After losing 3K+ words on January's project, I took the remainder of January off and in February, I returned to the book I
started in November. I was renewed in it, having given it a few months to 'simmer and stew,' so I could look at it with fresh eyes.
And then my muses had other plans.
They are fine with two of the names, Aubree and Logan. But, they wanted to free up Jarrett to use him in another book.
which
isn't too much work. Just a lot of 'Find and Replace' commands in
LibreOffice. But it's thinking of a new name that had me stumped. I
wanted to keep 'true' to the muses, but something that won't get me into some serious hot water.
Considering who the
Original Jarrett was based on, I toyed with the idea of just using a
spelling variation of his on-screen name. But there is already another
wrestler with a similarly spelled name, even with the variation I had
planned.
And I surely don't need a
Billionaire Owner and CEO coming after me for trying to steal his intellectual property. Nope, not on my to-do list.
Between
one of my 'Beta Girls' and a fellow author in a group I'm in, I figured
out how to keep that Billionaire Owner and CEO off my case AND honor
one of my sisters on my Daddy's side.
Why I
didn't think of this earlier is beyond me! My pen name is honoring my deceased BFF, so why didn't I think of honoring my deceased family?
I'm very grateful for their help. If it wasn't for those ladies, I'd still be stuck. We should be willing to help others when the opportunity arises.
In
my 40 years on this earth, I have seen too many times when people have tried to hurt one another, just to get ahead. I understand, everyone wants to be 'Top Dog' in their chosen career, but not by being vindictive. Why? Why do this? It just reflects badly on the vindictive one, no one else.
Before I became an author, I
dabbled in freelance graphic design (self-taught) on a journaling site and product review blogging. Both 'careers' had very selfish and conceited people in them. While doing the freelance graphic design, I
asked a fellow designer (or 'maker,' as they were called on the site)
how she did a certain technique. She never answered me. I don't know if
she didn't want the competition or she didn't like me, but she could
have at least said, 'I'd rather not answer.'
As
a product reviewer, I met someone that had experience in PR work for 5+
years helping me, saying she knew 'what companies were looking for in
reviews/influencer marketing.' Turns out she really didn't and my pitch acceptance rate dropped significantly after she had me rewrite my pitch letter. Again, I'm not sure if she did this intentionally or if I was
just in the wrong niche.
But, the writing community is full of helpful people, willing to advise and guide you correctly.
This is why I say Writing is not a race, nor a competition... We're all heading in the same direction. There are so many different genres of books. Why not help fellow authors?
You may just make a friend in the end.
