Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who’ve been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of our ninja leader Alex Cavanaugh. I’m delighted to be cohosting this month along with: Shannon Lawrence, Diedre Knight, and Pat Garcia. For links to all IWSG contributors, click here.
August optional question: As a writer/author what is
something you regret? Or something that you wish you'd done differently in your
writing process?
My biggest regret is not knowing myself well enough to start a dedicated writing practice sooner. Priorities were what they were when I was young. Taking care of a child while working full time, caring for a home, saving money, of course all these things were important, and I let them override my desire to write.
In spite of myself, that buried want forced its way out. I wrote an essay about blueberry picking with my daughter and her cousins when they were little, but didn’t have enough hutzpah to do anything with it. I composed poems sometimes, edited them like crazy and even submitted a few, but nothing happened.
At work, I drowned myself in memos and training documents, because they meant writing. As a recruitment manager for a national retail chain, I hired creative talent and did a lot of work for a copy director. At one point, he had an open copywriter position. As part of the hiring process, each candidate was required to develop copy for an upcoming ad campaign. I wrote my own copy, wondering if I’d have the nerve to present it to him and be considered for the open position.
I didn't.
It took until I was in my late-forties, when my first piece was published in a niche magazine for me to call myself a writer. A few years later, a job elimination that I call one of my life's greatest blessings, fanned the proverbial flames. Before that, I hadn't really admitted to myself that I was essentially going through the motions in my career. But when life gets yanked out from under you, things get real fast. At fifty years old and unexpectedly unemployed, I immediately understood with complete certainty that whatever I did next had to involve writing. Every iteration of myself since then has.
These days, I’m proud of my writing, but wonder if I'd been true to myself earlier, whether I might have accomplished more.
What are your regrets related to writing?
It's often the timing. What if you had submitted and been accepted for that open position? You might still be working and not writing your own stuff at all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for co-hosting today.
I agree with Alex. And I couldn't write much for the same reasons as you, as well as taking care of my husband. I don't regret any of those things. They were very important. Yours were too.
ReplyDeleteLife planted your feet on a new path, one you'd been leaning toward all along. I love it! I will submit that all that life experience BEFORE publishing probably is a boon.
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel, and I am glad you found the certainty that you needed writing in your life no matter what happened next.
ReplyDeleteI've resigned myself to the fact life has seasons. I'm finally in my writing season now, only working part time at my other job. In a few years, when I retire, I'll be able to write full time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for co-hosting.
I think we start writing to share with others at exactly the perfect time. I was late to the game if you judge the ages of a lot of novelists these days, but I don't think I was ready to put my writing out for publication before then. So glad you came to writing and that you're staying with it. And thanks for co-hosting today.
ReplyDeleteIf wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. Isn't that how the old saying goes? I think things worked out as they were meant to for you. Thanks for co-hosting today!
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of us have lives that made writing hard until we were older than we would like. What I see across many of today's posts is that awareness that writing was always what we wanted to do--we just didn't know how to arrange our lives to make it happen.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have a lot of responsibilities it can be hard to make time for something like writing and even guilt may be involved. But it will find its way out, if you're true to yourself. I think things have worked out for you.
ReplyDeleteI think things come to you when you're ready. The universe works this way, even if we don't realize it. That's why I think regrets are pointless. You grabbed your moment when you were ready.
ReplyDeleteIt's never too late, and I'm glad you have more time to focus on your writing now. I, too, have let writing take the back burner while working full-time and caring for children, but I also think that some of those busy years were giving me material for my stories.
ReplyDeleteThat insight, you wondering what might have happened if you had been true to yourself earlier, could have been my story as well. All those important commitments to work and family came first, but I didn't start writing seriously until I retired! That was 15 years ago! I have never regretted writing -- once I started, and new ideas for stories keep coming. Perseverance furthers! May your writing go well!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteSometimes there are still going on in our lives that keep us from moving forward when we would like too. IThe main thing is that you are writing now.
All the best.
Shalom shalom
So glad you kept at it. Bet you are too ;-) You've already hooked me with the blueberry picking essay.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about growth, innit? It's good you stuck with it.
ReplyDeleteTrite sayings, such as "better late than never," become embedded in our culture for a reason. Sounds to me like the right time to write arrived with perfection for you - and for your readers!
ReplyDeleteYou had important priorities when you were younger, Liza. Now is your time to focus on you. It's wonderful that you're proud of your writing. Put those regrets aside and write on. Thanks for co-hosting today!
ReplyDeleteThanks for co-hosting this month!
ReplyDeleteToo bad we can't just take all our priorities, stuff it in a box, chuck it away deep into a closet and shut the door on it. All we can do is find the time to write around them. And never give up on writing.
It's those what-ifs that can bog us down. I try to tell myself that I was where I needed to be when I needed to be there. I'm glad you found your calling, no matter how the timing worked out.
ReplyDeleteI'm guilty of wondering the "if only" thoughts but at this time of my life I have to just push past the regrets....and just keep on writing.
ReplyDeleteJob elimination for me in my early thirties became a blessing. I began writing again. And eventually started Dancing Lemur Press. I could not have done that had I been working full time.
ReplyDeleteI was similarly stilted with my fiction writing when I was burdened writing papers for a graduate literature program. Two very different kinds of writing. I dont miss my graduate years.
ReplyDeleteThanks to you and the others for co-hosting!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alex’s first point. It’s all about timing. Think of all that experience of life you wouldn’t have had if you’d focused on writing sooner. Well done, and thanks for cohosting today.
ReplyDeleteYou got hit by a lot of life, but you kept coming back to writing. All that I've read of yours is really good. Keep trying. I didn't pursue it enough and I still think I'll circle back. After retiring, I spend way less time on a computer. I question if I have the discipline to keep butt in chair. Take care and I hope your summer is going well.
ReplyDeleteMy regrets are similar to yours - so many times I could have taken the plunge into writing and didn't. I try not to torture myself with thoughts of how far along I could be if I coulda/woulda/shoulda.
ReplyDeleteOur lives have so many twists and turns. Sometimes, when we look back to we see a pattern or purpose.
ReplyDeleteI always wanted to write and the closest I got was a desktop publishing job.
Later in life, while sailing down the coast of Baja, Mexico, I knew I free to write about my experience.
Problem? My writing was a dry as a technical manual.
Thanks for co-hosting this month!