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Thursday, July 28, 2016

I wandered but I was not lost

It feels so good to be writing this post at 25 minutes to midnight hoping to get it finished before Liane cracks the whip. (She says she doesn't but we all know the truth.) Up until just over a year ago I wrote regularly for NovelSpaces—an ambitious two posts a month until I got to a point where I could not keep it up. Frankly, the frequent sharing was sometimes painful. I just wanted to curl up in a corner and not think about talking to the rest of the world, to people who were expecting me to be honest about the writing life and to admit that:
…I’m not writing as often as I should;
…I’m not exercising (Amy Reade I feel your pain) as often as I should;
…I haven’t joined that critique group, finished that novel, decided what I want to be when I grow up;
…and I’m still giving lots of valuable advice away for free.

I have visited NovelSpaces only sporadically since leaving but coming here and reading the most recent posts, I’m so happy to see so many new faces. I missed the companionship, that knowledge that although writing is a pretty solitary endeavour there are people at your side on the same journey. Well, not really at your side-I can hear my daughter saying ‘That’s creepy mom,’—but you all know what I mean.

I planned to write this post about some ‘important’ aspect of writing—editing, promotional tips, some sage advice—but as is so often the case with my writing, this is what came out. Take it or leave it, I’m back!

11 comments:

  1. Thank you. I'm feeling like you today about writing tips, promotional tips. Nice to hear someone talk about wanting to get away from the subject once in a while. I'm inundated with promotion information, which is truly helpful (and desperately needed), but too much of it too often gets to be just plain hard work. A different subject here and there is a true perk.

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  2. Sometimes we beat the writing, sometimes it beats us.

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  3. Whip? What whip? *guilty grin*

    Welcome back, Carol. We've missed you! I very much appreciate your post because I'm in the same boat on all counts. So good to know I'm not alone!

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  4. Welcome back, Carol. Look forward to seeing your post next month.

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  5. Welcome back my friend. You are more than a writer, you are also a publisher with quite a few authors under your wing. So if you're not writing as much as you think you should be, you're still into writing, just another more difficult aspect of it.

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  6. Thanks for the welcome guys.
    (Well said as always, Charles).

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  8. Welcome back, family!! Your companionship was missed as well.

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  9. I'm glad you could talk about how you really feel- I think we've all been there, and maybe some of us are right there with you right now. And if we haven't been there and we're not there now, we will be. What a wonderful community to be part of! It's clear from the comments that Novel Spaces is a family and it's the best kind of family- the family you choose.

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  10. Carol thank you for sharing. I can relate to the '...curling up in a corner..." That's exactly how I feel. I want to write more, read more, but life happens .

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