When I tell people I’m a writer, that it’s what I do with my time when I’m not holding up flashcards or cooking dinner, they tend to get starry-eyed. That’s when I know they’re imagining the ideal writing life: A nice soft couch or maybe a cozy booth at a café, steaming coffee nearby, fuzzy socks, maybe a cat. (Aren’t all writers supposed to have cats?)
What people don’t often consider is that trying to write stories that resonate with readers, that show them something new about the world or about themselves, takes some pretty tough, gritty characteristics: endurance, courage, patience, resilience. These things don’t always come to mind when you think of fuzzy socks and picturesque coffee shops.
To be honest, I think writing fiction is one of the hardest things I’ve done, next to parenting and trying to be an agreeable person to live with. No matter how hot and plentiful my coffee is, I find my discipline for the task is often in short supply.
The more I write, though — the more I throw myself into this frequently frustrating battle against distraction, procrastination and the allure of an easier road — the more I see that the practice of writing teaches us so much about life.
In both writing (or really any creative pursuit) and life, we force ourselves to buckle down and do what’s necessary to complete the task ahead and we keep our eyes open for the joy that finds us on the path.
Author Dani Shapiro touches on this in her book, “Still Writing.” She said, “When writers who are just starting out ask me when it gets easier, my answer is never. It never gets easier … the truth is that, if anything, it gets harder. The writing life isn’t just filled with predictable uncertainties but with the awareness that we are always starting over again.”
At first glance, this can seem kind of depressing. No matter how much we’ve accomplished in the past, how many essays or books we’ve written, what we’ve designed, painted, or sculpted, we always start over again from scratch with each new project. But when I look at it another way, it gives a more promising sense of hope. I can continually start over. Constant rebirth.
A wise friend recently introduced me to the concept of reps. As in the gym when you do reps of exercises to build muscle and endurance, we can look at the various undertakings of our life as reps. If I mess up — mutter something unkind to my spouse, snap at my kids, burn dinner, write a really terrible chapter — I can tell myself, “It’s just a rep. I can try again tomorrow.”
This idea of starting over has been a breath of fresh air in both life and writing, which sometimes feel like one and the same. Just as each morning, I sit down at my computer to create scenes and stories, each morning we are a new creation. The old is finished and the mercy and grace of today is new.
That’s good news for those of us who struggle with hard days and dark times. No matter what we’ve struggled through, we can count it as one rep, one chapter, and then press on to what lies ahead.
You can reach me by email me at Lauren@LaurenKDenton.com, visit my website, LaurenKDenton.com or find me on Instagram @LaurenKDentonBooks, Twitter @LaurenKDenton or on Facebook. My debut novel, “The Hideaway,” is available wherever books are sold. “Hurricane Season” will be released April 3, 2018.
