Inspiration Cupcakes or How I went back to writing (Part 1)
Weekly Special
Hi my dear beloved customers,
What can I get you today? What about our Weekly Special : The delicious Inspiration Cupcakes?
Have you notice how life never turns out the way we thought? For better or for worse, depending on how we look at it, always for the best according to me.
As far as I can remember, I’ve always liked stories, on records – I’m an antique so VCRs didn’t exist at that time - and cartoons when I was a child, on books, movies and series when I grew up. I love to be told a good narrative that brings all sort of emotions, especially joyful ones for I like to laugh a lot, but also dramas that make me shed all my monthly tear production in ten minutes – Hello “Titanic” and “Madison Bridge” (Yeah, I know, I’m a gal so I tend to cry less when I watch “Predator” or “Rambo”!).
I’ve always been good with words, written ones mostly. I love to play with them, invent new meanings or divert them from their true ones, make them say what they are not meant to, surprise my readers with them.
I don’t recall if I have been writing for all my life, but what I remember though was me writing at least one book when I was a child. Writing stories came later, when I was a teenager girl and I wanted to tell stories of my own and invent a future life for myself, the one in which I would be successful, beautiful and, most of all, happy. At that period, I wrote short stories, teenage mystery novels, long narratives about my favorite band that written in turn with two in my best friends, and a final fiction about early adulthood… At that period, I was a total misfit questing for the meaning of life, searching for my true self, and writing was my ultimate refuge, the only place I was happy in, an out-of-the-real hurting world place.
And then, almost overnight, I just stopped writing because I had to become part of that real world to make a living, a surviving rather than a living. My mother had told me time and time again that I had no talent as a writer – now I know it just meant she was frustrated with the fact that she never had the courage to write herself, for it takes courage and vulnerability to express oneself and expose it to the world –, despised the time I wasted writing my stories, expressing loudly that I would never earn money with my books. The weirdest thing is that her excuse not to write, as she told me decades later, is that her own mother had once read her journal and made fun of its content - My grand-mother could be cruel sometimes and not a very loving person -, as my mom did herself with my stories.
So I stopped writing for three decades apart for a play I wrote fifteen years ago after taking the screenplay writing workshop that led me to my first awakening process with the book “Conversations with God” by Neale Donald Walsch. At that time, I took acting classes in that school as well, trying to find a new direction for my professional life. The funny thing is that a little more than a year later, I married a journalist who wrote for a living and I stopped writing again for he was the writer in our couple and I was not, denying myself again of that big part of me not to bruise his ego, though he never asked me to do so.
Writing came back, once again, in my life by chance – if such a thing exists and I grandly doubt that – because that’s really not what I was aiming for at that point. After my burnout, I was searching, again, for a new direction I would impulse my life with. What I loved to do in my former job was to assist my artist musicians to sort out what they wanted to express in their project and what was their bigger plan, what were the real goals underlying their project. I have always been good at asking the right questions to help people see the big picture more clearly, out of the frame, touch their essentials and see the path opening in front of them if they chose to walk it. So I decided to become a Life Coach for, if I could do that with musicians and their careers, I could do that with people and their lives.
The ensuing issue was how to acquire visibility for that new life project in order to attract clients. I thought, well, I’m good with words, I know how to create websites, so what about creating a blog where I could share all my life experiences to help people with theirs and offer them my help as a Life Coach to implement in their life the tools I’ve used in mine. That’s the moment when I started to write again.
I wrote and wrote until my thirtyish texts had built a whole beautiful blog, Le Point G in French and G-Spotlight in English, and I loved writing again, it was so much flowing as if I had opened a dam. Nevertheless, I never planned to do it for a living, it was just one of the joyful leisure activities supporting my new Life Coaching career. However, as I had trouble connecting with people interested in my coaching online services, I told myself that the next step would be to take my already existing blog content, add bonus writings to it, and turn it into a book. I then would be able to send it to publishers or publish it myself and sell it online and in french well-being and self-development salons to make myself known.
This is when my life took a really weird turn. A few months before my burnout, I had gone to see a medium who communicates with deceased people to talk to my beloved grand-father who past away when I was 15 but who has always remained with me ever since, lovingly watching over me. Already at that time, I was thinking about taking the Life Coaching path, more smoothly than how it happened though, and I asked him what he thought about it. He answered me that it wasn’t going to take place as I thought it would, that, as I like to be thorough in what I do, I would want to study a lot of stuff before – which I did on spiritual topics eventually -, and that my next professional occupation would be very different from what I envisioned.
I therefore had begun to work on the french version of my “G-Spotlight” book, while working on the english version of my blog for I wanted to be able to coach people from all around the world. That’s when my guides entered joyfully my life with the “Don’t Stop Believing” incident and started to interact with me. At the same period, I was asking the Universe to send me a professional opportunity for I was unemployed and needed to earn money one way or another. And it did, not remotely the way I thought it would, and definitely not allowing me to earn money with it right away since if God works in mysterious ways, the Universe puts a blindfold on your eyes, make you rotate swiftly on yourself until you are dizzy and points you in the opposite direction you would I’ve taken in the first place. Leap of faith, my friends!
Oh, but I see it’s getting late and I wouldn’t want to delay you from your today’s activity. I tell you what, when you come back next week, I’ll tell you the rest of the story, OK?
I would very much read in the comments how writing arrived in your life. I am always curious to know about your stories since, as stated earlier, I love them so much.
Lots of love,
Geay
PS: If you like her stories but are not ready to subscribe yet, tip the Bartender.
How I chose to Believe in Magic
Hi Geraldine. I have, since college been interested in writing, yet never really applied myself until my kids had matured and my divorce. I was in possession of a treasure trove of diaries and hundreds of letters written by my parents 80 years ago and began thinking perhaps this would be a good source to share and offer perspective of their lives and mine. Began transcribing all the material, took some writing classes and pondered what format to begin the writing process. Screenplay, book etc. I enjoy writing newsletters and three month ago discovered this forum and it seemed a nature landing space to develop writing skills. So, here I go and will see where it takes me. Thank you for your perspectives.
I loved reading your newsletter and discovering your journey so far. My journey has also taken on a similar road of starts and diversions. I always loved writing and reading as a child. In my twenties, I moved overseas to Saudi Arabia for a few years, I wrote very long hand-written letters to my family. They were kind enough to return them to me 40 years later. Hopefully I will use them again.
After returning to Canada I became a regular columnist in a dog show magazine - until they offered to pay me for my articles. I guess it was the imposter syndrome that stifled me as I thought I would need to be a literary genius or at the very least - perfect in my writing. I took a few writing courses and then became a single mother who needed to get serious earning money to feed my family.
I enjoyed working in advertising sales as it allowed me to employ my creativity - until the print industry took a downward spiral.
In the last 10 years I went back to University at 50 and became a Human Resources Manager and started my own business. Last year I have been writing like my life depends on it. I took a few more writing courses online and I am enjoying writing my memoirs.
This year I sort of retired as lost my daughter at age 40. My ability to process the grief through my writing is what is keeping me sane and moving forward. I just joined substack and jumped in without really knowing much about how this works. Thanks for asking.