Articles Friday–This one for authors and anyone working hard on their dreams…. I originally wrote it as a newly published author for my local RWA chapter newsletter. It’s been copied and linked to from all over the Internet. Inspires me again, every time I read it.
The key message: keep dreaming and don’t lose your faith, while you work hard to make your dream come true!
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What Keeps You Going
In the Between Times?
In between clouds and the sea, float currents of sun-kissed air, charged with the promise of a building storm. In between a child’s dreams and the future she’s yet to conquer, lies the moment when she discovers that her reality is hers alone to create. And in between the heart and mind of a writer, it’s not uncommon to find her soul, excited that her latest creation has sprouted wings and flown into the world beyond, yet floundering for new direction and the next sweet inspiration. It’s in the between times that we glimpse our true heart most clearly.
Our between times bring us face-to-face with doubt. They reflect back to us that which we can find nowhere else–the very center of our creativity, the fragile source of all that we want our writing to become. In between one project and the next, we must journey again to the well we pray will never run dry. We shine the spotlight away from our characters and back onto ourselves, digging into all that we understand, bravely searching for a speck of something we dare share with the rest of the world.
And then there are the moments of celebration that come with the between times.
The End is hands-down the finest sentence an author writes, the euphoria that floods in its wake as addictive as any controlled substance. Another manuscript completed, we dance, we laugh, perhaps we slap a few cyber high-fives. Then for too brief a time, we breathe easily. We believe for that fleeting moment in the promise of our art.
Then we must start all over again with an empty, blank page.
The challenge, it would seem, is to marry the inspiration of our between times with the agonizing introspection we endure as we create anew. We must cling to the memory of our celebrations as we embark on another beginning. As we gaze within, as we secretly hope and pray we can do it again, we owe it to our last writing challenge to believe that we can subdue the next. Our drive to write is bigger than our fear of the unknown, so we must honor the gifts we’ve been given and move on.
In between our doubt and our next story is an unspoiled opportunity to dream. And in between who we are and all we want to become, there is the simplest of all declarative statements–Yes! Yes, I can. Yes, I will try again. Yes, I’m afraid, but I’m not a quitter. Yes, I’m starting over with nothing more than myself, but that’s enough, and I will get to the other side again. I will celebrate once more.
The between times can be lonely and a bit scary, but treasure them. They are the most precious moments in your career. Because it’s in between where you learn the best secret of all–that the most marvelous thing about your writing process, from beginning to end, is you.
Tags: writing articles
Anna, I just wrote the end on what I hope is going to be a Silhouette Special Edition. Working on the last revisions, then I’m going do just as you suggest and enjoy the between time
Hi, Anna,
I admire all of you who produce the writings which I so
much enjoy. I encourage you and your fellow authors to
continue your endeavors, bringing into being those books
for which we readers wait.
Pat Cochran
Anna,
This is one of the best things I’ve ever read, and it is SOOOOO needed today! Thank you!
Elaine
PS – look forward to seeing you in June!
I’ll be there, looking for a hug (and not working every second of the day, so I can actually collect on the hug ;o)
I think it’s different for those of us who write articles and such. There’s always something to work on.