Writer Guilt

Whenever I miss a day of writing, even if I've been in a slump, writing junkola that will never see the light of day, I suffer from writers' guilt.  Writers' guilt is different from every other kind of guilt, because even if you binge write for three days straight, dripping beautiful prose onto the page, if you declare a sabbatical for the forth day, you suffer.

The muse demands daily faithfulness, and is slow to return favors if you blow off a day. 

Recently, my humor writing has been reported awol.  Reports of the death of my funny bone however, are premature.   I still have eight of ten sources of inspiration in the house, and two due to return home in the next month.  I'm sure they'll think of something if they haven't already.

As if on cue, I heard from the other room, "Paul, stop throwing that monkey."  I am certain I should stop and check.  I am equally certain, I don't really want to know. 

The cure for Writers' guilt is pure maintenance.  Write every day.  Write when you have nothing to say. Write junk if you have to, but don't leave a day without leaving something on the page.  
However, I've decided there is a caveat to surviving Writers' Guilt. I need a Writing buddy who will solemnly swear upon my death to access my blog and delete all the junkola I wrote and didn't submit for your reading pleasure or pain as the case may be so that all the drafts sitting on the back page of my blog get squished.

In the meantime, you're stuck with me complaining about writers' block and writers' guilt and blathery pages like this one in part because I'm still thinking, I don't want to go out there and find out what happened with Paul and the monkey.

Don't Be a Fred

If you want to be something, you pursue it.  

If you love something, you pursue without restraint.   My son is a runner, he must run. From watching him, I know, if you want to be any good at it, you have to run almost every single day.  You have to shape how you eat, schedule your day, and do it even when your brain and your body does not love it.

The same is true for writing. I write every day.  I don't post every day because some of it stinks, but I write every day.  

 For any discipline one professes to love.  If you only do something when the muse tickles your fancy, you are an enthusiast, you are a Fred.  In Big Hero Six, the guy explains, "I'm not a student but I am a major science enthusiast."  He doesn't experiment or study, he dreams.  He imagines what he hopes science can do, what the others around him who are science majors should do, but does not pursue it himself

 I don't want to be a Fred.     

Enthusiasts live for the high of inspiration, and when it isn't there, don't sit down and force out the 500 words. Writers bleed, sweat and beg out the words.   Just like runners go when it aches, when it's raining, when it's cold, when they don't want to, just like parents climb the stairs, wash the dishes and do the errands, when they'd rather not.  Love in all arenas of life, is not a mere emotion, but an act of the will.

When we start making excuses not to act, it is because we don't want to will ourselves to do what we profess to love.  When we start making excuses not to act in order to not will ourselves to act, do we still love what we once did? Yes, however, because we've not willed ourselves to do it, we've weakened our will to do it.  Anyone who ever started working out and opted to skip a day at the gym knows how much harder it is to go the next day.   Any weakening of the will to do something in order to get better, makes it harder to get better.

It is true in running, true in parenting, in writing, true in all areas of life. I wish I could summon all the ideas that practically threw themselves at me when I drove to work on Thursday and Friday, but they've evaporated. It made me wonder, was it merely time that made writing possible, or was I making time for writing. When I started working this week, teaching writing, I wondered, would I still have time to write?  the answer is, yes, but only if I willed it.   Today, I'm willing it.

Day 1.

 

Seven Quick Takes or Will She EVER blog again?

(Actually, it's now hosted at This Ain't the Lyceum, and it's very funny). 

Is it cheating to be part of a link up when you're linking to another link up? I hope not.

1.) I am sorry.  This past week, I've written loads but posted nothing.  It's been a busy week.  I have three pieces at three separate places for you that ran in the past seven days.  However, this past week we've been busy celebrating my daughter's birthday, returning to school, running all the errands that should have been done last week but didn't get done, and trying to book a flight for one daughter to go visit a college, and for another to return home from school.   Like I said, it's been...busy.

2)Add to that, a ten year old working on a talent show with her two friends and thus four days out of seven rehearsing and a seven year old potty training and it's amazing to me if I get time to brush my teeth.

So I apologize for being negligent of my blog.   It will happen again.

Here are the three pieces.

3) First, Helen Avare of Women Speak for Themselves ran a piece created from a discussion we had over emails.   Special thanks to Kat, the editor for putting it together.  WSFT is a group of women from across the country speaking out against the current mantra that birth control medication is a must, and to think otherwise is to be anti-woman.   They're supporters of the Little Sisters of the Poor in their fight against the HSS Mandate. I am a member of WSFT, and attended a workshop held by them this past February.  I was constantly impressed with the joyful brilliant strong women I met there.

4) Second, I skipped linking on Thursday because the laundry threatened to take over the house.   It's now in fourteen tamed baskets so, if you'd like to join in and count your blessings from the past week, here's Small Success Thursday at Catholicmom.com.  I would really love to get the number of participants in listing success up to 100, because I know there are 100 people who read this blog (based on the counter and the followers), and I know, each of you have small successes which you aren't remembering from the past week.   Leave them in the com box, or if you have a blog, no matter how dusty, post them there and link up.   The goal of blogging is community, communication, and for me, connection.   So please, consider being a part of this weekly event.

5) Last, but not least, Aleteia has been gracious enough to host me in cyberspace yet again this week.   I'm working on another piece for them and hoping to keep my writing goal of getting a piece a week placed somewhere. Today's work is called The Point of Fasting Even When It's Not Lent.

On other notes...in case you wonder...well what's keeping you so busy?

6) Writing wise, in addition to articles, I'm working on a book, on the Doctors of the Church.  It's a load of research and takes a lot of time to write.  Say some prayers. I could use them. A publishing company expressed interest. I'm still putting together the packet for submission.

7) Also, I applied for the Catholic Relief Services Egan Journalism Fellowship for 2016.  I've linked to it so those interested in applying can do so.  The deadline is April 22 so get to work!   Why did I do this application?  Because the question that has been forming in my brain ever since Paul potty trained and I began to really think about having all my children in school, is now what?   Journalism may be part of the answer to Now What?  

Have a great weekend, and I'll try to be funny on Sunday for you.  

Sequels and Prequels I'm Not Writing

10) Helen and the Sparkly Vampires. She doesn't like to be outshone by anyone.

9) Helen vs. Sharknado. "It's really more Odysseus's kind of thing." she said.

8) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Mediterranean, by Nobody. Working title, I had trouble getting to Ithaca too.

7) He Had it Coming --Clytemnestra's Story.

6) Over 399 ways to Kill Your Enemies, a Practical Guide. --By Hector, Achilles and Several Other Heroes who killed more but get virtually no press.

5) "1000 tips to launch your First Ship, Extreme Makeovers" Pitched it to Helen, but she said, "If you're not going to bother to move at least an armada, it's not worth the trouble."

4) Looking Gift Horses in the Mouth and Other Truths from Beyond the Ilium Wall --by Paris.

3) She Came with Baggage, We should Have sent her packing --penned by Queen Hecuba before the sacking of Troy and the gods turned her into a canine. "Even before that happened, she was like a dog with a bone, she just wouldn't let this go." --Helen.

2) The Bachelorette: Ithaca Season. 104 Suitors, One throne, One Woman. This was nixed due to concerns it was rigged and that the main contestant didn't have any interest in any of the potential men vying for her hand.

1) A new version of the Iliad, three times longer than the original text, with more women in it so as to have parity, and maybe a new villain, like some necromancer type orc and a romance that isn't in the original sources.
  
If you're wondering, The Book of Penelope, 71K and growing. But I wanted to be silly for a change.