I spent last week at the beach. My plan was to do a bunch writing and read several books. The writing would happen in the quiet of the morning while the rest of my family slept and I’d read on the beach. Even as we packed the car, I wondered if my two bags full of writing material and books were bit over zealous. But nonetheless, I lugged my work along with me.

Reading was easy. I finished one book in the car on the way to Florida. I had a hundred pages to read and my husband isn’t much of a talker when he’s driving. I managed to get halfway through another novel in the afternoons while sitting on the balcony, listening to the waves. But by the third day, I barely looked at the book. I just wanted to walk on the beach and play in the ocean.

I told myself that it was okay to just be. I decided not to worry about reading or writing. I was on vacation, after all. I needed time to reflect and relax. I found myself walking along the beach, thinking deeply about my various writing projects and my writing life. My thoughts flowed in and out like the tide.

During one of my walks, I came face to face with the reality that my writing can no longer breath or grow in the margins of my life. It needs more space and time if I wanted to reach my goals.

I found the thought troubling. As a wife and mother, the margins were the only time I had to write. There were so many other things that needed to be done. But as my youngest child heads to college in the fall, it is time to shift the focus and use the full page. And for the rest of my vacation I pondered what that meant.

It occurred to me that the first step is to fully embrace yourself as a writer. Though I am now able to identify myself as writer when people ask me what I do, I still feel like a fraud. Part of me believes you can only be a writer if you have a published book or a recognized byline. The publications that I have seem small and insignificant. Consequently, it’s easy for other things to fill up my writing time. But embracing oneself as a writer means valuing the time you need to do your work. That means being able to say no when it’s time to sit down and write.

The second thing is to sit your ass in the chair. I keep coming back to this point, because this is often my biggest obstacle. I can’t write if I’m busy doing other stuff. And it would be okay to do those other things if they satisfied the deeper longing of my soul, but they don’t. Most of the time all I think about is how I really should be writing.

The third and probably the most important is to trust that the world needs to hear what you have to say. Each writer has a different view of the world that gives us a better understanding of the whole. When we honor our work and share our voice, we empower others to do the same.

As the Editor in Chief of Minerva Rising, I’m encouraged to keep writing every time I read a submissions. They remind me that there are women out there who have made time to write no matter what else is going on in their lives. I am inspired to be true to myself as a writer.

If you are reading this and wondering if you are really a writer, the answer is yes. Your voice matters. And we would love to read your work. Don’t hesitate,submit your work today.