The journey forwards
It’s been a rather frantic few weeks for me as I now have numerous jobs and have, to term a well-known phrase, not always been able to see the wood for the trees. There has been little time to write lately, and much as I love my ‘other’ jobs, all of which are wordy to some extent, and many of which are writing related, I do become a bit of a grumpy, grouchy old bear when I can’t actually write. I begin to stomp around and rub at my eyes with my paws… I mean, hands.
The other day, I was driving to one of my teaching jobs, a lovely drive through the countryside, fast roads, lots of crows overhead and very often a kestrel or buzzard about, when I suddenly became aware of how much I looked in my rear view mirror and was conscious of the car behind, and how often that spoiled my journey. I made a conscious effort not to do so and to focus on the winding road ahead and the other cars dotted at intervals, some creeping up the hill, some in the dip, some bending at the top. For a few moments I felt overwhelmed with a complete sense of joy, that feeling you get when you accept where you are and look with an almost childlike sense of anticipation towards the future.
It occurred to me then, how much that journey paralleled my writing. It is easy to get distracted from our purpose by the many faces of life, to become frustrated by rejections, cross at never having quite enough time to explore this idea… to edit this book… to finish this project, and to become absorbed with looking back at what we didn’t do and didn’t achieve. But stomping around and being a grouch doesn’t help, does it? And focussing on the annoying turnip on your bumper just hinders progress.
So, I decided, it is time to look forwards, to dust off the frustration of the past few weeks, to put my foot down and take those windy roads with my music playing loud and the windows down, to anticipate good things and to make sure good things happen…
So, as if by magic, I have a couple of things to report –
– I am part of a secret project *Shh!* (more to follow very soon) and am really excited about it.
– Myself and my co-writer have decided to self-publish ‘The Story Maker’ – I’ve never self-published before so this is a bit of an adventure!
– I am in the process of setting up a new facebook page for ‘The Story Maker’
– I am going to recruit someone to help design my own writerly bookmarks to take into schools etc.
I am beginning to enjoy this writing journey once more and I hope all you writers out there are too. Crank that music up and enjoy the ride, even if it’s a bumpy one!
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