~ Written by Danielle N. Bilski ~
Up to now, all my posts have been quite positive. That is a conscious choice I made, but having said that, every single word has been completely sincere and a reflection of my happiness and fulfillment. While I intend on maintaining this positivity throughout my time with you, I thought it was necessary to show that I am not naïve nor indestructible when it comes to my writing or life in general. What others might find to be difficult times, I now take in my stride because I have experienced my share of fairly testing times that only those who experienced them with me would be aware of. While surviving them has given me strength, for as long as I can remember I have found solace and comfort in my writing.
Writing as a hobby can be a therapeutic way of expressing yourself most honestly. For those that way inclined, it may lead to a career in professional writing which can be a way of getting paid to do something that you are already passionate about and/or good at in a range of formats; from letters, proposals, website text, promotional material, articles, reports and technical manuals, just to name a few. You may have noticed that these are all non-fiction, informative types of writing produced for a specific, timely purpose.
More creative and most often predominately (if not entirely) fictional forms of writing such as poetry, script writing, screen writing and novel writing are more subjective and are produced with different purpose and intent. Especially for a new creative writer, who has not been exposed to the competitive nature of the publishing and entertainment industry, the pieces they produce undoubtedly begin as a labour of love. They have to be, to some extent, because they are quite unlikely to receive an immediate financial return. That comes much later, if at all. Therefore, creative writing requires a certain level of optimism, resilience and rationality. You must love it enough. Let me explain.
Creative writers by nature are relatively emotive people. Using their own experiences, the stories others share with them combined with the feelings one associates with particular situations and circumstances they have seen, heard or personally felt, a writer becomes the instrument for personal expression. Writing can be done anywhere, at any time. All one needs is a writing implement and a surface to write on. Of course, computers have aided the writing process in their own ways (although spell check isn’t always as reliable as you might think) and ‘white-out’ certainly helps with a self-editing experience.
However, creative writing is actually a lot more difficult than the physical action might suggest. Like any instrument, a writer is susceptible to a range of significant and extraneous (external) forces, pressures, physical ailments and fatigue. When writing fiction, there is a constant battle occurring between one’s imagination and sense of reality. Time is limiting and there is so much to think about. Writing takes patience, awareness, knowledge and informed decision-making as well as the ability to surrender control.
Let’s extend this list to include optimism, resilience and rationality, as previously mentioned. While writing is generally a solitary activity, eventually the process will involve someone reading it upon the author’s consent. Humans are innately opinionated and despite the qualities that distinguish a writer, a reader can be awfully critical and/or congratulatory in unpredictable measures. Reading is as subjective in nature as writing.
You may have begun to realise even from this short piece that there is actually more involved in creative writing than you knew or perhaps wanted to know. To some, the words come naturally and flow with a welcome amount of ease that mimic a perfectly timed symphony. However, it is somewhat naive to assume that no writer experiences (consciously or subconsciously) various levels of anxiousness, self-doubt, frustration, cynicism, loneliness, confusion, regret, misunderstanding and/or re-evaluation of purpose throughout their writing career.
Negativity has a sneaky way of entering our consciousness, manifested in our own vulnerability or enabled by the people and environment around us. Those who strive to remain optimistic and focus on the real reason why they are doing something are more likely to achieve their desired outcome than someone who succumbs to the voice that tells them they are worthless and questions their ability. That is where resilience comes in.
Being resilient doesn’t mean you should lose your compassion and respect for others. It is a way of protecting oneself and from my understanding, requires the acknowledgment of the negative and critical which is then transformed into positive motivation to strive for excellence. A resilient person is able to recognise that negativity and criticism should not be taken personally and that it a possible outcome of giving another person the opportunity to openly interpret something they have invested much of their time and love into. While a common response to criticism may put the receiver on the defensive and cause them to act in a number of irrational ways, a rational person will have been preemptive of possible responses, both positive and negative and prepared themselves to behave respectfully nonetheless.
Ultimately, anything we choose to do in our lives we must be prepared to defend and love it enough to remember our reason for choosing to do it, even when it may seem like no one else understands. That is why I am so grateful to all my readers and with experience I have developed a strong combination of optimism, resilience and rationality.
My love for writing is infinite and without it, I truly believe I would be living a severely cynical, vulnerable and irrational existence. Writing is my life and in the last three months of not working and concentrating all my attention on ‘My Time with You’ I have felt like I have begun to pay back writing for what it has given to me. Not with currency, but with the time it deserves.
I write for myself and those who appreciate it. I don’t measure my success in terms of how much someone is willing to pay me for my words. It is the achievement of completing something that I am proud of and sharing a meaningful moment in time with others, that motivates me.
While the cynics will come, critique this piece and leave, I know that the loyal supporters will always come back again to share my time with you.
A faithful creative writing optimist,
My Time with You ©2010 Danielle N. Bilski
