Can't Do It By Myself

Without going into my personal history, which would be horrifying and boring, it is simple enough to say I do not like being around people. Yes, a lot of people say they do not like being around people. For me it has gotten to the point that it affects my ability to hold down a job and to do several other activities. Another short end of this story is I found my love for writing.

I discovered that I am actually good at writing and I have a lot of fun pulling these stories I see in my head out and putting them on paper. I have published a short story. I am working on two more stories and I have ideas for over a dozen more.

You have all heard me brag about my short story that I published. It was an easy enough task. I published it on Smashwords.com and they pushed it out to all the e-reader stores. I did it all on line and without having to deal with a single person.

The truth of the matter is I have not done any of my writing by myself. I have been surrounded by lots of caring and supportive people who have given me lots of help. This is the one thing I want you to take away from this, it does not matter what you are doing. You cannot do it all on your own.


 With my short story the first two people who helped me out were my wife and Mom. My wife read the story and gave me suggestions on things that were missing or needed to be different. True, I did not take all of her suggestions, but it is because of my wife there is the entire section at the end in the hospital, which helped me set up the ending so much easier. My Mom is a great editor. She did a wonderful job correcting all of my horrid grammar.

Then there were two professionals that I met. The first is Mary Keating. She writes articles in local publications and has written several medical texts for doctors. She was kind enough to sit down and read my story. She said it was rough around a few edges, but that I should publish it. She said I needed to get the story out there. So, I went through the story a couple of more times to polish it and then I put the story out to Smashwords. I do not think I would have made the jump without Mary’s push. 

The other professional I met was Bob Beason. He is a great guy and a wonderful artist. He did the cover art for my story. A lot of people were telling me I could grab photos from the web and Photoshop them together and make my own cover. I promise you there is no way I could come up with a cover that is anywhere as good as Bob’s art. I love the cover he did for me. 



So, is that the end? Not even. I have finished a rough draft for a story and I’m about half way through the rough draft of another story. At this time my wife and Mom are going through my finished rough draft. When they are finished I will start revising that story. I am having Bob do the cover art for my next two stories. 

These two stories are much larger than my short story and I will put a lot more time and effort into them. Because of this, my Dad has recommended I find a publisher. As a matter of fact, my Dad talked to one of his old high school buddies, whose son has started up a publishing company. My Dad got me the contact information and they are waiting for me to send them my story. So, in my future it looks like I may have the assistance of an editor and a publisher. This is a lot of people that are helping me.

There is a lot of teamwork for the activity of writing, which seems to be just a one person show. But, isn’t that how life really is? Everyone who reads this should take a minute and think about the people around them that help them. I am positive you will see there are others around you and it is because of them you are able to do the things you do. Maybe you’re thinking you play video games, “how can someone help me with that?” There are people at that gaming store that get you the games. They talk to you about the games. How about friends you play against and you learn from them. At the very least you play with friends and they help make playing the games that much more exciting. Are you into modeling? Sure no one is helping you build the model, but again there were the people at the store where you got the model. They probably even gave you tips on how to do some of the work, like the airbrushing. What about your job. You may think you are on your own, but who is around you? You had someone who taught you to do the job. You have someone who pays you. You do one part of the job and someone else does another part of the job, could you do both parts?

Here is my point. You are not alone. You have people around that help you. Appreciate them. Thank them for their time and efforts with you. We as individuals are incomplete works. We are made whole by those who are in our lives. We do things and create things that become our sums. Those sums add up because of us and those who help us.

Thanks To:

        Year of the Writer by JulieDillon @ deviantart.com 

        My Editor by OuchNegi @ deviantart.com

        Buckaroo Bob by DrStrangeBob @ deviantart.com

        Publisher by DadviSmit @ deviantart.com

        Teamwork by Biokun @ deviantart.com