Determination

Writing the Sequel

As we know well, writing can be a long and grueling process and, oftentimes, a lot of hard work doesn’t end up making the final cut.  Determination originated as a completely different type of book: a pamphlet of advice and information for other people with Transverse Myelitis.  Although we understood that this type of text was important, after composing several chapters, we ultimately decided to go a different route with our second published work.

We originally thought that 5k, Ballet, and a Spinal Cord Injury would be a difficult work to follow because all the interesting, action-filled events—such as TM onset and our paths to run and dance again—occurred in that book.  However, once we thought about how busy we’d been since the events written in 5k, Ballet, and a Spinal Cord Injury, we realized that the new novel did not have to be all about large, drastic occurrences directly related to Transverse Myelitis.

One day, when scrolling through old pictures and social media posts in order to combat our writer’s block, we noticed how focused we were on our hobbies between 2012 and 2014 and realized just how much we’d progressed in dancing and running between those years.  Despite all the struggles we faced as we achieved getting back to what we loved most—which are discussed in our first book—we still managed to not only get back to running and dancing, but continue them as time went on.  It was then that we realized that our next book could simply be a continuation of 5k, Ballet, and a Spinal Cord Injury without growing monotonous; we could focus on what happened next in our journeys with our sports, because simply being physically able to run and dance again was just the beginning of our stories.

Determination

“Determination” has always been a favorite word of ours.  An ever-so-powerful word, we felt that it described our personalities extremely well, which was the reason we chose to name our second book Determination.  We both feel that one word, no matter what it may be, has the capability of leaving a great impact on one’s attitude and outlook on life, so a different word that motivates us is conveniently placed in-between each chapter of the novel.  As we state in the afterword of Determination, we know it would not have been possible to get through the traumatic events that we did without qualities such as “confidence,” “optimism,” and “determination.”

Unlike its prequel, Determination displays great maturity in terms of growing older and our improved writing styles.  Written similar to a journal, Determination focuses heavily on our thoughts and feelings as we go through life and experience different situations.  Rather than exhibiting negative, pessimistic attitudes about what happened to us, we chose to be positive and optimistic in our writing and daily life.  That isn’t to say that Determination has no obstacles—inevitably, there are plenty of difficult experiences included in the book.  Nevertheless, we pulled through, believing that it is harder to navigate life without some type of ambition.