You are absolutely free and entitled to create for yourself that particular environment that serves you the most as a writer. 🔥🔥🔥
In my early years as a writer, I had the great opportunity to meet a group of wonderful and experienced writers, both female and males.
They were older than me and members of the Romanian Writers Union, writers with years of experience under their belt and a ton of knowledge.
I was lucky in this regard (thank you, God) because it paved the way for creating some wonderful relationships and friendships with well-established writers whom I could, afterward, invite at my book launches and talk about my books. Every Thursday we would meet at a coffee house in the center of Bucharest.
It was the writers’ Thursday, so to speak, and writers (writing in all genres, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, essays, literary reviews etc) would come both from/outside of Bucharest.
It was such a great moment and I was eagerly waiting for Thursdays to come!
So far so good. I was sitting now at the same table with writers older than me (40 to 70 years) who had made a name for themselves in the Romanian literary world.
I felt both happy and proud to be there – as you can probably easily imagine. 😁😍🥳
One thing happened though, and it’s something I realized recently, about 2-3 weeks ago :
All these writers, no matter how well they did for themselves as writers, there was something that was almost like an absolute truth that nobody present there could argue with or change:
“Writers can’t live off their writing”
It’s something I would hear almost at every meeting and something that almost all of them said.
Now, it’s important to mention that this was happening in 2009/2010 when I was 23/24 years old and I had just published my first novel, in march 2009.
So clearly, I was a complete newbie and pretty much like a sponge.
I embraced this truth WITHOUT even realizing it. 😕🙈
I was young and lacked experience, so I accepted this truth as my own (writers can’t live off their writing) because something else was present too:
These writers being older than me and with lots of experience, it made me conclude at a subconscious level, that they must surely know what they are talking about since they are veterans and they know this industry inside out; surely, they know how things work.
At that time, I didn’t realize that I had taken in this truth that they threw on the table. They, of course, have no guilt either.
They simply shared something from their own experience, based on the perception they had created which was based on the circumstances they lived as writers.
So of course they can’t be blamed either.
As I was saying, at that time I didn’t realize that I had taken something that wasn’t mine, pretty much like when you take, by mistake, someone’s luggage at the airport thinking it’s yours.
This was exactly for me too.
The only thing was that some 2/3 weeks ago, I found myself really wanting to go to the root of it and see why do I believe that writers cant live off their writing and that writers struggle and it’s a fact that if you are a writer you must endure all kind of lack, struggles, hardships, misery, etc
Before this, I had done a bit of journaling and this is how I found out that yes, I too had the limiting belief that writers can’t make money or live off their writing.
And so, one day, sitting by myself quietly in my bedroom, I did a meditation to quiet my mind and I asked my subconscious mind to show me why do I believe this and when/how did I accept this limiting belief, because it’s not mine, clearly, and it’s in fact, something I totally disagree with and am against it.
So, when did I take it in? What were the circumstances?
And I sat quietly and the answer was an image I saw in my mind`s eye, with me being at this meeting with these writers and listening to what all these writers said:
One can’t live off their writing. Writers are poor people.
I had then a huge aha moment. So that was when it all happened. 😳😱
Well then, if this is the case, then I’m now choosing to dismiss this idea, to let go of it and remove it from my mind, my energy, my psyche, my everything because I don’t want it.
I have nothing to do with it and it’s not me who created it.
More so, whoever wants to believe in it and be a slave to this idea, it`s perfectly valid and I respect their decision. But not me. I’m not buying into this anymore and if you feel you want more for yourself and your books then I’m highly encouraging you to let go of it too. 🙂😍👏🤗
Ok, so since it’s not my idea, what happened then?
It’s simple.
To use a metaphor:
I joined a party that had started long before I was even born, meaning limiting beliefs like these have been around since God knows when and it’s a prejudice that’s been passed on from generation to generation.
This means that these writers have no guilt either as they are only – without knowing it – prisoners to a belief system about writers that others have created and they bought into it. This is all.
To make the point, it was like this:
These writers had been meeting each Thursday long before I came to Bucharest ( I told you, they were over 40 up to 70-year-old people, and they knew each other for well over 20 and 30 years).
So when I showed up, this idea that nobody can live off their writing had been well cemented, like one of those truths everybody agrees to, knowingly or unknowingly. It’s as if you go to a party but you`re getting there at a later time, music is already playing and people are already there and because you are late, there is nothing else for you to do then to join them and listen to the same music and enjoy the same atmosphere, you follow me?
But none of it is yours, you didn’t choose anything, not the place, not the music – none of it, but still, you are there and you`re taking it all in as it is.
This happened for me too. I had arrived late to this “writing party”, people were already there and the music that was already playing was:
”Writers can’t live off their writings, writers are poor, writers struggle and it’s a fact”.
And as a result, not having the awareness that I have now, I said yes to it and embraced it.
But not anymore because now I know better and I hope this blog post brings you the breakthrough that I’m hoping it will bring you, the breakthrough that I had and wanted to share with you.
Now I know that I can remove myself from that “writing party” that I had embraced when I was 23 because it’s not mine and I don’t like it and choose to create my own writing party, meaning:
😍🥳 I get to choose the place ( meaning the context for myself as a writer)
😍🥳 I choose the writers I want to have there ( meaning surrounding myself with writers who have the same mindset as me or want the same things linked to their writing path & career)
😍🥳 I get to choose “the music” I’ll be listening to, meaning, to create my own set of beliefs that honor me and empower me, uplift me and contribute to me; beliefs that give me confidence and make me walk talk and make me feel proud that I’m a writer and proud of being in the writing industry, proud of the place that I’m occupying in this world, such as:
“Writers are abundant in every aspect. Writers are abundant beings. There are millions of avid readers in this world and this means they are happy to pay for books. It’s so easy to make money nowadays as a writer, thanks to the internet. It’s so easy for a writer to build a loyal audience hungry to buy and read their books” and so on.
Do you see and feel how different this all sounds? 😍🥳👏✨
It’s taking you from victim position – to winner/ co-creator position. ⚡💥🔥
I truly hope this is of help and value to you. Let me know in the comments below what resonates the most and how this blog post is helping you.🙏😍🥳🙂🤗
See you next time!
Cristina
Happy writing! ✍️😍🥰🤗🙂💕
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