Well, friends, thanks for all the input on my dilemma of the week. I'm pulling out all the notes from various readers so far and going over what I have with the notes. That's my goal for the weekend. Figure out where we are and what the next step is. I'm still really excited about the possibilities of this WIP, so I'm going to try to stay with it at least for now.
We had a really interesting couple of days. (This is the reason for the lateness of the Friday post.) The kids had dentist appointments and check-ups back in Cedar. That meant an overnight trip with all three of them, BY MYSELF! I wouldn't have thought about it as being a hassle, but all three of them have had colds and all three of them got car sick on the drive over. And middle boy fell of a chair and got a serious goose-egg ON HIS EAR! (I didn't know you get swell like that on an ear, but you can.) And there were other minor things that would have been less pleasant to deal with, but there you have it.
Here's the thing. We spent basically two days on our own with lots of difficult or horrible things going on, and it was okay. I didn't lose it. I didn't fall apart. I didn't even crack a little. And this is how I know I'm making progress in my life. Even just a few months ago, this would have been the end of the world. I would have been forlornly crying in the corner, unable to cope with all the stuff that went wrong over the course of our trip. But, I didn't. And I feel better about myself and my abilities.
The same thing happens in our writing, I think. We have to go through a bunch of junk. That's just the nature of it. There's negativity and criticism and critique and rejection. Over time, we learn to cope with it better. And when we're in the badlands, we can look back at what used to be the badlands and see how far we've come. Even though taking a break wasn't on the list at the time, I'll go back to the writing and be better at it, handle the negative better, and just rock it all over the place.
How about you, friends? Are you in the "rock it" place or the badlands? How have you seen progress in your life or writing?
4 comments:
Kayeleen!! I've missed you! I haven't been around to many blogs the past month or so. Too many things going on. I'm glad your move went well. And I read Memoirs of a Geisha last year and really liked it. I'm not really an adult book reader either, but I try to branch out every once in a while. :)
I think I'm in no man's land or something. I have days where I rock it, but often I'm just going going working cooking going that I don't feel like writing anything. (I've also been very blogger absent lately, and I miss everyone)
Glad to hear you're making progress in life :)
Welcome back! I vary from day to day:
Mon: I am a GENIUS
Tu: I am a failure
Wed: I am a GENIUS
Thu: I am a failure
I might want to try meeting myself in the middle sometime, eh?
It depends on if we're talking now, or five minutes ago, lol.
No. I'm good. I mean, I think (I hope) I'm at that place, where I know I'll be able to keep writing, and that hopefully rejections from publishers won't hurt too bad, and I'll be able to just keep moving forward and know that it wasn't the right project for the right person.
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