Soooo, I accidentally went viral on Threads.
I wrote, “Can we get a thread on authors who found success after 40?” and it exploded.
110k views. 1.4k likes. 1.1k comments. 65 reposts.
The comments section filled with authors in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s sharing success stories, including Kiese Laymon, Amy Dubois Barnett, Shaka Senghor, Rachel Ann Ridge, Patricia Sands, Mary Oliver’s Drunk Cousin, DL Jennings, David Gate, and Roxane Gay.
Then, there were the hundreds of, “I really needed this today,” comments from people who had come close to quitting. People who felt demoralized after multiple rejections, and were sitting on unfinished manuscripts, unfinished essays, and half-baked books. Watching themselves drift further and further away from their dreams.
I had become one of those people.
Not on purpose. Real life took precedence for [insert reasons] and suddenly a year…then two…then (ahh) three passed. The creative projects I was diligently working on – the ones that ignited my soul, slid into the background while I focused my attention putting out fires in the foreground.
I found the internet unhelpful with this. There is a lot of “push through” discourse that encourages burnout and overfunctioning.
No thank you.
I prefer what Cheryl Strayed once told my best friend after she had a kid:
“You will write again. Just not right away, and not right now.”
And so here we are.
Writing again.
Not right away, but right now.
Because the only person who gets to decide what projects you finish and when, is you.
More soon,
Margo
I’m taking on a few writers this spring. If you’ve got a project to finish, apply here.
