TODAY'S LESSON AND THEN I WILL BE FREE
to grocery shop, wash clothes, vacuum.
Our January meeting of the GAMWG was in a noisy restaurant, and our group added to the clamor. I sat in the middle and often only rode the waves of sound. People were talking across from me, on either side of me, and others, not us, all round the room. Our group was diverse: two artists, two single mothers, a young person retired from the military, a retired business woman, a part-time postal clerk who had built her own home, four mothers, a teacher, four published authors, two novelists, one piddler, a construction worker. Eight of us wore many hats. What we had in common was all of us loved writing and none of us wrote to pay the rent.
The goals of the MWG are lofty and admirable. The joint goal of our own animated little group was to meet again next month, in a restaurant, albeit a less noisy one. After the tangled web of conversation, I am not sure if we agreed on any thing else, though we all seemed to leave still talking. I did hear some of us needed community. And encouragement.
Because here’s what happens if you do not write to pay the bills: writing can too often be laid aside. (Here I acknowledge some of our little group wrote like breathing, but publishing eluded them). So we begin new years and new groups with new goals. This year I will do it. But big goals often deflate, and groups grow stale and next year rolls around with instant and infinite regularity.
So I vow to begin. Just begin.Something doable before the groceries and laundry and housekeeping. Two hundred and fifty words a day. I am only 2,750 words behind since the start of the year. WAIT. I am not behind at all. There is only today. And I’ve already made today’s quota.
I would love to hear from other writers, members of the guild or not. Do you write for rent? Regularly? Sporadically? Tomorrow, at Tara? How’s it going this year, today? Encourage us by being part of our community. If you have a bit of time, blog on your writing schedule and let us post it here.
Now…on to the have to’s, but maybe I will be back to the computer today. For sure tomorrow, because it’s only a bit I have to write, and I did it today.(413)
Our January meeting of the GAMWG was in a noisy restaurant, and our group added to the clamor. I sat in the middle and often only rode the waves of sound. People were talking across from me, on either side of me, and others, not us, all round the room. Our group was diverse: two artists, two single mothers, a young person retired from the military, a retired business woman, a part-time postal clerk who had built her own home, four mothers, a teacher, four published authors, two novelists, one piddler, a construction worker. Eight of us wore many hats. What we had in common was all of us loved writing and none of us wrote to pay the rent.
The goals of the MWG are lofty and admirable. The joint goal of our own animated little group was to meet again next month, in a restaurant, albeit a less noisy one. After the tangled web of conversation, I am not sure if we agreed on any thing else, though we all seemed to leave still talking. I did hear some of us needed community. And encouragement.
Because here’s what happens if you do not write to pay the bills: writing can too often be laid aside. (Here I acknowledge some of our little group wrote like breathing, but publishing eluded them). So we begin new years and new groups with new goals. This year I will do it. But big goals often deflate, and groups grow stale and next year rolls around with instant and infinite regularity.
So I vow to begin. Just begin.Something doable before the groceries and laundry and housekeeping. Two hundred and fifty words a day. I am only 2,750 words behind since the start of the year. WAIT. I am not behind at all. There is only today. And I’ve already made today’s quota.
I would love to hear from other writers, members of the guild or not. Do you write for rent? Regularly? Sporadically? Tomorrow, at Tara? How’s it going this year, today? Encourage us by being part of our community. If you have a bit of time, blog on your writing schedule and let us post it here.
Now…on to the have to’s, but maybe I will be back to the computer today. For sure tomorrow, because it’s only a bit I have to write, and I did it today.(413)
posted by Camellia at 6:51 AM
3 Comments:
I have just read Julia Cameron's memoir "Floor Sample," which has encouraged me to re-read The Artist's Way. That foundation of that book's philosphy is the Morning Pages, wherein one writes three pages a day, everyday. So I started doing that yesterday. Three pages goes quickly but it will also rack up the content quickly, too, which is good. I'm sure I had a point...
Oh, I have more to say on this subject. I did Morning Pages for years, and it was more theraputic than productive for writing, though it kept my mind agile for pouring out stuff in writing exercises. I never racked up content, but this month, just to write...next month, maybe write something? Donna
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