Life's a journey...and everything I go through is part of the story. The story of my life.
But everyone's life is different and that's the beauty of humanity. We all have different stories, different journeys.
So how to make my story count? For me, worth is found in living in God's perfect will for me and loving Him above all else.
And also, happiness. Having meaningful relationships with people, enjoying your life, and learning to be happy with every stage you go through.
Growing up is strange and unique and sometimes bittersweet, but it doesn't have to be a bad or a hard thing if we enjoy it. Face it, life goes on. So learn to go with it. You won't be 10 again, but you will be 20 [Lord willing]. So love the process. If you make your life one you love, then you're gonna look forward to every moment.
Cherish the memories but the best is yet to come..and hold up. The best is now too, kid! Live and love. Fear God. Keep moving and do more.
xx
autumn
(i literally wrote this this morning when i couldn't sleep. it was wild.
Welcome to this post, guys! Today I have a super, super inspiring guest post for you all by one of my amazing online friends -- Anna Elisabeth. She runs Lethologica, and is the author of the Continuing Forever Trilogy. AMAZING, right?? Today I'm honored to be a part of her blog tour for her upcoming book Cessation. Anna has self-published all of her books, so today I thought we'd talk a little bit about "is self-publishing for me"? We've all heard about it, but is it right for us?
Take it away, Anna!
Hello! My name is Anna. I blog at Lethologica (currently under construction), and I’m the author of the Continuing Forever Trilogy. I’m so happy to be here on Autumn’s lovely blog today, sharing a guest post as part of the release tour leading up to my third book.
If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Hey, should I self-publish a book? Could that work for me? Do I have what it takes?”
I’ve self-published two novels, and am currently self-publishing the third… so while I’m no genius, I do have a bit of experience under my belt. Using said experience, I’m going to run through a few questions you should ask yourself before deciding “yes” or “no” on that self-publishing question.
/ 1. am i happy with this book?
This one is pretty straightforward. Before you decide to publish your own book, make sure you are absolutely, 100-percent thrilled with the masterpiece you’re about to share with the world. If you aren’t, no worries- you WILL get there! But waiting and working a bit more won’t hurt you.
/ 2. do i feel ready to do this?
I don’t mean “do I feel like I know exactly what I’m doing”...because let’s face it: we hardly ever feel that way. However, if you feel like you can look into things, deal with some trial/error, and learn from your mistakes, you’re probably ready to handle this self-publishing thing!
/ 3. am i driven?
Are you driven? Are you willing to keep going, hit walls and fall back and get right back up again? Self-publishing isn’t easy and it isn’t a straightforward path. You’ll hear “no” and see “not working” a lot...and you’ll have to overcome that. You’ll have to try over and over and over again, learning from mistakes and figuring a lot out as you go. But if you feel motivated enough and are willing to put in the time and effort- yes! You’re driven, and that drive will get you far in the self-publishing world (and in the rest of the world, too).
If you answered with a big enthusiastic “YES” to one or more of these questions… what are you waiting for? Go for it! Self-publishing is fulfilling, but it’s also hard and often frustrating. However, it’s nothing you can’t handle...if you decide you’re ready, you’re ready. You’ve got this. I believe in you (and I can’t wait to be reading your book one day ;) ).
/\/
So much wisdom in this post, Anna. I agree with each and every single one of these points, and I'm so proud of you and every one who decides to self-publish. It's a risky, but brave journey!
A huge thank you to Anna for letting me be a part of your blog tour!
Don't forget be on the lookout for Cessation on August 3rd, and in the meantime, you can read the other two books in the Continuing Forever Trilogyby checking out the website!
Have you ever self-published? DO YOU WANT TO TRY SOMEDAY?!!?
When I started blogging...I don't know, six years ago (?!!), I never thought I'd 1) make it this far and still be blogging as I grew up and became older and 2) thatthe day would come when I could finally create a YouTube channel and chase my passion of creating video content.
I was surfing YouTube earlier today, and it's honestly crazy to me the growth of social media and how it's gotten so...big. YouTube is a wonderful, but also crazy platform. I mean, how many people do you know IRL that have a YouTube channel? I feel like YouTube is a "thing" nowadays that's cool to do and people are so much more interested and ready to invest in it because it's so well-known (and you see the success stories of YouTubers who've "made it" and they're living a dream life. but, honey, everyone has problems...even them xD). So going into making a channel for myself, now, in 2018, I was like..."honestly, will something come out of this?" and "why....why am i doing this?"
Yeah, it might be a cliche thing to say, but I don't think I'm doing it for popularity. I mean, sure, numbers and stats are definitely nice, but something I've learned through blogging all these years is that you have to be committed to what you love to do, even when you don't get comments or the pageviews are drastically low. And I believe that applies for any social media nowadays. I've wanted to create videos since I was ten. And the fact that now, years later, I still have a passion and huge liking for creating videos is to me a sign that YouTube, in all honesty, should really just be a place where I can share my videos. And if someone, a lovely radiant amazing human being wants to watch me, then I'm just thankful.
ANYWAYS so I'm stoked about this new journey. There's a lot of things in life that I'm not sure about, but one thing that has gotten me through the past few months is the thought that I can start a new creative outlet for me -- through YouTube. SO!
I filmed this Q&A last week, and I kid you not, I had to cut so much out of this video. It was literally over an hour of footage I had, and no ONE is going to sit through that. So here you go. 20 minutes. STILL CRAZY LONG I KNOW. But better than 60 minutes xD
I hope you like the video and let me know my commenting on my video!
also...Abbie, I literally filmed this a few days before I got your questions so I'm super sorry they aren't in the video! I'll answer them in this post instead xD
- favorite time of day? - Probably mornings :) They're so peaceful...after the initial waking-up process. xD But I'm also a night owl all the way, so I think it honestly just depends on my mood.
- favorite fictional character (and why?) -Ohh, I don't know if I have a specific favorite fictional character to be honest.
- dragons or unicorns? -HMMM dragons because really they just seem a lot cooler
- would you rather be able to time-travel or read minds? - OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS SO HARD. I wish I could say both lol UMMMMM. I guess I'd say time-travel, because as cool as it would be to read minds, I feel like sometimes it's just better not knowing what other people think. Because otherwise....you'd almost feel compelled to do stuff just because you know what they think...rather than just doing your own thing. Also time-travel would be way too cool because you could just spend time in random places throughout history and become more wise and cosmopolitan haha
- top 3 countries you'd like to visit??? - Israel, New Zealand, Australia (and wayyyyy too many more lol)
And if you just want to watch the video on here then HERE IT IS!! But you should definitely head over to the channel and look around a bit too :')))
OK THANKS FOR MAKING IT TO THE END OF THIS POST!!!!
Let me know what your thoughts are and how your summer is going!!! LOVE YOU.
