THOUGHTFUL THURSDAY: Don’t Get Too Comfortable

 

When I was growing up, my family moved around a lot. With extreme poverty came the constant need to find living arrangements that matched my paren’ts dwindling financial funds.

My father worked every type of job from construction to offshore cook, but it was hard to get comfortable when you never knew if next month you would be moving again.

Finally my parents saved up enough money to put a downpayment on a century old home and we could put down roots. Their mortgage was $50 per month, but it could have easily been $5000 as I watched my mother struggle each month to come up with enough money to keep her children comfortable in their “forever” home.

Being comfortable and knowing the wolves are no longer at the door is okay when you’re a kid, but as a writer, the worst thing we can get is too comfortable with our stories.

When we stop striving to challenge our characters…stop throwing obstacles in their way to overcome…we short change ourselves and fall short of the stronger writers we can become.

And what’s the fun in that?

 

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Best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest book, LUNADAR: Homeward Bound (a YA fantasy), is now available in eBook and print form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other online retailers.