This is my August contribution to Alex Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group, a blog hop all about writers helping writers. To read more posts, click here.
When I started this blog six years ago, the goal was to hold
myself accountable to writing regularly.
It was an easy objective really, because I was recently (and
traumatically) unemployed and had the time, as well as a whole lot of emotion needing release. A personal essay
five days a week turned out to be the way to heal myself. Over the years, writing took on another spin
as I set my goal to completing a novel, then another, and one more. I have yet to get one published, but I wrote
them, and that’s a lot more than I thought I could do, pre-Middle Passages.
I took another job, then a different one after that. Now I work regular hours and write too. At this point, I’m a third of the way through
my fourth novel and stuck…mostly due to life circumstances, and because there
is research I need to complete. But, after
all this time, I also understand there is a rhythm to my work, and the right pace for me
includes a summer slowdown. When
September arrives, I gear up, which will happen again, I know. But for now, while I pause on this novel, I’m
holding myself to blogging once a week.
Sometimes, it feels like homework.
Oh, God, I have to write another blog post? But in truth, blogging has saved my
writing so many times. When I get stuck,
there’s Middle Passages, reminding me. If I choose, I can turn into one more
wanna be writer.
Or, I can write.
