Mistaken Identity

I feel like I’m coming out of a severe case of mistaken identity. All my life I’ve believed myself to be an extreme introvert. Except, I exhibit all these extroverted tendencies too.

My work life is a good example of this. I actually prefer to be in the office. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is, I like being around people. That made staying home to work for the past two years extremely difficult. I think I was in mourning for the first three months before I learned to cope with it (somewhat).

Now that things are opening up again I feel my creativity awakening and my joie de vivre blossoming again.

Why did I think I was an Introvert?

I’ve always been shy. I spent a lot of time alone when I was growing up (living on the farm with no neighbours close will do that, I suppose). I was never a party-goer and I preferred to watch and listen to actively engaging in conversation.

Those are all hallmarks of an introvert, aren’t they?

I will say, those qualities helped me in a number of ways:

1. 1. I lived to be an adult
   2. I had a lot of people-information stored in my mind by the time I was an adult. I’d seen and heard many different personalities in different situations
   3. I am very comfortable in my own head – I have no problem going for a walk and working out problems, whether they be writing-related or something else.

What has changed?

After my first book came out, I realized I needed to do signings and talk about the book. I had been working on my writing for a number of years and I was proud of it. That’s when I developed my author persona.

I have been honing that persona for quite some time. It was only a couple years ago that I realized that we all have multiple personas (not personalities, per se – that might indicate a mental health issue). We treat different people and groups differently depending on who they are. The tone of our voice will change depending on who we talk to (obvious examples are how we talk to our pets and babies).

I think my author persona is a lot like that. I’m much more outgoing and just try to have fun with it. If you experienced me during the recent Calgary Comic Expo you will know exactly what I’m talking about.

Can I be both and Introvert and Extrovert?

I believe I can. I sometimes will draw on my author persona to be more outgoing. Other times I’m okay to sit back and watch. Both are fine – one isn’t better than the other.

It’s knowing I can be a bit of both as the occasion calls for it that’s important to me.

In other news…

I am setting some new goals for myself as part of my new opening up. 🙂

I am going to set a goal to write every day. I have several books to finish and that is the only way I’m going to be successful. As of today, there are 241 days left in 2022. If you want to see how I’m doing, I will be setting up two trackers on my landing page: one for number of days writing and one for number of words written.

Cheerleaders are always welcome. 🙂