Open Door

Open Door

Friday, January 21, 2011

Endurance

I spent the morning comforting a fellow writer who is sitting at a crossroads.  As I gave her the reasurrance she needed to go on another day, I realized the information I was sharing was insight into what it really means to be a writer, so now I want to share it with you:

Honey, you are so close.  Only six more chapters to go and you are done.  If you really bucked down and forced yourself, you could have your first draft within six weeks.  You have an outline.  You know where to go and now you need to get there!

When I think back to Copper Descent in it's first stages, it makes me cringe.  I had to throw out several chapters and re-write them completely, not to mention how many hours I spent revising the others.  It was Terrible with a capital T, and it wasn’t even my first attempt.  I have taken creative writing courses and worked sporadically for the last twenty years to finally get a sense of my craft.  You have been at this for just a little over two years now, your talent lying dormant since high school and I feel that your work is better than my first draft.  In order to feel that sense of accomplishment, you need to finish what you have started.

 Writing takes patience and a strong sense of self.  That is why it is so dangerous to compare your work to anyone else’s, because you lose that identity which makes you original.  This is the reason why I will never be able to write fluff or comedy, and that’s okay.  I’m not made up that way and have accepted my limitations.  It is not okay to doubt your ability, only your fortitude.  This is a question I have asked myself countless times and now I will pose it to you…  How bad do you want this?  Bad enough to keep going when others would quit?  Because that’s what it’s all about.  Every time you decide to continue, you grow.  Quitting is never an option and neither is doubt. 

Have you ever heard of an author by the name of Andy Andrews?  He spent seven years attempting to publish his first novel: The Traveler’s Gift and no publishing company would take it.  They even went a step further, telling him it would never be published because his writing was crap.  He mortgaged his house and self published, believing in his dream that much.  This book was the first self-published story to ever make the New York Times Best Sellers List.  I assure you he had doubt every step of the way.  In fact, one of my most favorite quotes come from this man.  “You can’t always make the right decision, but once the decision is made, you have to go about making it right.”  You don’t change your choice, you follow it through to the end, and that way, you will never look back with regret.

Monday, January 3, 2011

The Final Breath of Our Ten-Year Business

I have mixed feelings as I close-out the 2010 tax year.  Don't get me wrong, I am very excited about where we are going, but it is also sad to see something end.  In case you haven't heard, our company (Heber Valley Welding & Repair) has merged with RJ Masonry to create a new entity (Legacy Machinery).  My husband has been working towards this goal for a very long time and I am so happy to see his dream become a realization.

We started our corporation in January of 2000 while I was pregnant with my son, Tristen.  I have to admit that at first, I was not very happy.  Losing the security of a steady paycheck was a terrifying prospect.  I didn't like the long hours and constant phone calls that always seemed to take Travis away at the most importuned moments.  It was like the company was his illegitimate child--a twin to my son in every way but one.  I didn't feel the love for my husband's second son the way that he did and it only became worse as it grew even more demanding--monopolizing my time as well.  For the first few years, I resented the strain, but I eventually did learn to love my ugly step-child, and now he is all growed up. 

I imagine that this is the way it will feel when my daughter leaves for college.  It feels like a death in some ways, yet the company is still there--evolving into something greater.  Travis is still fully involved and I no longer resent the time he spends with his "other child", because it frees up my time to have a love affair of my own: with writing.