today's key thought: Metabolize pain, disappointment and injury into creative energy. Let go, move on. Focus on the good things you still have.
And I might add, do not let anyone stop you from writing!
A few days ago I intimated to a close friend that I am participating again in NaNo. His reaction was one of dismay: "But you were such a bad person last year when you joined NaNo." There it was, in one summary sentence, a judgment on my person for writing, for doing what I believe I was put on this planet to do, for making what I believe to be my best contribution to this world. You were such a bad person.
A bad person because I wasn't so congenial? Because I didn't hang out with him much? Because I'd rather take to my notebook and write? Because I go incognito, unreachable, my head deep into the plotting of my next thread?
I said, "Wait! You are judging me as a person for who I was over a year ago and at the same time for who you are sure I will be in the future? You are telling me I am a bad person when I write? That is incredibly damaging to a writer, you know."
If you have ever been creatively injured, it's not something to sweep under the rug. I heartfully recommend The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.
My friend's comment stung.
The next day he issued an apology via sms. "You are a good person. You are a good writer. You are self-taught. You do wonderful things on paper." That patched things up, but the pain was still there. What if I get writer's block? I can't afford that weeks before NaNo!
So what do I do? I go ahead and write this. I write at that something that bugs me. This is metabolizing pain/injury/loss into creative energy. And it is also making sure that I protect my inner writer, my storyteller, from such attacks. While we can't control other people, we can control our responses to them. So that "You are a bad person if you choose to write" is counteracted with "I am a good person. I make worthwhile contributions. I am doing what God created me to do." And doing that write on paper. As Julia Cameron said, "Writing rights things."
Do not let anyone keep you from writing!
