In August, I headed to Roanoke, Virginia to pursue "The Dream." Then I disappeared off the face of the earth for four months.
To the few people who actually read this blog, I apologize. My three excuses:
1) Grad school knocked me on my ass (I was forced to write more this semester than in the previous two years combined).
2) I began living on a $1200 per month budget (a fraction of what I subsided on before). It was quite the adjustment and suffice to say, I couldn't afford to travel as much (in retrospect I wasn't that creative...it doesn't cost a lot to travel one city/county over or explore your neighborhood). A lot of interesting revelations about money came out of that time, however.
3) I went through a faith crisis and struggled to keep on believing in my dreams and ideals. Since so much of this blog was based upon dreams and ideals, I found it hard to write when I didn't really believe what I was saying.
I will expound on these points in the next few days, but I was determined to get a post out there. More to come.
Have you read The Dip, by Seth Godin? Every project has a dip -- a low point where you're pretty much demoralized and wonder if you should proceed. The secret to success is figuring out when to keep at something and when to quit and try the next thing on your list.
ReplyDeleteI'd also say that doubting yourself and your abilities is a good thing if you use the doubt to spur yourself on to improve. Writing well, or doing well at any creative endeavor for that matter, is never easy. It takes a lot of very, very hard work. I just found this article called The Creative Personality the other day and think it's really good. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199607/the-creative-personality. An important point the writer, a renowned researcher in the field, makes is that, to be successful in her work, (however that success may be defined), the creative person must also be dogged and have a great deal of perseverance. Inspiration is only a small part of the process. (Remember what Edison said.)
Good luck. I'm rooting for you, Lori, whatever you decide to do.
Megan, thanks, as always for all of your support. I need to send you my writing portfolios from last semester as promised. I'm definitely going to check that book out of the library.
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