A is for Authoring

A waste of time.

Having gone through a bit of a funk, writing had developed into a waster of time.

Sorry about that. There’s that horrible moment, when life, the universe, and everything yanks you out of reality. In this case, a beloved dog’s passing, a heart’s breaking, and a year passing. A flu bug then took the opportunity to smuggle itself into my home, using the power of stress to lower our collective immune systems. Given my exposure to so many youth in my day job, my system bounced back; my husOtter’s still crawling back into existence.

And writing became a waste of time.

So I’m using this month, blogging from A to Z, just to catch up on authoring. Writing. Freeing my mind to those stressors and to making plain writing over a variety of topics. It’s something I’ve noticed quite some time ago.  I’m happy-go-lucky, even in the worst of times.

Even if the worst of times.

Because I write.

And when I don’t author? I suffer. It’s like, when I write a tale of monsters, that monster is really all of those annoyances that pile up into something terrible and I can slay it. When I criticize a film, I’m able to exercise that part of my psyche that breathes in the shadows and needs to take flight before it wounds my heart and soul.

But it takes energy. And when your energy is depleted from such unique experiences as the passing of your beloved eldest corgi, you pour what energy you have left into finding the will to live than to writing about witches and demons and heroes and old love anew.  So I dailed down.

My writing suffered.

So I”m back and the timing is perfect.

I’m authoring.

And this is the first entry. I’m looking to focus on the nonfiction, here on the blog, if that’s at all possible, and seeing if this writing is going to do the healing that needs to be done.

I will admit this. With the authoring, I’m also re-reading my book. This is my seventh novel, but the first one I really took my time and started composing. And I like the direction it went. It’s, to me, the most commercially viable of my creative processes, and I’m thinking I’m having there. But there’s something else I’ve noticed about myself.  The more reading I’m doing, the less writing. Frequently, I hear about how reading and writing go hand in hand, but I’ve learned from teaching that this isn’t always the case. Think about it. I know people who can read technical manuals with full memorization.

Can’t recreate a joke to save their lives.

Nor can they write fiction.

And I’ve read some of the best fiction writing from friends.

But they only read Harry Potter twenty or thirty times.

I don’t get it. So? This Blogging quest will be my goal to balance between the two. And, hopefully, I’ll be able to start my next novel at some point. I can only hope. Care to join me?

I plan on authoring some.
So I find it only fitting that I start here, with the concept of authoring. I've always approached it as an art form, instead of a form of work. Even the greatest piece of fiction is a reflection of it's writer and I think I need to point this out. All this time, when I talk to people about their work, I'm trying to look only at their own writings. But the insight is sometimes profoundly unavoidable. As a teacher of writing, numerous times, I observe parts of their life, symbolically played out. Frequently, I try to reject that as creative insight, but it does happen.
But I write. And they write. And this is where the expression happens, that magical tap to the inner feelings and emotions that escape our facial pronouncements.
Too often, as my friend who authors the technical manuals, many don't have that moment, that boulevard, to verbalize their inner feelings. This counts for all arts. Cooking. Painting. Conversation (yes, it is an art), sports (don't believe me? Watch a player angry, sad, disgusted, or content and see how they play). My art is right before you. You are walking that road to my, well, soul, I guess.
Let's start here.
It explains why we get so upset, so cranky when criticism happens. It's like kicking our children. We react. We shouldn't. Because, when we post, as I am doing right now, we are asking for that criticism. And, that, too, is part of the arts. What good is a painting never shown on the walls?
Peace.