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Showing posts with label Writing is like dancing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing is like dancing. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Insecure, but keeping our heads up

It's another installment of Insecure Writer's Support Group! Jump on over and say Hi to the Ninja Captain, Alex, and be sure to swing by the co-hosts, Allison Gammons, Tamara Narayan, Eva E. Solar, Rachel Pattison, and Ann V. Friend, and say Hi! 


This month, I think it might be good to acknowledge that the writing journey is hard. I know, duh, Rena, we get that it's hard. There's a whole support group for it!

But it's true it can be hard.

And it can be amazing. This might be one of the hardest professions to try to be part of--the internship is a bit rough--but it's amazing. We writers create amazing things. We take people and we transport them to other worlds, other lives--we create within the people who read our works a sense of connectedness with the world around them.

I mean, wow. Step back for a minute and take that in. If you're writing, if you've written, you've already accomplished so much.

Yeah, the business is hard. Didn't get a request. Didn't hear back. Beta readers weren't kind to you. Reviews were terrible (like for real, yo, what is the deal with some reviewers?). But they aren't writing. Those things are a side effect of writing. They are the Con trail after your plane of awesome flies by. The bad parts of writing are the blisters and bruises you get when you play soccer (or football if you're from any country besides the US). 

But even with the bad bits, the bits that make us wring our hands and worry and fret, Writing is amazing.  We've all seen this meme, but it's true for everything, not just ballet. Writing is hard, but it is amazing.

Get back out there and write people.  

Sunday, April 27, 2014

In the moment

I love dancing (And the shoes!!!)

I haven't been dancing for very long, in fact, I only started this year. Already I'm having way too much fun.

But having fun doesn't mean I'm good at it. In fact, it turns out I'm sort of a terrible follower. I have a hard time being in the moment. I'm always planning for the future. In dance, this means that I get a lot wrong because I'm not waiting to get my directions from the leader.

In writing, this means I'm always looking forward to the big payoff in the novel, the cool moment in the movie where they had to slow everything down so you could see just how awesome it was. Because I'm thinking about what comes next I tend to mess up the now.

Confession: if I'm writing a novel, I'm working my way towards an explosion, and I can hardly wait to get there.

I guess we could all use a little more In The Moment. My writing could (and yeah, my dancing could to). But I feel like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. Everywhere, the world tells us to plan for the future. Then, while we're planning, we miss the life that's right now.

It's a balance I clearly have to learn. What about you, got it all ironed out, or are you fretting over the future?

(and the key for dancing is to wait. wait. WAIT for the downbeat--yes, this is a music thing, but sometimes it's good to remember that there are other things besides publishing where waiting occurs)