Advertising

Hi, all. Just wanted to write a quick post about advertising, since that's what I've been doing recently. I'm using Amazon Ads to publicise 'Surviving Schizophrenia' and it's been quite a learning curve. I'm enjoying the process though; I'm finding it immersive. It's good to have a project.

Shouting out about my work makes me feel a bit odd in some ways - but I have felt for a long time that my memoir could be more widely read and that if it was, it would help more people. I'm not just being vain - there are now more than 150 reviews of my book on Amazon, almost all of them five stars, and a lot of them saying how helpful it has been to them.

I think I'm right to be proud of what I've achieved. My second memoir, Surfacing, is not as well-written as the first and I've been thinking of revising it for some time - it's more of a self-help manual than a memoir in some ways. As time has passed I've thought a lot about what has helped, and what hasn't, in my journey to recovery and so I have some useful material to add to that book. I've been talking about doing this for a while though and still haven't got around to it!

When I look back over the the ten years since I published Surviving, what seems to be lacking is continuity. I have done various things - some work for mental health charities, some writing for a local magazine...I've written a novel and some children's books. Also various other short books. Oh, and I studied for a Masters degree in creative writing. I think there are probably some other things I have forgotten...

So, I do seem to flit around. I can't help wondering whether, if I'd devoted all my attention to writing about mental health over the past ten years, I would have been further forward in my career. 

But then, my career wasn't the thing I was striving towards. What I've wanted more than anything was to be a good parent, the best I could be, to raise a happy family, and that is where the bulk of my efforts have been directed. I've also spent quite a lot of time caring for my mother... 

So caring for others is the unifying thread, the continuity in my life - except that now I am not needed at all by my mother and not constantly by my children. So where do I go from here...? Whatever I choose to do I want to get it right, if at all possible. I haven't got time to keep meandering down different paths.

It has to be writing, that's for sure. I love caring - it's why I've made a reasonable parent, and I love my new part-time job looking after an elderly gentleman. He's so kind to me, so sweet...so grateful for everything that I do. It makes me feel that my efforts matter, that I'm making a difference to his quality of life, which is so rewarding.

But I need to write...it's what I'm here for, I'm convinced of it. Write what, though? I got enthused about writing children's books recently, but that seems to have worn off quite quickly. I tried writing thrillers - I self-published my novel Into Thin Air, written under my married name of Louise van Wingerden, but it met with more of a whimper than a bang (although this was before I began to learn about Amazon Ads, I also think it has the wrong cover for its genre...it's not a badly written book, I'm sure of that). I'm not sure that thrillers are my genre though. Maybe romance...although I am reading a romance novel at the moment and have become rather bored, which is not a good sign! Or maybe I should come back full circle and continue to write about mental health?

All comments gratefully received, although of course I might disregard them and carry on my merry way of trying this and that until I discover what is the best writing route for me. Seriously though, all comments really would be gratefully received.