I spend an exorbitant amount of time on Canva crafting video promos and posts for social media because… Well… it’s fun. I love creating art as much a written story and this is the perfect way to engage in both passions. So, I keep trying out new designs and methods to convey my stories and characters. The problem is there are so many combinations of elements, taglines, imagery, arrangement, music, length of time… You get the idea. Also, I may not be up on the trendy stuff as much as I need to be. I like what I like (including music like rock and blues, not pop) and not necessarily what I’m told to like. Hmmm.
So, hitting on a formula that will grab attention and tap into those algorithms is exorbitantly difficult.
Exorbitant = exceeding the bounds of custom, propriety, or reason, especially in amount or extent; highly excessive
Dictionary.com
The most fascinating aspect I’ve discovered is how the same video will get completely different engagement between social media platforms. There’s never any rhyme or reason. It will soar on TikTok (Disclaimer-soar for me means topping out at 700 views) and flop on Instagram or vice versa. Facebook? Forget it. I’m invisible there. Same on Tumblr. On occasion it might do well on Twitter… I mean X (what is that? – talk about invisible… and uninviting).
Here are some of my attempts just today. I would love your opinion about spending our time creating post after post in the seemingly futile game of hitting the right formula. And thank you for supporting my creative efforts and highly excessive passions.
The collage template
The flash of Wow😍
The evocative draw
If you’d like a story with a loveable heroine, smashing alpha males, found family, otherworldly friends, adventure, a cozy mountain town, a lively roadhouse, and princes from an ancient race who are trying to kill the MC’s date, pick up a copy of Ursus Borealis. My stories are full of exorbitant passions as well. 😉
I’m a romance writer. Passion is an emotion I get to play around with… a lot. Sigh…
Okay, that statement pretty much says it all, and I should just end my article here. Wait… sorry… I got caught up in the moment. I do that a lot when I’m writing.
What I really wanted to talk about was how I found my own personal passion that 1) blossomed in my 50s, 2) is sticking with me, unlike so many other creative outlets I’ve explored, and 3) has been a joy fanning into a brighter flame through learning and community… And through my example, prove to you that you can do the same.
You get one shot at life and there’s no age limit in pursuing your passion – if anything, you now have the wisdom and experience to navigate your passions with a clear head. Besides; it’s better late than never!
My focus today is the part where I started this journey in my 50s. Because I want to convey to you that it’s never too late to pursue a new passion, to rewrite your life, even. It can happen. Sometimes it happens with purpose, sometimes by those lovely twists of fate. The twist of fate that caused me to take another turn in life was not so lovely, but the fact that the pandemic brought an activity that prompted me to try my hand at my first novel is a positive thing I will gladly take away from all that horror.
The summer it hit, I decided to get back into my reading. My wonderful niece turned me onto Cassandra Clare, and I devoured the Infernal Devices series starting with Clockwork Angel. After that, I went on to consume Stephanie Meyers’ TwilightSeries. I couldn’t get enough of the fantastic first person narrative of Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood. I’m getting ready to start them again on my Audible. I went on to discover independent authors like Stephanie Hudson and devoured all twelve books in the Afterlife saga, followed by Transfusion. Next, was another fantastic discovery; Grace Draven and Radiance. Highly recommend this author! More authors got swept into my Audible or Kindle like Laura Thalassa (The Four Horsemen novels, The Bargainer series, and other great series), Jeanienne Frost (Night Huntress novels), and Kresley Cole (Immortals After Dark novels). For the romcom paranormal shifter delights, I turned to Carrie Pulkinen. And the list goes on. I read 180 books that summer.
All devoured, digested, and churned into a new passion.
Which means I got the crazy idea one day (in 2020) that I would try my hand at writing a novel. I sat down to write… and haven’t stopped. My first novel turned into a 250,000 word series. I’m still finishing the last book, and have rewritten the first two several times in the process of learning. I went for the self-publishing option and learned how to make my own book covers and promos, all one step at a time. I got involved with a writing community and found other resources. Three years later, I’ve learned so many new things, my head is spinning, and I made the momentous decision to retire from my day job a year early.
I ‘m also 50,000 words in on three other stand alone novels and have written a host of short stories (many based on characters in my novels yet to be complete), one having won a contest. But wow! Contests and anthology submissions are tough. Still I’ve learned so much through the process, that it’s worth the beating. I blogged about the benefits of slogging through rejection yesterday. I did managed to get a short story accepted to an anthology this year, and that was a thrill.
Am I convincing you yet to go for it? I hope so. All I can tell you for sure… following a passion at any stage of life is the best way to live. Strong and barely controllable emotions fuel the mind and body, spark that drive to get up and start a new day, and to live that day in excited anticipation of the next development while meeting yet another milestone in your new passion.
Here is one great example to illustrate that developing a passion later in life is not a new thing. [Click on header for the full article on other examples]
Author of the autobiographical “Little House on the Prairie” series, Laura Ingalls Wilder became a teacher at the tender age of 15, but spent most of her adult life tending a farm and family. She wouldn’t really take up writing until her 40s, and faced several rounds of rejections for her first attempts at chronicling her childhood on the frontier. She finally broke through with “Little House in the Big Woods” in 1932, when she was well into her 60s. She continued to write “Little House” books for the next decade.
Just think – you could spend the next few years indulging your passions, or you could tell yourself it’s not worth it. Those next few years will pass regardless, only by then, you may regret not giving your passions a go.
By D. L. Lewellyn 