Triumph Over Adversity (alt. title: just keep swimming)
By Shelley White
Struggle: verb def.2: to proceed with great difficulty
or with great effort
noun def 2: a violent effort or exertion: an act of
strongly motivated striving
It’s real y’all! As someone who hasn’t touched their
WIP since November, I’m hardly qualified to offer advice on staying on track. I
have numerous valid excuses and several less valid ones, but for me, it boils
down to discipline. I’ve spent a lot of time beating myself up for not being
able to pull it together and get BUSY. This has not been a productive use of my
time.
Instead, I’m working on being incredibly proud of
myself when I complete my to do list-even if it takes two days. I’m forcing
myself to take satisfaction in completing smaller projects and I’m trying not
to see my WIP as a looming boogeymonster. Keeping the negatives at bay is
challenging.
I originally planned to write about critique groups
and how they help keep me on task. I’m going to switch gears here then hopefully
tie everything together nice and neat.
I’m part of a critique group with five other authors.
We meet every other week and look at about fifteen to twenty pages from three
members each time. So I need to have stuff to give them once a month. Sometimes,
that is enough to keep me writing.
We write in a variety of fiction genres and all bring
our own strengths to the table. I fondly call one of our members the
Comma-dant. He’s a master of punctuation. We’re flexible and can opt out of our
turn if we don’t have anything ready. Our meetings are relaxing and, in
addition to critiquing, we spend time talking craft, marketing, and sharing
ideas. We are all riding the same struggle bus in our own ways.
In our November meeting, someone submitted her poetry
chapbook. She was already in the publication process but wanted our
impressions. None of us write much poetry, and her stuff was pretty heavy. One
poem in particular mentioned ashes. After some discussion and the meaning
revealed, another member said she thought it was about vampires. It wasn’t, of
course. No one expects vampires.
I told her I would write a vampire poem and dedicate
it to her. We all laughed.
Then I woke up at 5:30 in the morning a few days later
and wrote my first vampire poem.
It wasn’t a serious poem. I am not a serious poet. But
they sure are entertaining to me and touch a warped part of my psyche that
apparently needed some exercise to get the writing juices flowing again.
Six vampire poems later, my friend is disappointed
that my vampires are snarky and not sexy. I’m working on it, but the muse wants
what it wants.
I needed the mental break from the projects awaiting
my attention, this one included. And the good news is, my WIP is poking its
head out of the closet and speaking to me again.
So, my advice for you for 2023 is this; find your
tribe. They will understand what you’re going through and can offer advice,
support, commiseration, or a much needed laugh. The second is this, write
anything. Write a poem, a scene, or something outside your genre. When it hits
you, write it down, no matter what it is. Then, by golly, be proud of it. We’re
not going to get out of our writing slumps by taking giant leaps. With
motivated striving, just keep swimming.
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