My Choice

At some point in my teens I was watching the Olympics with my mom and I remember her saying “I only recently realized I’ll never be an Olympic ice skater.” 

At the time I thought “Really?  You’re just now figuring that out?”   

Of course, I didn’t say that out loud.  I was a smart one.  But not smart enough, because I’m only now realizing what she meant.

People are curious.  We like to learn and do new things.  We have goals and aspirations.  When we’re younger everything is possible.  And probable.  Of course we’ll have time to not only become an Olympic athlete, but also a world famous chef, a heroic firefighter a gardener, quilter, artist, bagpipe player, (insert your own goal here).  Now that I’ve reached a certain level of maturity (cough)  I’ve realized I won’t be able to do all the things I had envisioned as a child.  Not because it’s not possible, but because I’ve chosen other things. 

There are goals that are more important to me than gardening (as you can tell by the weeds in my flowerbeds) Do I love gardening? Yes!  But writing is more important and when I have a choice that’s what I do.  Could I do both? Probably, but I wouldn’t achieve the skill with either that I will if I focus on one. 

Also, there’s my goal for my family.  I’ve always known I wanted to be a mother.  And while I had some sort of understanding that that took time and sacrifice, I hadn’t experienced it.  To be the best mom and wife I can be takes a lot of effort and a lot of time away from the pursuit of other activities. 

Do I regret this?  NO!  This is what I mean by choosing other things.  I’ve prioritized my wants.  The things I can’t live without, the things I’d like to do, and the things I no longer care about.  (Nurse? I admire what they do but I haven’t been interested in being one since 2^nd grade.) It’s not that I can’t do these things, it’s that I’ve chosen other things, and those things have brought on new interests and new goals.  So yea, I may never be an Olympic athlete, but it’s still possible for me to be an award winning author.   That’s what I’ve chosen, and it’s worth the effort to do it right.  But it’s in that choice, the choice to put in the time and work to write, that I find myself relinquishing another option, and I hear myself thinking “I’ve just realized I’ll never…” Not because I  can’t but because I’ve chosen not to. 

Overused

Last week I finished my edits (woohoo!) and on a lark decided to do the find function for “ly” Just to make sure I don’t have any unnecessary words residing in my manuscript.  Wow!  It was a huge surprise how many there were.  Some of them were legitimate, such as family (which comes up a lot in my story) But there were still a lot of adverbs.  How had I missed them all?  I was surprised how many times I used certain words.  My characters don’t do things, they slowly do things, and finally do things, and my favorite…slightly do things.  Apparently I also use the word “only” a lot.  I mean A LOT a lot.  My characters also sigh a bunch, as did I when I saw all of them.  

If I had a quarter for every “ly” word I’d be amazingly wealthy, or you know, able to buy some well written books to read. 

What words do you overuse?

Learning From Others

I’ve got a couple amazing links for you today. 

First is Barbara Rogan talking about premature submission.  Not only is it a well written post with a lot of info to help make sure you don’t succumb to this malady it’s a fun read. 

Next is Kiersten White talking about motherhood and writing.  I’m sure you guys could still enjoy this as you have things to balance in your life too.  I love, love love this post.  I love how she says you’ll never be completely balanced.  Because you never will be.  You’ll never  be able to do everything you think you should.  I love that she says to be fully present in whatever you’re working on and I love the last paragraph.  I’ll let you read that on your own.  Just know I wear the badge of pride.  

Both of these posts came at times when I needed to hear them, therefore they really spoke to me.  I hope they can help someone else out there. 

Thinking of you...

I've gotten some awards from some amazing bloggers recently.

 


First, I received the Liebster award from Jen over at throwing up in an IKEA bag.  (And no, I've never once seen vomit on her blog!) and from Julie DeGuia (I love her last name but I would be afraid to pronounce it in front of her)



 

Then I got the One Lovely Blog award from Elise Fallson (She lives in France, studied entomology and likes to post funny cartoons on her blog)

Thanks to all of you for thinking of me!


Their blogs are fun places to be.   I hope everyone can hop over and give them some blog love.

Cheese

Truck Boy thinks that all robots walk around saying “Cheese. Cheese.  Cheese.”   As far as he knows that’s all a robot says.  That sounds pretty weird, huh.  What if I tell you that at an early age he loved a cartoon that had a large robot walking around saying "cheese" because he wanted his picture taken?  Makes more sense now, doesn’t it?  It doesn’t rationalize the belief that all robots say "cheese" but it helps us understand why our son believes that.  

Have you ever read a book where the characters actions or assumptions are so far out there you can’t understand them, let alone relate to the character?  The story falls flat and we put it away with a “meh”. If we understand what is motivating the character, what from their past causes them to believe or act like that then we get a little closer to that character.  Even if it’s not a choice we would ever make, if we understand why they made it we can accept it.