For all those who, like me, are not full time writers, I hope the following can help you in some tiny way, not give up.
I have said before that I disagree with the edict that a writer must write every single day. The adage of "even if it's a little". My brain simply doesn't work like that. I need to write as a release, and sometimes, the downtime required for that simply doesn't exist in a busy day.
A quick detour into my personal feelings on continuing education. When I was in high school, I was the very top of my class. I had scholarships to every college I applied to, but never enough to have covered living expenses, and certainly not enough to help find a way to balance my other great passion: my horses. As such, I made the decision when I was eighteen that my horses were my family, and they would come first. In the interim, I have only found the prospect of college far too expensive to entertain. For someone who is not wealthy, does not come from wealthy parents, and has no hidden relative willing to foot any bills, college was simply never an option. Well, for the first time in over a decade, it finally is, thanks in large part to a realization of circumstances (i.e. financial aid) and a dependable, if not high paying job to cover my horses.
While I could go on for quite awhile about my opinions about the college system and how it marginalizes those of us who do not fit into the well to do or top financial aid categories, that's not the purpose of my morning. Indeed, the purpose of my morning is to finally have a tiny window of opportunity to WRITE.
Full time job, full time school, part time job, and volunteering doesn't tend to lend much chance of anything else. So far this year, I've spent my tiny windows of freedom with my horses. However, I have an entire morning, and so I am going to write as if my life depended on it. My life might not, but at times it feels as if my soul does.
And so, in typical Rambling fashion, I have come to my conclusion and the very point of this narrative. For those who have a million other things on their plate, don't feel like just because you missed a day, that writing is ruined. This isn't a twelve step program. If you don't make it to your Writers Anonymous meeting a few times, they won't kick you out. Instead, think about what keeps you going on a day to day basis. Do you still see stories in everyday threads of life? Do you still wake up and hear your characters say a few words of greeting? If any of this is true, or a hundred other ways you feel the creativity of being a writer, hold on to it. There will come a quiet morning, and you can remember what it is to put thoughts to paper and let your spirit fly.
And so now, without further ado, I leave the internet world behind in search of my sanity. I'm only hoping that by the end of my morning, I will have found it somewhere. Anywhere...
