Paula — Very, very stubborn! And thank you for the kind words. 🙂

Ashley — I don't consider myself "brave." It really was sheer stubbornness early on. I had family telling me to give it up. I had friends who didn't take my work seriously. It was infuriating. But it made me that much more determined to prove myself.

So, pep talk time. 😉

It's really all about your mindset. My general philosophy is that if I want something in life, it's up to me to make it happen. So I do. While, sure, there are little things that don't go your way, or you ultimately change your mind about what you want, and some things take time to achieve, I can honestly say there's only one thing I've wanted badly in life that I haven't been able to have. And that's out of my hands, so I focus on the rest. If you sit back and take "no" as an answer all the time, you won't get very far. Always focus on progress where you can make it. Sometimes that means changing gears. And sometimes, in that process, you'll find that what you want changes and you get back on the right path.

Look. I don't know if it's going to make you feel any better to hear this, of it's going to help you in any way. But I get discouraged, and even downright depressed sometimes when I don't meet goals I set, just like anyone else. I beat myself up over bigger mistakes. I'm harder on myself than anyone else ever could be.

So no. There's definitely no bravery involved. I've just conditioned myself to respond to the "Nos" and "You can'ts" by immediately thinking, "Oh yeah? Watch me." And the hardest part was learning how to react that way to myself when my internal critic rears her ugly head.

It's an ongoing process even — something I'm going through all over again as I get ready to submit my first short fiction to publications. I feel completely inadequate, question my abilities, and over-analyze every decision for fear of making a fool of myself. But in the end, I know I'll pull the trigger and do what needs to be done.

Ask yourself: What's the alternative really? Doing nothing and never knowing? If it comes to that or taking a chance on something with the potential to be great, I will always choose the latter. The things that matter are worth fighting for, no matter how discouraging they might get and no matter how hard they might be at any particular moment. In the end it just comes down to deciding what really matters and deciding to fight for it, whether that's hitting a certain income target, earning specific bylines, or even expanding into new revenue streams.

Speaking of which, what's holding you back on diversifying? If you don't want to talk about it here, feel free to shoot me an email (jenn@allindiewriters.com) and I'm happy to chat with you about it if you need tips or ideas.

Actually, she's the perfect blend of smart, stubborn, and talented. The rest of us are just darn lucky she shares her insights with other writers.

I should note that NakedPR's relaunch is no longer just a possibility. Since answering Lori's questions I've decided to move forward, and the project is in development. So. Back to my "big 3" it is. And I can't wait. 🙂