Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Enjoying the Journey


I’ve been scratching my head for over a week as I tried to come up with a topic for today’s post. On top of that I’ve been rushing to finish my latest WIP so I can get to another that’s been pulling at me.  In fact, I’m writing this at almost midnight because the inspiration didn’t come until I watched GLEE. ( Yes, I’m a Gleek and I’m proud of it. :) )  Anyway, to make a long story short, in last night’s episode, the lesson was to enjoy the journey.  It didn’t matter if they won or lost their competition—though a lot was riding on their winning their regional competition.  All that mattered was the fact they were doing something they enjoyed.

It got me thinking.  Here I was stressing over the fact I haven’t gotten a publishing offer yet, when I should have been happy with how far I’d come.

I think that the lesson the kids learned not only applies to the show, but in real life too.  And especially for us writers.  Almost every writer’s goal is to be published.  More than likely we want to make the best seller’s list.  We focus so much on what’s at the end of that road, we never stop and smell the proverbial roses.

We rush to get through our WIPs and then hope our beta readers and critique partners will get our MSs back to us quickly so we can edit as quick as we can to send off to agents and editors. 

We critique other writers’s work and read already published books, digesting and dissecting them bit-by-bit to see what we can do to improve our own writing, but we never just enjoy them anymore. 

But why did we start writing?  For most of us it wasn’t because we wanted fame and fortune.  Maybe it was there in the back of our mind, but it wasn’t the sole reason and it wasn’t the biggest. 

It was because we enjoyed it.

We wrote to relieve stress or boredom.  To breath life into the characters we saw in our heads, and having people read and enjoy it was just icing on the cake. 

So no matter where you are along the publishing voyage, whether you’re writing your first word or your millionth, relax.  Slow down.  Take a deep breath.  It’s not a race to get to the next step.  Or the next.  Or the one after that. 

It’s simply a matter of enjoying the journey.  


The Climb by Miley Cyrus courtesy of Hollywood Records and youtube.com.  As always we ask that you respect the artists and download their music on approved sites.

10 comments:

  1. great words of wisdom, J.A. - I know appreciation where I am and how far I've come is something I need to do a lot more often.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love this post, JA. Tweeted it. ";-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks guys. I'm always guilty of rushing to get to the next milestone and last night's episode really spoke to me. Not sure why it took a television show to show me, but hey, whatever works right? :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great post. I'm a total rusher. Today I'm going to slow down and enjoy the words.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JA, thank you. This is such a timely post. I've been worrying my fingers to the bone stalking, er...following editors who requested partials. I've been so focused on what might be coming next that I've neglected the journey. Squinting ahead makes hindsight 20/20, and it's time to look back at the love of crafting, the pure joy of a well-turned phrase, or a snappy come-back. For today, I think I will pull out the newest WIP, and savor it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. DEFINITELY a great message, Jess.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Extremely important!! I try to tell myself this constantly - in all aspects of my life. Enjoy the journey :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I so completely agree with this post. And I often listen to this song to remind me. Writing is a gift we give ourselves. Anyway, great reminder.

    ReplyDelete
  9. My music teacher knows the gym coach from Glee. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm so happy I found this post! Thank you for this reminder.

    ReplyDelete

Breaths that matter...

Related Posts with Thumbnails