Keeping the Faith

As I sit here on the second day of the New Year, I'm trying to think of something inspiring to say. I'm one of those people who don't watch the news unless forced. If something is really important for me to know, somehow, someone will tell me. I suppose I'd have to be living on a desert island with a coconut shell radio not to know the state of the economy and how it affects us all on many levels. And if I thought getting published was a pipe dream before, well, change that to a snowball's chance in hell these days.

This has been my quandary from the beginning. What am I writing for? Writing definitely feeds my soul and my need for personal expression. It's my hope that my stories can take a reader away from their life for awhile. To get lost in the drama and romance and connect with characters that maybe they too can identify with. It would also be cool to make someone laugh or smile, as one of my favorite things in life is a book that makes me laugh out loud (in the good way of course, not in the "this is pure drivel" way). When I'm in the zone and writing, all of this is on my mind. It's not about getting my name on the spine of a book. But when the dust settles, the line editing is done and I'm sitting in front of something I've poured a ton of my prana into...well, what am I supposed to hope for?

Instead of making lofty resolutions I'll be beating myself up over a month from now; my hope this year is to learn to love the process. The good, the bad, the rejections. All I can do is show up on the page, write, polish, dig deeper, and polish some more before sending it out there into the world. The rest is not up to me and no matter how much dark chocolate I swallow, I simply can't control the outcome.

What are you doing to keep the faith in these dreary times?