As I've mentioned before, I'm a new homeowner. A little while back, while going through yet another box, I came across something interesting. Years ago, I used to print out exerpts of my manusript for my mother to read. I have two of them on my desk, which she returned with notes. One of them, which she dated May 2007, has this note in the margins, written in green highlighter:
"Darlin This is Your Gift - I hope someday you will be able to slow down enough to finish it."
Encouragement is such an important thing. For a something designed for an audience (in this case of readers), writing can be a very lonely pursuit. And it's hard to put so much time an energy into something that you hope to make money doing but aren't sure if you will. So when we get down on ourselves, when we start listing all the other things we could be doing that are supposedly "more productive," its good to have someone at our elbow, or a note on a page to say "This is your thing, keep going." Hey, I mean really, even an occasional "I've read worse" might be all we need sometimes.
So if you're writing, keep writing. If you know someone who is a writer and you truly think they're good at it, tell them. Or, break out the green highlighter and get scribbling. And Mom, I know you know this already, but I have been slowing down enough to work more. Interestingly enough, at
120/206
I'm back in the territory of those same pages from May 2007 that you wrote that note on.
This rings so true for me!!! Writing can be a very lonely venture, since there are "more productive" things to be doing. I often find myself thinking that I need to clean out the closet, or clean the bathroom, its hard to be disciplined enough to be a writer.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, (I think the writer in my just tried to take over!!) I loved it, really hit home for me!
Good luck! Great article.
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