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Writing
Through Adversity
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Okay, we’ve all had really crummy, absolutely rotten days or weeks or
months where writing seems totally inconceivable. We’ve ALL had
them! If you haven’t, you simply have not been writing long enough – it
will happen, trust me. You’ll happily be going along, living life and
scraping out that writing time each day or whenever you have it chiseled
into your schedule, and then – BAM!!!
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You get sick. The kid(s) (or animal(s) – same difference in some
families) get sick. Your parent(s) get sick. Your spouse/significant
other (hopefully no plural form needed) gets sick.
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Your kid(s) is (are) having a hard time in school. You and/or your spouse
loose their job. The home needs major work – externally and/or
internally. Or you have to move. You have marital or relationship
problems.
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Financial problems rear their ugly head. You have to take on additional
responsibilities you’d rather not handle for various reasons.
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Of the above, most have happened to me personally over the
last two years. Really. So, I write of what I know. There will be times
when it seems the fates are conspiring against you and specifically
against your writing. But, believe me, that is not really true, no matter
how much it seems to be the case. It is simply LIFE.
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Yes, things happen that make you want to through your hands up in the air
(figuratively speaking, not literally <g>), and call it all quits. But –
we just can’t do that, can we? No, we are writers, whether we like it or
not is after the fact. Most of us did not set out to be writers, the
calling just came to us after years of struggling to find out why we heard
“voices” in our heads – voices that were not even real people (okay some
hear Joan d’Arc, Napoleon, etc. but most hear John or Beth or Steele
<g>). We write because we have to. It is our personal creative
outlet and helps to make us feel whole, to feel like a true individual, to
feel somehow special. While it would be nice to have the New York Times
vali- date us by making us best sellers, or at least to have a house buy
our work, even if this never happens, we still feel the need to write, to
create, to entertain
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friends. We simply have to tell THE STORY burning inside us.
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So, what can we do to help our-selves? What can we do to keep the voices
in context and appease the Gods of literacy? How can we make sure that
the men with the white jackets don’t come and grab us (before we are truly
insane)?
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Good questions, which I struggle with each and every day, believe me.
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No matter how much difficulty you are having, you must keep writing. Or
at least be thinking about writing. Jot down those ideas that always
seems to come to you in the shower. Scribble out those characterizations,
which form in the calm space just between sleeping and waking. Record
your observations of scenes that make you think of a “good” dark mo-ment.
Write an article about some aspect of the craft you are struggling with
and help give yourself ideas to overcome it. Take a class or go to a
workshop to help jump start your cre-ative juices. Do some judging or
crit-iquing to lead yourself into thinking about character motivation or
plot lines or scene and sequel. Read your favorite, or a completely new,
author. Ask ques-tions on the links. Sign up for a BIAW, if only to
cheer others and hopefully get yourself motivated. Volunteer to help your
chapter or at National or at a school or to read to the elderly or at the
library.
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I honestly know how tough it can be some days. There are times when it
seems as if making a reader suspend disbelief, or writing a synopsis, or
com-pleting that draft, or working out those troublesome plot points
appears just too overwhelming. You have insurance issues or you have job
issues or you have relationship issues to deal with. I know, really. But
you need the mental relief of writing. If you ignore your
craft, your own personal creative skill/outlet, you will be stifling a big
part of yourself – and you will regret it later.
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So, look at your schedule every so often and if need be, revise your time
so that you at least allow yourself a few hours a week to shut yourself
off from the “outside world” and concentrate on your craft. Maybe for a
short stint you will have to make do with less time, and maybe sometimes
you will have a ple-thora. You, and by association your family and/or
friends and/or co-workers, will be the better off for you making the time
for your creativity.
Lori Lyn Grube
- President
- Greater Seattle RWA
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