Validation

Again, from the July/August 2010 edition of Writer's Digest . . .

When I began writing, I was surrounded by people who couldn't understand what writing meant to me. Many times, faced over and over with these attitudes, I came close to quitting. I longed for someone to validate not only my work but the entire enterprise of writing. (Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - Emerging as a Writer - Writer's Digest - July/August 2010 - Page 21).

How many of you, dear readers, can relate to the above statement? How many of you have seen people's faces go blank when you try to explain your love of writing? How many of you are tired of the endless question - well, what have you published?

Non-writers don't have a clue that writing a book isn't easy, and that getting published is even harder.

We're lucky, here and now, that there's such an entity called the blogsphere where aspiring and published writers blog about this crazy writing adventure we've all embarked upon.

How many times have you read a blog post and thought: yeah, that's me, I understand completely?

I've seen posts about doubt, about wanting to quit, about believing in our abilities, having faith, and so much more.

I can relate. I've written a few posts on those topics as well.

I've left comments on those posts thanking the blogger for putting my feet back on the writing path.

I've been in a funk with my writing lately. I'm not writing as much as I should. I'm not blogging as much as I should. Last week I began to get on track again. Last Thursday, I absolutely knew what I had to do once I got home from work and sent Franklin off to work. I was double-dog tired. I didn't want to write. I wanted to just lay on the couch with the dogs. This heat is killing me, people!!! 110 degree heat index. It saps all the energy I have, and there doesn't seem to be enough energy lately. Still, double-dog tired and all, I did what I had to do! I know what I have to do on one project that has been in the works for a number of years.

I can't tell my non-writer friends about my doubts, my funk, or the joy of having a moment of epiphany where I absolutely know what needs doing to succeed! I can, however, share it here on the blogsphere because I know, know, know that every single one of you reading this blog can understand what I am going through because you can validate my work and the entire enterprise of writing.

Oh, and once again, since these words seem to be becoming my mantra. I'm going to quote the words spoken by the character Roseanne Conner in the final episode of Roseann: Dreams don't work without action. Nobody can stop me but me.

S