We admit that we are still figuring it out

Even after the publications, after the blogging, after you've figured out your platform and branding, what does it all mean when you still can't get your act together?

I cautioned a classmate not to try categorizing herself. "Leave that to the presses and publishers."

As we work on this journey, and submit, and write, and submit, and write some more, there comes a point when you have to admit: What the heck am I doing?

I don't mean, the 'meaning of life' type questions, or how many writers ask themselves their reason, their plan, or their passion.

I mean, how best to tell the stories one wants to tell in the best possible media?

I ran up against this idea when I asked some classmates to review and critique a possible submission.

One reviewer gave me positive but crucial feedback. My classmate told me I should make the story visual.
This was not the first time I've been told this, yet, it made me really ponder.

What new directions could I take a story in? How far can this story go?

Now in a new chapter of life, I also came to another self-truth: I will have to work on what story wants working on, and not what I can DECIDE to work on this time.

In other words: "I need to work on the sequel to this published short story" versus "This old story of mine is giving me new ideas on how to write it".
I should take the latter, but, unfortunately, our brains aren't that pat, or, even that structured.

My challenge for 2014 is to work IMMEDIATELY on the story that wants working on now.
If I stick with the sequel, I will be stuck, and when I am stuck on a project, is when I mentally feel stuck.

As a writer, or any creative type, I really don't need a new obstacle to prevent me from completing and/or journeying through a new idea or new perspective.

Storytelling involves the quest we talk about to audiences.