From Here to There

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to meet one of my writing heroines, Maggie Stiefvater. Because she is so fabulous she is on an amazing book tour and had some stops in my city (she will soon be in London, continuing said book tour, ack! so jealous!!)

The reason I admire Maggie is not just for her beautiful prose and thrilling plots - she's also a startlingly impressive human being.

Take her post on the difficulties of becoming an author. When I signed with my agent and then got my book deal I felt as though I was walking on stars. I still feel that way. If I am so lucky as to be able to write books for the rest of my life I don't think that feeling will ever go away. But the star-filled life is also very hard. As Maggie points out there is doubt, there is rejection (lots of rejection), there is the sense that you might be crazy and that you may be the only person who understands why the dream of starwalks defines your very existence. It can be a lonely, lonely road.
But the choice to walk it belongs to you alone, and the reasons for which the path matters also belong to you alone. If you believe, that is enough. Listen to Maggie; after all, she's been on the New York Times bestseller list for several weeks now and still going strong. And...she just got a movie deal - ahem.

From Toxic to Bliss?

There have been some interesting posts recently that discuss expectations, jealousy, and ideas about navigating the emotional rollercoaster that is the writing world.

Here's my two cents:

The ups and down of writing, revising, attempting to get an agent, get published, get reviewed, and the list goes on, inevitably produces the full range of human emotions from euphoria to rage to despondence. More often than not, this mental yuck will be directed at those of whom we're jealous or who we blame for our current dire-seeming circumstance.

Rather than hiding from these volatile feelings or pretending that we don't experience them, I think it's best to find productive ways to move through the toxic mire of envy and self-doubt to the Elysian fields of hope and confidence. To achieve this end requires conscientious, thoughtful traversing through one's own psyche.

When it comes to human relations I still don't think you can get much better than the golden rule: Do unto others as you'd have done unto you.

There's a reason this saying has been enshrined at the United Nations.

But even with the best of intentions, it's important to acknowledge and experience the emotions that come with the darker sides of writing life, namely rejection. So how can we rage without doing permanent damage?

I think I found the answer in the All-American Rejects song "Gives You Hell."

With this wickedly catchy song and what is perhaps the funniest video I've ever watched, the message is clear:
Yes you'll get angry, yes you'll be frustrated, yes you'll feel crazy, but at the end of the day it's all about walking a mile in the other person's shoes, knowing we're all in this together and that we're all human.

Teeter-Totter: A Note from the Dark Side

The edge. I end up here more often than I'd like to admit. When I find myself teetering at the brink, it derives from my proclivity for over-commitment (in labor and emotion). Right now I'm staring down the barrel of the semester and grinding my teeth into paste.

But the spines of anxiety needling my skin this week are also born of a looming, much-anticipated event: my first writer's conference.

Late Thursday night I'll arrive in San Francisco to rub elbows with a mass of editors, agents, and authors (published and aspiring like myself). For me, this step has moon-landing significance. No longer will I be staring at the shiny mirror of the writer's world and wanting my reflection to belong among the crowd of authors who I admire. The conference means I'm through the looking glass. Once I cross to the other side, I half expect to find Alice waiting for me with a smile and a knife to bury in my belly.

So at the moment I'm tottering, half-drunk with doubt, and wondering whether the bottom of the chasm might not be so bad.