I feel like I’ve been in hibernation. Other than the heavenly two weeks plus where I wrote 90 pages, I’ve been struggling with my writing productivity, and I haven’t felt I had the emotional/extra energy to do much online. Hence the bit of blog silence and my absence from Facebook and Twitter.
I’m not quite sure what happened. I was going great guns, and then I sort of hit the skids. A bit of depression maybe or something. The two weeks of writing certainly helped, but then I got a cold and fell right out of it again.
As I was getting my hair done today ~ much overdue, as I was starting to look a bit like Ted Kazynski ~ I came across an article about resilience. In it was the great Japanese proverb, if you fall down seven times, get up eight. When I read it, I thought, yeah. Yeah! That I can can do. Once again, the pigheadedness saves the day.
It also said something about having a bit of adversity as a child is a good thing. It inoculates you a bit against giving up later in life. Though it did say you don’t want too much adversity early, to where you’re so beaten down you don’t even allow yourself to dream.
It mentioned scientific studies on rats who received electric shocks and how much electric shocks they received until they didn’t even try to avoid it. The article said that the resilient have some combination of genes that make you resilient but then they’re not getting pounded down too severely. It also said that it helps to have social or family support.
I guess one thing I do have is resilience. Whether it’s from early “inoculation” or from a long line of ancestors who were pigheaded or because I have a great support system. Or maybe it’s just because I’m a bit manic depressive and that pendulum inevitably swings the other way! Either way, it helps me to think that if I just have faith in “the process,” it’ll all turn out all right.
So, I think I’m ready to make some (more) great progress on novel!
Questions of the Day: How’s your resilience? Have you gotten knocked down recently?
6 comments:
I would like to think I'm pretty resilient, though I get knocked down, too. Just yesterday in fact. Oh, well. Can't dwell on the past, can we?
By the way, YOU CAN DO IT! YOU ARE AWESOME, FABULOUS, AND A GREAT WRITER. I BELIEVE IN YOU!
Right back atcha! I BELIEVE IN YOU!!! You are a great writer! And you're definitely resilient. (If I wasn't taking the kids swimming tonight, I'd say let's go for a drink and commiserate.) And those people don't know what they're missing.
Resilience is SO key for all writers... And from your story of finding an agent, you seem to be the embodiment of resilience. Don't stop now!
I think we all have those ups and downs with our writing. And I'm beginning to firmly believe the 'write every day' mantra - that it makes it easier to 'stay' with your characters, keep the momentum up, keep writing. For me, it seems if I let more than a day slip without being "in" my novel some way, I lose all momentum and have to start again - from scratch, it feels. Great post!
Melissa - you are so kind! I totally agree about writing every day, but also agree that it's really hard to do! :-P Life just wants to get in the way, doesn't it? It feels like scratch.
You go girl! And I'll try to do the same. Uh hem, will do the same. :-)
Tamara
YES ... it's VERY difficult to do (writing every day, staying in the writing moment). Life DOES get in the way. I'm still trying to figure it out myself... Here's to both of us making it happen!
Hear, hear!
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