and printing copies of your masterpiece. It is everything else that follows, the publishing business that I didn't and still don't like. It had me questioning if this business was for me, and also contemplating giving it up writing. There's so much to publishing.

You have to know who your audience is. I thought I knew but its 5 years later and I just now really understanding who my audience is. You have to know how to reach said audience. And that process is a forever changing process.  You have to market your works to your audience. Facebook and Twitter are not the only outlets you should be using. Arranging book signings are no longer effective, you have to create an event. If you don't know effective ways to target your audience then you have to pay someone to learn, or do it for you. So now the hobby that you loved so much becomes even more expensive.

This brings me back to the line from Love and Basketball. In the end, Monica tells Q she quit basketball because it nolonger fun. Something was missing. And that's exactly how I feel. I battle with it every day. I want to write. I enjoy it. I love receiving feedback from readers. I love observing their reactions while reading and then they ask that famous question, "When is your next book coming out?" This question from my readers is what motivates me. It is this question that is slowly bringing the fun back to writing. It's the anticipation of the readers that is fueling my passion at the moment. I want to get back to that fun place. I always said as long as readers will read I will write. I am going to stand by that sentence and write