Getting Back into the Groove

Okay, so we were supposed to get back to our regularly scheduled blogging as of yesterday, and here we are on Monday morning and I've got....nothing LOL

I think my brain is on turkey overload or something. A combo of too much good food, too much time off of writing (the longer I go without writing, the harder it is to get back into it), a destroyed house that is squashing what little creativity is trying to break free, and two kids who have been on vacation going on 7 days now and have been cooped up in the house due to weather.


How do you find the drive to write when everything in life is conspiring against you? 

I know breaks are good and life gets in the way but, if this goes on any longer, I despair of ever writing again.....help :D

Thirty Word Thursday

The first essential is...Don't wait for an idea. Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow."

Louis L'Amour

Are You Having Fun?

I'm baaaack :D Still a bit loopey, as I have to stay on a few meds for the next several weeks, but doing much better. Thank you so much for all the kind comments and get well wishes. You guys rock :)

So, what have I been up to lately? Well, for the most part, editing and preparing for NaNo :) My current book is so, so close to being finished, and I think I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going for my new book. And I'm excited...EXCITED...about both of these things. And it got me thinking about why I do what I do.

I've come across people in crit groups or writers forums that seem so stressed out and disillusioned by the endless rounds of edits and revisions and harsh critiques and agent rejections and publisher rejections that they do nothing but complain and bash writing and the publishing industry in general. Yet, when asked, "If you hate it so much, why do you do it?" they invariably answer along the lines of "I've put so much work into it, I can't justify quitting" or "Because being a published author has been a dream of mine since I was little, I'm not going to quit."

While I admire being able to stick with something even when it gets difficult, it's the attitudes behind it that confuse me. This business can be hard. It is a roller coaster of emotions and successes and failures. But most writers I know still love what they do. LOVE it with a capital L. Despite all the hardships and ups and downs, writing just isn't something they could ever do without.

I came across a quote the other day that sums up how I feel about it.

Most people quit. If you don't quit, if you rewrite, if you keep publishing in fancier places, you will understand thta "What's the secret?" is not the question, which is "Are you having fun?"

~ Robert Lipsyte

I read that and thought, "Yes! That is the question!" Are you having fun? Even though you may be crying in your Cheerios over that rejection or at having to cut half your book and start over - are you having fun? Cause if you're not...then what's the point?

Life is too short to spend so much of it engrossed in something you don't enjoy. I write because I love it, because I enjoy it, and because I have fun doing it. Coming up with new storylines, reading the comments of people who are enjoying my stories, losing myself in new worlds and ideas, penning that perfect line, all these things make me dance around with joy. Polishing up that manuscript, sending out those queries...even with the rejections and the hard work and long hours...it's fun to me. Have you ever seen the look on a dog's face as he rolls around in the grass? That look of sheer and utter happiness?

Yeah, it's like that :D That's what writing does for me.

Writing, even with the downsides, is one of the great lights in my life. If it wasn't, I wouldn't bother.

So how about you? Are you having fun? :)