Character
Massive ah-ha moment this morning at 6:36 a.m., courtesy of Genius.
It's only taken me, what? 1, 197 posts to figure it out.
You see, from the outset of this blog, my writing blog has really been my life blog. Long-time readers know I do not prepare these. I wake up, continue my affair with Mr. Coffee by lusting after the brewing pot, sit down . . . and write the first thing that pops into my head. It's a routine I have. Now, long-time readers will perhaps find it frightening that I THINK all this stuff before sunrise, but there you go.
But though I occasionally blog about a book I loved or about an author, or about something else, it's mostly about how I process the world as a writer. It's about how being a writer is part of your genetic code. It's who you are.
But Genius's post really got me thinking that writing is in a lot of ways about character. More than how you process the world, more than who you are creatively. If you persist, it says something about you. I love his post!
Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's courageous, or even particularly special. It's something I do, you do, lots of people do. But there is a certain persistence, belief, dreaming, determination, fierceness, faith, discipline . . . all of it that go into being a writer.
And maybe that is why my online friendships and my writing friendships are so dear to me. It's not just that they 'get" my eccentricities. It's that oftentimes, there are traits in those people that are familiar to me.
Thoughts?
15 comments:
It still surprises me that I now have so many friends with a similar hobby/craft/job. I've always been creative but usually the only people I could associate with on that level were my coworkers. Now I can be chit-chatting and segue into a detailed discussion about POV without missing a beat. I like that.
Ah, well, as Shakespeare said, "OCD by any other name is still as sweet." Or something like that.
Melanie:
You know, I kept viewing it from purely a creative angle, but now I see there are those other elements, too.
Mark:
LOL! Um. Yeah.
I used to frequent Miss Snark's blog, and now I occasionally look at Nathan Bransford's, and it's interesting to me that hardly any of the commenters from Miss Snark's seem to be around anymore. It's a new batch, it seems, and I would imagine that in five years most of the folks commenting on Nathan's blog now will have moved on to something else as well. Not to say I blame them, but yeah, it does take a certain amount of character (i.e. insanity) to stick with a business this tough.
Jude:
Yeah, though sometimes I wonder if that's people who just get so busy they stop commenting. But I agree. People do fall away. Over the 16 years of my writers' group, two left but continued writing, and a solid half-dozen or so stopped writing.
I want to preface this by saying that last night I heard sleet on the window and as my habit, I said a little prayer for those caught out in it. We have a sizable homeless population here and I always think about those caught out in it, especially after balmy days like yesterday. It could fool a person into thinking the night would be survivable. Just something on my mind and something Mark said reminded me of it.
I think I disagree with Mark a teensy bit. I think it's a little cavalier to compare war zones with writing dreams. All of us here are fortunate enough to get to focus much of our energy on efforts beyond simple survival. And it's fortunate for the world we can - pursuits of intellect and faith and creativity keep our species growing and improving in the right ways.
I guess what I mean is a dream is a dream is a dream. It might be peace for you country, educating your children, writing books that matter, helping the homeless, playing music... But in the end, how do we judge which is the more noble endeavor?
Which is more valuable? A story that moves millions of people through the ages or helping one homeless person make a better life?
I don't know. I suspect both are equally valuable, in their own way.
Starbucks:
I agree. For me, his post spoke to me on the character thing of determination and so on. If it was not giving up on getting a college degree or on starting a community garden, or of this or that . . . I find it still admirable to get back up again and keep on keeping on. I think in writing, I saw myself having things in common with others because of creativity, but I also realize a lot of the people I dig keep AT IT, and I like them because of that . . . and writing requires that.
E
Persistence, definitely. I've been pretty down (even lately) about achieving my dreams. However, I've never ever considered stopped writing.
I sometimes admit to my dreams, kind of like letting them go, so I can refocus on writing.
Which I'd better get to now. :)
Determination can go a long way whether you are teaching, writing, or trying to get your basic needs met. Writing has definitely been a different journey than teaching for me.
It's a different kind of determination or draw that keeps me coming back to the keyboard day after day.
When I was teaching I was committed to my students and to doing the best job I could do. I had to show up for my students or else I'd be letting them down. With writing I have to show up for myself.
Starbucks:
I don't talk about my dreams much. I think I am too superstitious about them.
Paul:
That's a great point!
My writing friends humble me. They have way more faith than I would have, for sure. (And rightly so. Just saying they're stronger than I am.) I'm pretty sure my writing friends are way more ambitious than I am, too. I don't have a "dream" of being published. I haven't been tested by the rejections and ups and downs they have (aside from the personal or health ones). In those respects, I feel embarrassed and definitely not one of the crowd.
I'm pretty clueless as to why I keep chipping away every day, but I work really, really hard, and I really, really love story and books and words. I guess I'm driven, but I have no idea by what. It's just there, every day.
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mark
mcse
USA
Natasha:
Me, too . . . 'cause here I am.
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