Writing a book sounds much more glamorous than it is. Perhaps you read books like Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and start to think you need to come up with a new hobby because howisitevenpossible to write like that. It’s annoying. Unfair… And really—how dare she?
Sigh…despite my disgust, I love Wild. It's a nosedive into issues like guilt, shame, fear, courage, resilience, willpower, love, violence, and pretty much any other interesting human emotion/experience is in there. All of these feelings are wrapped around her decision to hike 1,100 miles along the Pacific Coast Trail. A solo journey from someone who, as her ex-husband pointed out when she explained what she was doing, “But… you don’t hike...”
Meh, she did it anyway.
Meh, she did it anyway.
Don’t get too precious about your creativity. People extoll their virtue as an “artist” and it’s great to have pride in what you do and to cultivate your talent and skills. Certainly the world will benefit from this. I’ve heard it said that we’re all artists and I agree with that.
And we’re all just borrowing each other’s good ideas.
Whatever your creative inspiration is… it’s probably been done. This isn’t said with the intention to burst anyone’s bubble. Quite the contrary. The idea hasn’t been done by you. That’s what matters. Did Shakespeare steal some of his ideas from other stories? Yes. Do people steal from his stories today? Absolutely! But that’s okay because when he told them in his own way, in his own style, they became something new.
The important thing is to practice your craft, whatever it is. See it through. Being a finisher is better than being a perfectionist. A perfectionist will never present a product because it will never be perfect. Brene Brown describes perfectionists as hustlers: the perfectionist is always hustling for perfection, something above criticism. Nothing’s above criticism, even mangoes, chocolate, Robert Downey Jr, Wild, elephants, yoga, sleeping in, massages, and other fantastic things. There will always be some asshole telling you that yoga causes cancer. Or something. The thing is I know a lot of people who talk about the cool, exciting things they want to be doing or that they’d do if only _____________ (fill in the blank with some fear-based reason here).
-Cheryl Strayed, WildI knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me.
Quick sidenote: I suppose it could be termed as a "pet peeve" of mine when people claim to be a thing without actually doing the thing. How many of us know “nice” people?
Why wouldn't someone want to date me, I’m a nice person?
—Are you? What have you done lately that’s nice? Are you actively doing nice things or just saying you’re nice by nature? I think it’s generally the latter--
I would love to take yoga, but I probably wouldn’t be good at it
I’m a writer, but actually I don’t write much more than a weekly grocery list
I wish I was in taking college classes too, but....
--are just a few of the wishing versus doing statements I've been witness to. So, I say this with all my heart: do it. Just do it. I guess Nike said that first. Try a yoga class if you have any little bit of curiosity about it, start putting the pen to paper if you enjoy writing, and, hey, go ahead and sign up for a class or to learn a new skill. Put more skills on your life’s resume than personal qualities and adjectives.
Why wouldn't someone want to date me, I’m a nice person?
—Are you? What have you done lately that’s nice? Are you actively doing nice things or just saying you’re nice by nature? I think it’s generally the latter--
I would love to take yoga, but I probably wouldn’t be good at it
I’m a writer, but actually I don’t write much more than a weekly grocery list
I wish I was in taking college classes too, but....
--are just a few of the wishing versus doing statements I've been witness to. So, I say this with all my heart: do it. Just do it. I guess Nike said that first. Try a yoga class if you have any little bit of curiosity about it, start putting the pen to paper if you enjoy writing, and, hey, go ahead and sign up for a class or to learn a new skill. Put more skills on your life’s resume than personal qualities and adjectives.
I’m not putting any pressure on myself to write the world’s greatest novel or to sit down with the weight of “Great… guess it’s up to me to help mankind and change some shit…” I think that’s a wee bit heavy and a helluvalot of pressure. Not to mention that if the fate of mankind were in my hands alone... well, just be frightened. Sooo, it has to be fun. And it has to not be forced. I have no expectations. Only some hope. I want to give it to my son one day. I know that. Hopefully it will show him I tried. That I went from being a bit of a lost, aimlessly wandering soul to one that feels some purpose, some peace and a lot of passion. One that still wanders and dreams and gets caught up in the stars, but the wandering isn’t painful. It’s exciting and with a feeling of connectedness, which is still new to me.
I've been writing a little bit every day. Working on the book and mulling over ideas and plans to create a new blog. I’ve been learning about how to actually create a product which I'm pretty excited about. It combines several of my passions in one idea. More on that to come.
