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Wednesday, October 3, 2018

IWSG: Major Life Events and Writing



Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to the IWSG page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! If it links to Google+, be sure your blog is listed there. Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.



Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
October 3 question - How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?

The awesome co-hosts for the October 3 posting of the IWSG are Dolorah @ Book Lover, Christopher D. Votey, Tanya Miranda, and Chemist Ken!
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Oh, wow--I think our IWSG leaders chose this prompt for me. Do life events affect my writing? Well, yeah. You know that, because I've been whining about it all year!
This has been a year of change for us, though in fact the change didn't happen until June. But we have spent much of the year planning for the big events: retirement and the sale of our home of 20 years (last year was the year of empty-nesting, as our second son started college), followed by major travels. Just the planning badly disrupted my writing--I think that any significant writing stopped by early March, and I am only now starting to get at it again.
A lot of that disruption to my writing was what I'll call physical: my time was eaten up by preparing the house for sale, then by our summer backpacking extravaganza, and finally by moving out, putting all our goods in storage, and driving across the country to begin our year of vagabonding.
The other aspect that has made it hard to write, though, is the psychic and emotional burden of these life changes. Having our last kid move out (a year ago) was one thing, but ripping my life up by the roots is quite another. Part of the point of this exercise (besides getting to see more of the world) is to shake us up and keep us sharp by forcing us to adapt to new situations. That's not an easy thing for me, so facing the prospect (maybe even more than actually doing it), left me often unhappy and upset, and in search of the comforts and consolations of re-reading old favorites, rather than the adventure of diving into new stories of my own.
I'd like to say that through it all, writing has been my point of stability. But I'd be lying. Writing is my calling, but that doesn't mean it isn't hard. And, being hard, when everything around me is in chaos, I find it all too easy to find something else to do. I'll give myself credit for keeping this blog going the whole time, the one writing task I managed to sustain. I still have visions of writing my way around the world--but I think that I'll do very little beyond maintaining my journal of our travels, and, I hope, sharing them here.
How about you? Can you treat writing as your rock when chaos erupts around you? Or are you with me--in search of a nice novel and a bowl of ice cream? Leave your answer below, then follow the link in the logo to visit the other participants in this most encouraging of writers' blog hops.
    

18 comments:

  1. A nice novel and a bowl of ice cream sounds about right :-) Enjoy your new adventure -- the writing can wait a little. Happy IWSG day!

    Ronel visiting on Insecure Writer's Support Group day: Course Correction

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    1. And a hike in the fall colors! I have a new means of expanding my mind, 100% natural!

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  2. I can see how all of that disrupted your writing. I bet, though, that once things are more settled, a lot of those feelings and experiences will find their way into your writing, nonfiction and fiction.

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    1. I hope so. I don't write much non-fiction, though I've toyed with the idea. At the least, as you note, it expands my view of the world, and that has to be good.

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  3. I struggle to write when we're traveling. It's so much easier when I'm settled in one spot, like I am now. I've found blogging a nice distraction when there have been major life changes, but I'm not sure how effectively I would be able to focus on writing a novel during those times.

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    1. So glad I'm not the only one--sounds like we react pretty much the same way!

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  4. I struggle to write when big things happen in my life. I try not to beat myself up because writing is always waiting for me when things calm down and it's not healthy to guilt myself when things get out of my control.

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    1. Guilt is never helpful. It doesn't motivate, it just saps the soul.

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  5. A doctor's appointment throws me, so, yes, I can't imagine being able to dedicate a heck of a lot of time to writing in the middle of such exciting changes. Happy IWSG day! http://www.raimeygallant.com

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    1. I used to write in the waiting room at the doctor, the dentist, etc.--all those places you sit waiting for your kids! But you need to go into it with some kind of project, even if it's flash fiction.

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  6. I'm completely with you, only I'd trade the ice cream for a bag of chips.

    Keeping up with the blog is something to be proud of. When life gets crazy for me, blogging falls by the wayside too. Always plan to get far enough ahead with it that I have posts already scheduled for just such a circumstance, but alas, that hasn't happened yet.

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    1. Chips are good :)

      I long ago set a blog schedule and have managed to get it in my head that it matters. I'm not sure anyone is reading, most days, yet I feel like I have to do it. I'll be taking a break in the new year, though. We will be traveling hard in January, and there's just no way.

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  7. I felt like the question was written for me too. I can totally relate how life events make it impossible to write time-wise and emotionally.So agree with you!

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    1. I think it's a rare person who can write through big changes, even when those changes don't eat up all the time!

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  8. Hi Rebecca - you've had a whirlwind of a year ... and can quite understand why you didn't write very much - I expect the thoughts were ticking over though. Good luck once you're settled - cheers Hilary

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    1. Thanks! I'll find out how the subconscious has been working when November starts and I begin to draft the next novel. There will be some disruptions, I'm sure, but the weather will curtail our hiking and camping!

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  9. When I retired 10 years ago, our plans sound much like yours. Downsize, toss essentials into storage, and travel! We did travel, and my trusty laptop came right along with writing projects neatly ready to go. That first year, we camped our way around the United States, then research for my first novel led us to several months in Scotland, then Costa Rica. And then, life changed all over again with my husband's stroke. So we found a new home, close to our daughter, nearly a decade has passed, the writing (and my husband) remain at the center. So, I say, cherish each day -- and trust the writing will stay with you!

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    1. Wow! So did you write while camping across the country? I never had any time on our trip, since I can't work in the car (motion sickness is a drag. That cost a lot of otherwise very usable time, though I might have spent it editing photos).

      Actually, my photo habit does compete some with writing. When we are out on so many trips, that's a lot of photos, and I take the editing of my pictures as seriously as the editing of my writing. That's a big time commitment (and now I need to get to work on the week's collection...).

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