by Tiffany S. Doran

Sometimes, you step away from it all and realize what you lost sight of. I haven’t written for a long time—since before Thanksgiving—and here I sit thinking back on everything that’s happened over the last few months. I have learned a lot since writing my last piece about conquering challenges, and I have grown as well.

The holiday season brought tremendous joy and immense sadness. A few days before Thanksgiving, my daughter gave birth to a beautiful son, our first grandbaby. (He is loads of fun, by the way.) My dad quipped that if he knew having grandchildren would be this great, he would have had them first. Tragically, he passed away a week to the day of meeting our grandson.

With so many emotions to deal with, I lost sight of just how much I adored writing. But in the midst of working the holiday rush at my retail day job, I still thought about it every day. Each time I used the keyboard on my cash register to sign in, it made me nostalgic for the days when I had time to write, remembering how easily words would flow onto the screen as my fingers flew across the keys.

I am excited to be writing again. It feels so natural, cozy, like sitting next to the fire on a chilly evening with a book to read and a hot cup of coffee.

Once retail slowed down after the new year, I knew it was time to start writing my next book. My newest novel is called Haunted Memoirs, and the title came to me out of nowhere one morning as I was getting ready for work. I have pieces of it in place, but I still have to sit down and figure out characters, plots, and locations, among other aspects. Like Desires of the Heart, it will be a romance novel, but this one will have a twist. Stay tuned.

I am excited to be writing again. It feels so natural, cozy, like sitting next to the fire on a chilly evening with a book to read and a hot cup of coffee. It’s warm and inviting. With everything going on and all that has happened, writing has brought me back to me. I remember how I felt as I began my stories, the writing challenges, the friendships, the banter with my readers. Every piece of that brought me a feeling of joy.

No matter what tears you away from writing, you can always find your way back. It may not be easy, but it will be worth it.

I’m realizing that amidst all the business of our day-to-day lives, we as writers need to hold on to the things that ground us and keep us focused on the tasks at hand. Life is short and life is precious. We must always find time to do that which makes us happy. Even if we have to chisel thirty minutes out of the beginning or end of each day, we should strive to do at least one thing that brings us joy.

After being away from the keyboard for so long, I was really concerned that I had lost “it.” Fears came back to me. Little voices crept back in and brought self-doubt like, “You’ve been away for months, you’ve been forgotten…they’ll never come back to your material now…you’re a ghost, and only your words remain.” Whether that’s true or not, how will I ever know if I never come back, never try, never lay fingertips to keyboard again?

I believe the following to be true for every writer: no matter what tears you away from writing, you can always find your way back. It isn’t always going to be easy, but in the end, it will be worth it.

Tiffany S. Doran is the award-winning author of soon-to-be-published Desires of the Heart. She’s a Tier IV Rising Star Author at ChapterBuzz, where you can see what she’s currently working on. You can also pick up copies of Tiffany’s published books on Amazon, and connect with her on her blog.