Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Don't Take it Too Seriously


Don't take it too seriously.

The last piece of advice from Barbara Samuel's blog post on reclaiming the joy of writing seems to counter the it's-a-difficult-and-huge-task-this-writing-business-and-you-gotta-take-it-seriously-or-else-you'd-never-succeed vibe about getting published and read.

Yet we've all known people (ourselves?) who take themselves and their jobs/passions so seriously that we feel as if life itself is being su
cked away.

I am serious about writing. I know about hard work and perseverance. What I need is exactly this advice, so that in the midst of the teeth-grtting sessions of revisions, or hair-pulling moments of not getting the emotion just right, I can breathe and remember that there is more to life than just my writing.

(Please don't tell me that if I think there is more to life than writing, then writing must not be that important to me and therefore I should just get out and do something else and leave writing to those who either write or die. Please.
)

I wish you: silly faces.


[Winner of the Silly Face Contest by Linda Hartman at Creative Commons]

4 comments:

Cheryl Reif said...

Holy guacamole, what is that thing?!

I think that some writers might have to take their writing life seriously, but they probably aren't writing the kinds of books I want to write. Thank you for the silly face, encouragement, and grin for the morning! ~Cheryl

Yat-Yee said...

I think it might be a horse, but it makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Nandini said...

Thank you so much for these last two posts. I needed something like this today, my son has the flu as well :( , and I got a completely random crit on my YA that has me spinning and ready to give up.

Silly faces to you too!! ;P

Yat-Yee said...

Sorry about the flu and the random crits...Put it away. Come back later, if at all.