Thursday, May 26, 2011

A Must Read

Published novelist Barbara O'Neal has an amazing, inspiring, and incredibly thoughtful post over at Writer Unboxed. In it, she discusses what it's really like to be a professional author, bumps and all.

I am finding that the longer I'm in this writing gig, the more realistic I become as to just what this writing life entails. It's not a rosy picture in many ways. There's a lot of hard work involved, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of strength and courage needed to weather it all.

But there is a rosy side to it - we are writing.

And at the end of the day, that is enough.

7 comments:

  1. It's enough-and like any inner passion-it is who you are, and you would not be who you are without it, my sweet friend:)
    Blessings
    xx

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  2. I've also found in life that anything, anything worthwhile is hard work. The harder we work at it, the more valuable it becomes. Keep on writing :)

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  3. I agree with Joanne - anything worthwhile is hard work. I'm off to read that article - I love posts that inspire and keep me chugging along. And also, your previous post, yay for altnerative medicine! I'm glad you are giving it a go... hope to hear progress updates?

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  4. I agree, but today wish I'd find another obsession to get involved with instead of my writing. Maybe it's just the endless edits that I'm in the middle of?

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  5. I know what you mean. I have a friend who has published 3 books and she tells me all the pitfalls that everyone is experiencing, kind of scares me a bit.

    But like you said - we are writing.

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  6. Anonymous10:21 PM

    Yeah, waking up to the real side of writing has scared me off in a lot of ways. But I can't let go so the only option is to keep moving forward. And then I read something moving or beautiful or transcendent and I know that it's more than just a business. It's an art.

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  7. So very true! What I've come to learn is this business (for ultimately that is what it is) is also only what we make of it. It can be as loud and noisy or subtle as a writer desires. Fortunately, we have some modicum of control over that, for as out of our hands as it may seem.

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