Great Things Never Came from Comfort Zones

As I neared the end on the revision of my 2nd novel, I decided to no longer be timid about letting the world read it. Yes, that is a funny notion for someone who had to spend a year selling her first book, an experience that revealed how terrible I was at doing the work of selling my own work. I suppose that is why this mantra became a guiding light as I did a very challenging thing for me: asking other writer friends to give it a read.

Getting an MFA in Creative Writing and sitting in so many writing workshops required a certain thick skin since your work would be dissected and critiqued for what felt like an interminable hours. Yet letting friends read this new book felt like a challenge made all the more difficult since you feel exposed when showing one’s work to others.

As I face the prospect of selling this second book once it is published, which I’d already explained I did very badly with my first book, I know staying in my comfort zone will not be helpful. Even as I write this, I can feel a tightening of my chest. However I feel an urgency, probably because I now understand how tenuous life is, which is propelling me to take that deep breath and prepare myself to be uncomfortable for a period of time.