Thursday Thoughts: Lessons Lately

Everyone always tells you, you have to climb the corporate ladder. Or at least that’s what they say when you’re in the agency world. Chase that next promotion, that next pay bump, that next job, but what they don’t say is it’s exhausting. Now I’ll say maybe it’s not like this for everyone! But for me I found I was burning out. Found that I didn’t love what I was doing anymore and while I know the main function of a job is to pay to be alive, but god. Wasn’t there a better way to do it? And then, around December of 2023, a realization hit me like a ton of bricks:

I don’t want to work like this anymore. I want to write.

So I started writing. Resurrected my tumblr blog from like 2010 and posted a few of my short stories I had written after grad school. It felt good to get my writing out into the world, but if I wanted to try and do this full time I needed to see if I could get engagement.

Enter Fan Fiction.

Now listen. I used to write this shit non-stop when I was in high school after I finished the Harry Potter series and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, but I didn’t realize people SHARED it with the world! I was so embarrassed back then, I would never let anyone read it, but as I cruised tumblr I found tons of blogs getting a ridiculous amount of likes and tons of engagement. Why? Steve Harrington.

I first started watching Stranger Things after season 2 came out on the recommendation of a friend and hot damn. I loved it. It was just the right mix of sci-fi and horror and I ate that shit up. Fast forward to now ( two jobs and two kids later ) and I was a bit behind, but the fandom was going bonkers again after season 4 dropped and after I watched it? I realized why Steve Harrington was IT. The character arc is rich of course, but he’s hot. He’s hot a dumb and very ‘babygirl’ and everyone wants him.

So? I took a stab at my first fic with Steve as the reader’s love interest and while I didn’t get much engagement the first couple of weeks it was up, every new fic I posted got me more views. More likes. More reblogs. A year later I had 500 followers and now I’m at over a thousand.

I know I’m taking a very meandering path to get to the point of this post, but here’s the bottom line: I hated my job, so I started doing what I loved and it turns out people love what I love too! And they love it so much they’re asking to be tagged in my next new fic and asking for more and sharing it out into the world and how incredible is that???

Now, in January of 2024, I’ve made it a goal for myself to up the ante and finally write a book and publish it. Seems lofty yeah, but it’s what I’m passionate about and if I don’t try I’ll never know. It’s not easy! I’m definitely working my full time corporate job still and using lunch and the wee hours of the morning and late hours at night to write, but I’m getting there. And it’ll be worth it.

So thanks for reading and if you’re coming along on this journey with me I can’t wait to share my first book with you :) You’re the best.

xoxo, Katie