Encouragement, Accountability, and Truth-Telling

Starting to write and having faith in myself as a writer isn't the easiest thing I've done. One of the people who has helped and encouraged me is Andi Cumbo-Floyd. She shares 52 pieces of honesty and wisdom in her new book 'Love Letters to Writers: Encouragement, Accountability, and Truth-Telling', which launches today. It is with great pleasure that I welcome Andi to my blog to share with us her own journey and some lessons she has learned along the way.
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​Welcome, Andi!

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Almost 7 years ago, my father looked at me and said, “I’ll pay your bills and give you a monthly allowance while you live with me for a year so that you can write a book.”  It was the most gracious gift I’ve ever received. 
 
It would be easy to say that it was my dad’s generosity that launched my life as a writer, but that would not be true.  I launched my life as a writer, and it happened many, many years before that when I made a commitment to writing as my truest way of being in the world. 
 
There wasn’t a specific moment when that happened – no memory of standing on a pier by big water and dedicated myself to a life of worlds. Rather, it was gradual, an accrual of experiences and encouragements and self-awareness that came over time.

• When Ted Gup, my writing professor in my literature grad program told me I had a gift with words and a unique voice, a piece fell into place.
• When the professor in college charged me of plagiarizing a paper on The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, shame at a false accusation burned away awareness of another piece.
• When I came to understand the way my being vibrated purely when I had written something with all myself, another piece.
• When my mom encouraged me with books after teaching me to read before school started, another piece.
• When I quit the full-time professor’s position that I’d been seeking for years because I wanted to write, another piece.

​All of these moments and many more combined to be the puzzle of my own writing life. But it was that gift from my dad, the one that came with an obligation to him, the one for which I was accountable, it was that heavy, wonderful gift that drove it all home. No longer could I write this off as a side thing, no longer could I pretend it was a hobby that I would reach for years later when I miraculously had the time.  No, now I had nothing but time, and I had no more excuses. 
 
It was there in that year that became almost two with my dad that I learned three key things about living a writing life:

• It takes discipline, no matter what life is like at that moment. I had all the time in the world, and yet, I still wanted to do anything else but write. Now, when I have much less time to write, it’s still the same. So I have to choose the work and do it, even when I don’t feel like it.
• Schedules and goals are my friends. Having specific hours in the day and specific word counts to reach drives me forward, helps me protect my writing time, and gives me a sense of accomplishment. They are my two best tools.
• No one cares about my writing. If I’m looking for other people to affirm what I do, if I’m looking for subscriber numbers or Twitter followers as a measure of my value as a writer, I am going to fail and quit. Only I care about my writing enough to do it regularly, so I have to believe in the value of my words . . . because few others will.

 
These three insights combined with a lifetime of loving words, the gentle encouragement that outweighed the discouragement that came in droves, and the simple fact that writing is the most fundamental way I make sense of and find truth in the world – these things are what got me started in the writing life, and they are, still, the things that keep me going. 
 
Writer, my hope is that you believe in yourself enough to take the gifts of encouragement, time, and support that come your way from others or from yourself and weave them into the words you have living in you. Oh, I so hope that for you.

Love Letters to Writers: Encouragement, Accountability, and Truth-Telling is available from Amazon Australia here, and Amazon.com here, or try your favourite retailer.

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Andi Cumbo-Floyd is a writer, editor, and farmer who lives at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband, four dogs, four cats, six goats, three rabbits, and thirty-six chickens. Her latest book is Love Letters to Writers: Encouragement, Accountability, and Truth-Telling, and she writes regularly at Andilit.com