Monday, September 13, 2021

Writers As Mountain Climbers

 


On our writing journey, we have one happy day after another. The sun always shines on our writing. We are gleeful day in and day out. 

If only all the above were true! Instead, our writing journey is filled with potholes and other roadblocks. Our poster today tells us that everything is going to be alright. That's soothing. But then, the little girl says '...maybe not today but eventually'  That's the hard part.

Our own common sense tells us that all those problems we run into when we write will be fixed or look better later, not necessarily today. What we must do is to remember that and not let what feels like an insurmountable problem knock us right off our writer's pedestal. 

Writer's pedestal--you know that place we put ourselves when we're feeling good, when everything is going well, or when we've just received an acceptance, or published a book. And why not? When life is positive, we should enjoy whatever is happening. We know we'll slip right off the pedestal when the next trouble spot arises.

The writer's world is one of ups and downs. If you drew a graph showing same, it would look like a series of mountains. Isn't that what we do as we write? Climb one mountain after another until the problem is solved. The successful writer is the one who keeps climbing after she/he has slid down from one of the peaks. The writer who gives up sits at the bottom and stops trying to climb to the top of the next mountain.

We sometimes need an attitude adjustment when writing woes get us down. Once again, determination is key to solving our writing problems. That and knowing that it is up to us to get through whatever trouble spot we're in. 

We also must keep in mind that eventually, everything's going to be alright.

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