Over a period of seventeen years, Emma built a successful career in education, gaining experience in further education and higher education, both in the UK and overseas. She enjoyed teaching, but had long dreamt of becoming a writer. The dream became more pressing once she had gained her MA in Education (through which she presented fictional research as a method of qualitative inquiry) because she knew she had to write full-time.
Emma self-published two small non-fiction books when her daughter was in nursery school. Both books were manageable projects and the process allowed her to discover a love of, not only writing, but also marketing. She knew the half-finished novels on her desktop needed to be seen by more than just her and therefore needed finishing – if only time allowed. She won a couple of small writing awards, which boosted confidence, but they weren’t enough to enable her to leave teaching in order to focus on writing full-time.
As her daughter moved through primary school, Emma became a full-time supply teacher in secondary schools focusing on English and the Humanities, with a stint in primary school too. This work fitted in with family life and allowed her to spend evenings and weekends writing the first novel in a planned romance series. Summer 2019 arrived and heralded six weeks of editing and polishing, whilst her young daughter helped out by spending time with her grandparents. Emma drank coffee and cursed the editing process into submission, but out of the fog emerged her first novel, Everything Except You, which was self-published through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. It wasn’t long before strangers began reading her debut story and commenting on how much they enjoyed her characters and plot. It was the encouragement she needed to begin writing the second book. As she played with characters and plot for the second book, she was also marketing the first book on social media through her brand name ‘dgtlwriter’.
When the pandemic struck in March, Emma realised lockdown presented the perfect opportunity to complete her second novel. She home-schooled her daughter every morning and wrote in the afternoons and evenings (often into the early hours). Then the dreaded editing process began again, but less painful this time. In July 2020, Emma self-published her second novel, Everything and Nothing, which garnered fan interest and she really felt she was on her way.
Emma began working with me because she wanted to work full-time as a writer, but had a feeling of unease because she knew it would take time for sales of her novels to replace her income from supply teaching. We began reviewing her goals and I encouraged Emma to consider her options from a place of clarity rather than from one of scarcity. The moment Emma started thinking with a calm mind, ideas started flowing and almost instantly, Emma made a commitment to develop ‘dgtlwriter’ into a commercial business.
Emma is now working from home, writing her novels and running ‘dgtlwriter’ whilst her daughter is at school. She is currently working on her third novel and writing content for businesses who want to increase their online presence. Supply teaching is still in the mix for the time being, but isn’t part of her long term plans – not because she doesn’t like teaching, but because her dream is calling.
Emma writes: I love how Liz asks such a seemingly open question to help me with my changing career path and is able to circumnavigate my unsure answers, asking the question in a different way until I have the eureka moment which enables me to see the answer for myself, the answer that Liz knows was always within me.
Liz responds: Emma dared to dream and she spoke that dream out loud. She also dared to take action and, as her coach, I am helping her navigate the inevitable doubts and fears and to celebrate the successes. Day by day, week by week, I see the confidence growing and I see her moving from one success to the next. There is no doubt in my mind that Emma is already living the dream. I am proud to be working with Emma Jordan – author and writer.
For further details of Emma’s work:
Emma’s books: Everything Except You (2019) … Everything and Nothing (2020) – Available from www.amazon.co.uk
Emma’s digital writing business: www.dgtlwriter.com