Snapshot of a Writer

I like to be educated about the writing business, but, like any business, the bullshit can get you down.

The other day, there was the usual debate and argument over at Miss Snark's blog - I love that blog, but the desperados in the comment trails that like to eviscerate each other and frantically try to get noticed can be rather wearing. Then someone calling herself boo boo (she did not leave a link) posted this:

Everyone seems a bit harsh towards folks who have a hard time being critiqued/edited/disembowled (is that spelled right? No don't tell me.) Writing is something that your soul must work up to. Your resolve must develop, your skin toughen, your desire grow, your love of words grow, and your insecurities slowly shrink.

I carried around an add for a distence course in writing for 18 months and didn't do a thing. It took my husband finding the same add and his devotion and encouragement before I was willing to even try a class. It took a two year class before I got to the point that I wanted a helpful critique of my work wrather then blind praise, and it took five years of regular writing before I realized that I am a writer published or not I am because I have finally gotten to the point where it is so important to me, so much a part of who I am, that I the night owl and lover of sleep am willing to arise at 5:00am so that I can write before my beautiful sons open their eyes and jump start the day into high gear.

So a gently reminder. You don't know where a writer is in theier journey. You might be talking to that tender soul who just got up the nerve for a critique after years of dreaming. Help them learn, help them grow, be honest, but also kind.

The spelling is hers, and it's just fine by me. The bolds are mine. I didn't edit.

This is something I believe in to my core. Maybe it's because I'm so recently a beginning writer myself - but if I ever forget what it's like to carry around an ad for a writing course and stare at it hundreds of times (yes, I've done it), then may I put away my pen.

Last week I volunteered to judge a contest for beginning writers, and got turned down because I'm Canadian and the organizers didn't want to pay the postage. I was disappointed (not to mention puzzled that the concept of "e-mail" is still foreign to some people.) I wanted to help out some beginners.

So, to those of you writing at 5 a.m. - you're not alone. Think of the hundreds of us scribbling away the same time you are, and keep going.