Roller Coaster: The Ups and Downs in Life and Writing

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Some people might tell you about the bliss of writing. They say things like:

“I fell in love with my characters.”

“the words just flowed out of me.”

Or even

“I can’t see myself doing anything other than writing.”

Since I am a writer I can agree with these words about 20% of the time. The rest of the time I’m just struggling to live in the real world while creating a fantasy world.

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I’ve been working on my current book since college (I graduated in 2011). I’ve written newspaper articles, short stories, and blog posts; but I always felt like I was wandering around in the dark when it came to finishing my novel. This still sounds funny to me because having a published novel has been a dream of mine since I can remember.

See my post about Women Authors in SciFi

So the week I was finally able to finish my novel sounds like it should’ve been the best week of my life, but in all honesty, it was one hell of a roller coaster ride.

Now don’t get me wrong, I cried tears of joy for hours after I finished those last words. But in that same week, I also struggled with my life purpose, rehashed years of repressed emotions, my husband was hit by a drunk driver (luckily he had no injuries) and, oh yeah, I tore my Achilles tendon (and I don’t even have a cool story as to how I did it).

So I guess this first post can be summed up by saying: shit happens, but that shit can fertilize some of the best things in your life.

If you’re a creator remember that you won’t always love your work, and by acknowledging that your relationship with your creative side will never be a fairytale love, you’re acknowledging that you have a better kind of love. The kind of love that comes with ups and downs, and going through these ups and downs creates a better writer, artist, actor, or whatever passion you’re following.

When you have ups use them to navigate through your downs. And when you have your downs try your best to find a positive. When I tore my Achilles I was walking on stage for my final bow during the first of three dance performances that weekend. I began to panic. I’ve been active my entire life and I knew that this kind of an injury would be a long road to recovery.

Lucky for me, I had a long discussion with two inspiring women earlier that week. During this conversation, we talked about finding the good in the bad things that can happen throughout life.

While waiting to be seen by the doctor, I decided to look for the good. This was a very difficult exercise at first considering I tend to be a bit cynical. The more I forced myself to focus on the good things that could come of this, the easier it became. I soon concluded that being benched from my active life would give me time to start outlining another novel. In the very least this gave me hope. And for anyone who’s ever read a book, you know that hope can change the world.

If you are a creator or creative I hope that you see or try to see the beauty and every down as well as up.