I'm back!

Happy new year everyone! I hope you are all well and rested. 

Between Christmas, house, kids, and life I didn’t get much writing done over the last three weeks. It was okay, I needed the break, but I worried a bit about getting back into it. How hard would it be? Have I lost my words? Should I read it all first to remember what I’m working on? Do I still like my story, my characters?

I let fear put off writing for several days. I hemmed and hawed and found excuses. Finally, I decided, once again, I wanted to be a writer and the only way to do that was to write. So, I opened up my WIP exactly where I left off and started. You know what? It was easy. Almost as if time hadn’t passed. In my first session, I wrote 482 words. Not too shabby.

There are so many times I let fear dictate what I do, when if I just did it, it wouldn’t be so bad. I don’t really do new year’s resolutions but this is something I want to work on this year. Stepping up, stepping out, and just doing.

How do you get back into writing after a break? Anything you’re working on this year?

Story to Tell

I was reminded recently that everyone has a story to tell.

Tell your story.

Doesn't matter how: memoir, fiction, movie, play, blog post, journal, recipe book, painting, quilt, cross stitch, audio recording, whatever. 

Tell your story. In your way.

Because everyone has a story.

And everyone deserves to be heard.

Turn, Turn, Turn

One thing I have to remind myself of constantly is that there is a time and place for everything.

Just because I used to do it, is no reason that it is a good idea now.  The things I may do now I never did twenty years ago, and probably won’t do in another 20 years.  Each year of our life is different. We have different needs, health, family, jobs, etc.

Looking back and wondering where the ‘me that used to be’ went is no good. That me doesn’t exist right now.  But I exist. And I like myself. I just can’t live by the same hobbies and goals I used to have.  The things that have dropped by the wayside were let go to make room for better more important things.

And that’s all right.

A little while ago I realized that an author I respect was turning 40.  40!  I hope they don’t take this the wrong way but I thought they were older. This person is barely a year and a half older than I am and has at least a dozen books published.  I guess it was a blow to my ego to realize they were so close to my own age, because what have I accomplished? It's come at an interesting time, as The Engineer and I  have been making plans, giving up on some ideas and accepting new ones. A time of flux.

Everyone takes their own journey. Everyone has their own set of crazy to deal with. To everything there is a season and a time and place for everything.  It’s natural for us to compare ourselves to others, to always long for what we don’t have, or haven’t accomplished yet. Striving to make ourselves better is one of the things that make us human. Or maybe one of the things that make us divine. And perhaps that’s why we have to keep reminding ourselves that there is a time and place for everything, and sometimes just being is enough. 

Someday...

There is danger in the word ‘someday’.  Someday I’ll work on this goal. Someday I’ll accomplish my dreams.  

Someday is vague and nebulous. Someday may never come.  

Choose to start today.

Whether it’s that rewrite you’re contemplating, the blank paper waiting, the friends you could find, the promotion you want. Someday won’t be soon enough, what can you do today?

There are times when something must wait for that ambiguous ‘someday’, but only because there is a more pressing ‘today’ to live.  

Find your someday, and make it today. You won’t be sorry.

Do I have talent?

There's a post here at Writer Unboxed titled "Do I have writing talent?" You're asking the wrong question. The post talked about why this question didn't work and posed some different questions that would help us gauge our writing progress.

There have been several times I've seen people come to Compuserve, post some writing, and ask, "Do I have talent? Should I keep writing, or should I give up?" Maybe you've seen this in your writing groups, too.

Writing is a difficult profession.  We all need positive feedback.  We have to have some encouragement because there is a lot of discouragement in the process. But if you have to ask the question "should I give up?" then the answer just might be, yes.

Because there is so much discouragement in writing we have to know, in and of ourselves, that this is what we want to do. That this is what we NEED to do. We have to have the conviction so we can keep going.  If your only commitment is from outside sources maybe you should put down the pen and save yourself a lot of hurt later. Or maybe you just need to take the time, think about what you want and you'll come to that conviction on your own.

The worth of a goal

Author and teacher extraordinaire, Barbara Rogan has a post here in which she talks about a study recently done on authors.  In her post Barbara says:


My advice to aspiring fiction writers is and has always been that if they can imagine themselves happy doing anything else, they should do it. 


 This statement wormed its way into my subconcious and brought back out a memory. When my brother, who is an anesthesiologist, was starting at a university and considering the long journey of pre-med, med school, residency, school loans, and such, spoke with many doctors. He asked about the process, if they thought it was worth it, how to prepare for it.  He was told by the doctors, if there is anything else you can do and be happy, then do it.  The long arduous trip was only worth it if you were driven to practice medicine. If it was a calling, rather than an occupation.

It surprised me a bit at first to see the same words applied to writing, but then it made perfect sense.  I've often heard that a writer has to write a million words before they are good enough to get published. I guess those million words are our med-school and residency.  No, writing doesn't save people's lives, but it can save people's souls.

Most, if not all, professions have some sort of training or certification that one has to complete before being able to do the job.  All our training is on the job, and because writing is a solitary pursuit it can sometimes take us a long time to really grow. The pathway to publishing is long, and difficult.  One of the hardest things is how subjective it is.  Even if we practice and write our million words, even if we are very, very good, there is no guarantee that we'll find someone who believes in our book the same way we do. 

All in all I agree with the statement, if you are not driven to be a writer, the rejection strewn pathway may not be worth it for you.  I've known others who have given up rather than trying to learn and grow. The reward of being published wasn't worth the work, effort, and rejection received.

But it is for me.

Unintentional

My children love to read. They picked that up from me.  They saw me reading every chance I got, or carrying around a book, just in case I had a spare few seconds.  I also read to them. Constantly. We go to the library every week or two. They've learned that reading and books are important and loved. It's so amazing when I realize I've had an influence on them, that I've been able to make their lives better.

Unless I haven't.

I've also noticed that they tend to pick up on my more questionable habits. (No, putting books before cleaning is not a questionable habit) They mispronounce words I mispronounce. Whine about things I whine about.  I never tried to pass these things on, but it happened anyway because my children were watching.

It worries me sometimes what little things I might be putting into my books without realizing it.  Are there unplanned themes that will be apparent to readers? Overuse of a certain sentence structure? Author intrusion?  I know that my writing is all me.  All the characters are me.  But at the same time, they are who they are.  I've never written an autobiographical character, Never intentionally put family or friends in my books, but are they creeping in anyway?  I guess the only thing I can do, is write the best I know how, and hope that beta readers can call me on the rest. 

They say that there are only so many stories, that we have to learn how to tell the story in a new way. In our way.  Only I can write the books I write because others would have written the same story differently. I need to trust that I'm putting in the good parts of me, the ones I want to share, and not letting the rest creep in. No matter how I look at it writing keeps coming back to trust. But that's a post for another time.

Know Thyself

I spent a great deal of my life trying not to be my sister.  I thought if I did everything opposite of what she did I would be my own person. It took me a long time to realize that doing something just because she didn’t wasn’t  really an indication of who I was anymore than if I had been  trying to be just like her.  I had to learn to listen to myself, find out who I was, and be true to that. Regardless of what other people did and said.  Once I found myself, life was so much easier.  And much more enjoyable.

In many ways finding my writing voice is very similar to finding myself. I’ve had to listen to the stories deep inside, write what I felt and believed, not because it was trendy and not because it was the opposite of what was trendy. I couldn’t copy other authors style, voice, or genre. 

 If I write true to myself and the story, the story itself might ring true to readers. Even if not, even if I never get published I know who I am, and I know what I write.  

And that knowledge is a wonderful thing.