Waxing and Waning
Those two words on their own look odd, but in the context of the moon they describe the periods of the moon: waxing is when the moon is going towards a full moon, and waning is when it is past ‘full moon’ and going to a new moon.
All things are cyclical, and there are phases to everything. The year has seasons, the moon has phases, and interest of people in things can also come and go.
So it is, as we must soberly take note, with this publication as well. The Unending Tales stagnates as the interest from the various people initially so enthusiastic, has died down. These things happen! This is OK and I am determined to carry this onward!
First of all, big great thanks to S Lynn Knight for writing the next chapter in ‘The Pilgrim of Cele’! We are making progress. Next up was Kathy Hussey who showed interest and I hope you can carry on! The deadline would be Sunday, but considering all circumstances, do not feel under duress at all, Kathy.
Now the elephant in the room, or the fantasy story floating around: The Afterworld Saga. No one volunteered to continue! Truly a shame and though I mentioned I would be willing to finish it, it would be contrary to it’s initial purpose. Wouldn’t you agree? So in a last effort, I implore upon any who read this to show interest and reach out! Only a few more chapters and we can move on to the editing phase.
With this, a few words of encouragement and suggestions on my part.
How do we keep up enthusiasm and interest?
I am sure you know this feeling. You want to write, but then you still have to do laundry. You just came from work and then a friend invited you to go out. You could do it another day, I figure. The platform will wait.
Of course it will wait. Everything around us will carry on if we were or were not active in it to a degree. The Earth revolves around the sun, the birds will fly, and you can always write another day. What does it take to maintain that interest, that enthusiasm?
It can be disheartening to realize that ‘no one’ is reading your work. That your efforts are going unseen and that all that you have written disappears into the vast void that is the internet. It would be easy for me to say ‘Just carry on!’ as success and recognition is not a slip-and-slide that comes by itself. It’s an uphill battle with a large boulder in front of you that you have to push away.
The main issue, I find, is that we set our goals too high.
I want to work out 5 times a week
I want to lose 10kg.
I want to write a novel.
These goals are laudable, achievable, eventually, but they are too large. It’s too big! When you are writing a novel, it isn’t written all at once. When you are painting a painting, it is created by the conglomeration of all the parts as a whole.
This is the same with any other project you may have in your life, or with this project, The Unending Tales. We need to take little steps, little bites, to create something bigger. Write 100 words a day. That’s all. Do 5 minutes of exercise. Create the habit, repetition, build it from there.
Ultimately though you might figure, you said something about enthusiasm, how do I keep that up? and I say that those little goals, achieving those little steps, can be very rewarding. It may not seem a lot at first, but it gathers up, like a wall is made of many stones and a forest is made of many trees.
So, do not despair. We can get there, we can make this work and create something great. I will call upon those who already participated and hope you might be interested in writing another chapter, if time permits. Let’s do this guys! Have a great week ahead, and all the best to all of you.
Herein the mentions of prior writers, if you wish to be removed from the tagging here, just write it in a private message:
Joshua Valdivia, Abby O. Akoto, Ashley Khue Pham, Joe Rodriguez, C. Allen Exline, Nnubia Ogbuefi, Tobi Amos, Leo Charles M..
