Lately, we're being asked to be kind to one another, whether it's on facebook or other social media, at the grocery store, in school and church or anywhere else. The poster quote above may not fit into the Be kind mode, but it does make a definite point for those of us in the writing world.
Whine. Groan. Complain. Crab. Cry. When things don't go the way we like, we are apt to do any or all of these. Does doing so make us feel better? It might for a few moments. Does it change the reason you reacted that way? Not at all. Is it a delaying tactic? Possibly. Should you ever do it? Sure, if it makes you feel a little better, even if for a short time.
But after you're through with your reaction, it's time to move on. As the poster says, you are not a tree with roots holding you firmly in their grasp. You can take a new path or rework an old one.
Why would anyone stay in the spot that caused them grief? Why continue to submit to a publication where your writing does not fit? Why should you keep writing the same kind of poem over and over again? Why should you stop trying to grow as a writer?
Fear is one answer. If we feel comfortable in doing what we've always done, we want to stay there, nestled snugly inside the comforter of our own making. Stepping outside our comfort zone opens the doors to all kinds of situations we might not want to meet. But you know, and I know, that we are not going to grow as writers if we don't widen our writing world, if we don't (or won't) try new things.
The subject, not only for writers but others as well, is being explored in an upcoming Chicken Soup for the Soul book titled Step Outside Your Comfort Zone. There is a list of suggested topics given that relate to the title. (scroll down the full list of books for the Comfort Zone title) There is a March 31st deadline so you'd have to hustle to submit for this one.
At times, people find themselves straining in an effort to separate from the
ReplyDelete"Roots" of what had become a dysfunctional Family Tree. Thankfully, many years ago, I acquired the attributes of the Maple Tree's double seed pod, and, subsequently, helicoptered myself away. While in Flight, the memory of what I was, basely, a part of the Heirloom stock, rode right along with me and still remains. As in any relocation move we "Writers" decide to engage in, albeit a short distance, or halfway around the World, what we focus on the most are the essential base elements of which has fed and fueled our Unquiet Minds; Our Beginning. It is from that Life Source that the Middle is filled in, and the End stands in completeness, or, at least, that's what my original Family Tree has provided to me; Seeds for Progress. For that, I am, forever, Grateful.
C. S. Desmond