inspiration
Charlotte Rains Dixon  

Loving Your Writing Up

Heart_hand_valentine_269058_lI was in a place last week where there was much talk of getting loved up.  Which means, in case you hadn't guessed, beaming love onto a person so that they feel wonderful, amazing and fantastic.  

And this got me thinking about loving up our writing.  

Because much of the time we don't.  Instead we critique it, let it be rejected, revise it, rewrite it, delete it, don't finish it, leave it in a drawer (metaphorical or otherwise).

And yes, we do need to be discerning about our writing.  All of the above steps are necessary (except for leaving it in a drawer).  But shouldn't we be giving our writing a bit of love, too?

Yeah, I know–you're afraid its egotistical to do that.  But I'm not talking about the kind of puffed-up, fake love that the ego gives.  I'm talking about just loving our writing.

Loving (and honoring) the impulse that makes us rise early or stay up late to throw words at the page.

Loving the times the words are coming so fast that we can barely get them onto the computer.

Loving the times we gaze out the window because the words won't come.

Loving the times in between those two poles (which is what writing most often is for me).

Loving the finished product, be it short story, poem, novel, article or memoir.  

Loving it all.

Because, this:

You're at a cocktail party and someone asks you what you do.  You say, "I'm a writer."  The person's eyes light up and they say, "Oh really?  What do you write?  Have I read anything of yours?"  

Do you think people at cocktail parties get that excited when they are told most other occupations? No, they do not.  People get excited to meet writers because writing is hard.  And sometimes easy.  And wonderful.  And an amazing way to spend your time.  People get excited to meet writers because what we do is special.

Don't ever forget that.

And now go love your writing up.

You could also leave a comment and tell what you're working on as a way of loving it up!

Photo by brokenarts. 

0 thoughts on “Loving Your Writing Up

  1. J.D.

    How am I loving my writing up? I wrote a not so very good book. The only way I can redeem myself is to write a better one. There comes a time in the process when you push a button and you can’t un-push it. That moment the book is on its way. It’s a dream come true; you want it to be perfect. Then it’s not and you know it is not. A thousand wishes won’t make it into something it’s not. But in writing you get a second chance.

  2. Charlotte Dixon

    Well, you can start loving your writing up by not saying that about the book. It was good enough to get published, right? By a publisher other than yourself? This is exactly what I’m talking about, J.D. Yes you get a second chance but I am haunted by the feeling that you are way too hard on yourself. And my thoughts will soon be proven after I read your book (I didn’t do any reading last week–too intense at the convention).

  3. Amanda Martin

    Love this. I recently abandoned my first attempt at a children’s book because f was awful and I couldn’t fix it. I hit rock bottom, even though I wouldn’t have tried to write a horror or a detective story, because I have children and want to be able to write for them. I became convinced that all my writing was as stilted and boring as my kids book and was ready to give up. Then (dangerously!) I decided to re-edit a book a self-published two years ago. It was my first complete novel and I wanted to apply all I’ve learned since then, to make it tighter (and shorter) ready to do a print version. And I was swept away. I’d forgotten so much of what I wrote and I’m really enjoying working on it. Instead of being a chore, I want to get out the manuscript and work on it. I’ve fallen in love with my writing again and it feels great. I do worry that I shouldn’t have self-published it it there’s so much I see that needs fixing, but it got some five-star reviews and if I hadn’t put it out there to be read I probably wouldn’t have written another.

  4. Charlotte Dixon

    I love this! What a wonderful story ! (J.D. are you listening?) And I think your comment speaks to the idea that we can fall back in love with our writing at any time. I feel the same way with my current WIP novel. Before I started working on it last fall, I was forcing myself to work on a novel with an unappealing character. I hated working on it. Then I got the idea for the new one and I was in love with writing again. So I guess we need to remember that the feeling of loving up our writing is available to us at any time–its up to us to find it! Thank you for sharing your story, its great to see you hear again.

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