Few things make me
happier than words on a page. It doesn’t have to be a lot of them, I love
poetry, even stripped down, straight to the point Haikus. Long before my first
lengthy writing project, it was poetry and songwriting that occupied a great
deal of my free time. It always left me sad and a little confused, when someone
would ask: How can you spend all day inside scribbling in a notebook? Or Why
are you sitting over here with that notebook rather than playing with everyone?
Their question made it
seem like writing for the joy of writing was wrong or indicative of social
awkwardness or a lack of desire to be social, which couldn’t have been further
from the truth. I love being outdoors, playing on the playground with friends,
jumping off swings and the sides of slides, climbing trees, roaming trails, swimming,
fishing, mini golf, movies, all the stuff that was looked at as ‘normal’ for
someone growing up.
But I also loved my quiet
time and spilling my thoughts out onto the page. My favorite spot to write in was
the beanbag chair on the floor of my bedroom. I’d sprawl across it, kick my
feet and scribble away with classic rock or heavy metal pulsing from my
speakers. Creating has always brought me joy. I’ve dabbled with paints, chalks,
colored pencils, musical instruments, cameras, animation software, photography
software, and mixing mediums whenever possible. I’ve been fortunate to have
pieces picked up by magazines and webzines, but the question would always be
asked at some point: What are you working on now?
It got so my stock answer
was: something that doesn’t know what it wants to be yet.
Funny how that still
holds true for the things I create today. I never start a project knowing what it
wants to be, I’d rather the material tell me. Sometimes, yes, I have fractured
ideas floating willy-nilly in the back of my head, or scribbled on post it nots
and stuck to boards in no specific order besides the one they came to me in.
Some find themselves fitting into projects quicker than others, while some sit
around for years before there is this ah-ha moment, and in it goes. It's all
Christmas to me. When you don’t know what’s under the tree, every gift is a
true surprise you get to uncover only once you’ve unwrapped it.
Last night, I started my
first new project in months. It’s a little thing, for a Christmas short story
giveaway, and yet, it still had the same joyful, new toy feel to it as when I set
out to craft a new novel. I feel fortunate every day to wake up and be able to
do the thing that brings me joy.
Yes, there are things
about writing as a profession that can be frustrating, from learning how and
where to promote, to formatting and slogging through the editing process. There
are always teasers and trailers to make, takeovers and newsletter builders to
sign up for, newsletters to create, reviews you wish you hadn’t read, covers to
think about, events to attention, and a whole host of other things that would
take too long to list.
Those things still don’t
dull the shine off the actual act of creating. I’m still as happy today to
start a new project as I was nine years ago, when my first novel was published.
I still can’t believe I’ve been writing ‘professionally’ for almost a decade.
There have, of course,
been ups and downs, from publishers closing their doors to being pushed to the
back burner by other publishers who believed more in keeping their perfectly
ordered cue intact rather than taking into account that things happen and projects
might need to be shuffled around so that those who were ready to move forward could
do so without being stuck on waiting on those who weren’t? There have been
frustrating moments, angry moments, moments when I wanted to take all of my
creations and go stomp off to my cave and hide them from the world, but there
have been more amazing moments, and fantastic people I’ve had the opportunity
to meet and get to know. They say writing is one of the loneliest professions,
and once upon a time, I actually believed that to be true. Then I discovered
the joy of having a ‘write-in’ and getting together with fellow authors at a
coffee house or library to work on projects, but also discuss aspects of them
when you needed someone to bounce ideas off of. I discovered writer’s groups,
both in person and online, and how valuable peer critiques could actually be.
I discovered conferences,
workshops, book fairs and co-writing, and learned through all of those things
that writing did have to be a lonely process in our day and age. I’ve even had
the joy and privilege of teaching some creative writing classes and helping
others get their books formatted for Amazon. There is a reason the writing
community has become known as a community, because within it you’ll encounter
every type of personality, the same as you would living in a small town, or
even a city. Some will become friends, mentors, valuable resources and staunch
supporters, while others are going to hate and be destructive and want to blow
your candle out.
In a way it’s like living
in a world within a world, and you know what, I’m good with that.
As long as there is joy
in what I’m doing, I can’t see ever wanting to do anything else. So, on this
rainy Thursday, I’d just like to thank my readers for falling in love with the
worlds I’ve created and my fellow authors for being amazing and always providing
me with plenty of new things to read, because first and foremost, I will always
be that kid that loved curling up with a good book, and the rest if just icing
on the cake.
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