No, I’m not exaggerating. Why do you ask?
At any
rate, I was adequate, but no more. When
I suffered a hand and wrist injury in high school, I left behind my violin and
my etudes without as much regret as I probably should have felt. With all the retrospective wisdom of my 40s,
I see that it was rather a shame. After
all, with very little practice, I was adequate.
Not good, mind, but I didn’t resemble last week’s gym socks,
either. I’ll never know what I might
have been able to do if only I’d spent a little extra time with those miserable
etudes.
These
days, I have a different attitude toward my hobbies and new skills I wish to
acquire. Thankfully, I have learned the
value of patient application to the basics.
Hooray for maturity! The
downside, however, is that now that I actually want to practice and hone my
skills, I frequently find it difficult to make the time for it. Irony.
It’s so darned ironic.
To put
you in the picture, let me tell you a bit about me, personally. I’m currently a Stay-At-Home Mom (which means
I am almost never actually at home).
Back in the Pre-Child days, I was a high school biology/general sciences
teacher and, later, a liturgist for a large parish. When my son was very small, writing happened
during naptime and, occasionally, in the wee sma’s after the entire household
had gone to bed. Now that my son is
older and spends much of his day at school, I could reasonably expect to have
quite a lot of time for writing, yes?
No.
The
beginning of his school days marked my return to Education. First, I was a classroom volunteer, which
led, naturally, into being a homeroom parent.
This led to a position on the PTO board, which further led to a position
on the Continuing Improvement Team. The
CIT led to a district advisory board. The list goes on but
I think you get the picture.
What
does this mean for my writing? It means my writing has been patchy, at best,
these past few years. If my goal is to hone my skills, improve my
work, finish my projects, and get them out there for publication, this isn’t a
good state of things. Now, I have managed
to get a few short-shorts out and published and my completed novel-length manuscript is currently in it's fifth round of editing but, not surprisingly, acceptances
are very much outweighed by rejections (watch for an upcoming blog post on
creative things to do with rejection letters – I’m determined to get some fun
out of the things one of these days). In
short, my writing just doesn’t get the time it needs or deserves.
So,
what to do? I imagine the answer to this
is different for every writer. For me,
it meant a talk with the family about treating my writing like a job. There will be specific hours of the day set
aside for writing and, during that time, I’m available for emergencies and
doctor’s appointments, only. This will
be thoroughly tested over the summer when my son is out of school, but we’ll
give it our best shot. After all, I want
to improve my writing, gain new skill as a storyteller, and earn the
opportunity to tell my stories to readers out in the big, wide world.
Does
your craft, your art get the time and attention it deserves? Are you making time to build your skill set,
meet your fellow writers, and present your efforts to readers everywhere? If you’re doing all that, can you share your
secrets with the rest of us? If you’re
not, are you willing to recommit? Is
writing your work, your hobby, or the thing you are simply driven to do? How far are you willing to go to serve your
talent?
As far as I can see, it is mainly a matter of time.
~Sandy
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