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| Because nothing says CELEBRATE like water ballet. |
It’s my 4th writing anniversary! Yay, me!
It was
four years ago that I returned to writing for, like, real after a five-year hiatus that was
brought on by discouragement, confusion, and chronic, kid-related exhaustion.
But, really, I guess you could say that four years ago, I
unquit after quitting writing.
You’d think by now I’d have blathered on about this at great length, but I
sent my intern roaming through my blog post files and, nope, turns out I haven’t talked much about unquitting other than in my very first blog post.
The short story is this: I wrote and wrote and wrote my
little heart out for about three years after getting my MFA and then, after receiving a
certain, still-painful-after-all-these years rejection, I thought, I’m just not
getting this. I’m not. As much as I’m struggling and trying, I obviously haven’t
got IT. I’m done.
Seeing as this realization coincided with the birth of child
#2 (aka, Screamy Colicky Monster Baby*), it wasn’t difficult to enact the resolution to stop writing. Actually, I
don’t know that I even thought at the time, “That’s it, I’m quitting forever.” I doubt my
ego would have tolerated the idea of quitting for good, but definitely during those five
years of not writing, I came to believe that writing had perhaps been a
youthful folly. Maybe something I’d grown out of and now looked back upon in What was I thinking? horror, sort of like
a high school hair-do that might have been very high and very wide and very teased.
But four years ago, it became clear to me that I couldn’t
stay away, and I decided to do three simple things:
1) Write
what I love;
2) Figure
out how to improve with every project;
3) Never
give up.
Oh, yes, I said they were simple. But simple is not the same as easy. I mean, running a marathon is simple: You just run 26.2 miles and then stop. The simple but hard items are definitely items two and three above, because they require the acceptance of criticism.
I don’t know about you, but I want to accept criticism like I want to pull out
my own molars with a dirty plumber’s wrench. But it must be done or else you risk turning into a defensive writing jerk who others quickly tire of.
So for sticking to my goals and retaining my joy while
pursuing them (though not always at the same time), I think my writerversary is
worth celebrating.
Now the question is how can I mark this most solemn occasion?
Should I:
1) engage
in the usual pants-less, three-day binge of circus peanuts and Chivas in Reno;
2) release
a thousand paper lanterns with inspirational messages designed to encourage
writers to follow their dreams;
3) carry
on much as I have been, quietly pleased with my steady progress.
I’m pretty sure which option I’m
going to go with, mostly because No.1 is way too hard on the liver, and No. 2 requires
a level of earnestness I do not believe I’m capable of.
Have you ever taken a break from writing? How long? Was it
planned or did life just get in the way? What brought you back again?
*If you have a colicky baby, take heart! They do grow out of it.
