Dear Writer: Life Intervenes Sometimes

“I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.” ~ William Carlos Williams

It happens. Life can step in and turn you and your carefully articulated writing plans on your head. Nothing goes as good as it does on paper or in your mind. You might have decided, clearly, how many stories or even books you were going to write. You took the time to compile a list of concepts and set a timetable. You might even get off to a good start with a story and then...bam! Life intervenes and you're stopped cold.

Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch and her husband, author Dean Wesley Smith, have both wrote about this subject often. Here is one example from Rusch's weekly blog column, The Business Rusch.

The point of her article is that life is often messy and unexpected. As a writer (and really anybody) can be going along, going fine, and doing your thing, and then all of it get stopped by some unforeseen difficulty, a change in lifestyle, or something else. Some of these life rolls as Rusch calls them can be minor delays. Others, like an illness or a loved one's death, can ben long-lasting and capable of changing your whole life.

As a writer, heck as a human being, you'll have life rolls and they will send you spinning. Sometimes, only for a short spell so that you can get back to your work and everything is peachy again. Other times, the change is so tremendous that you might find yourself away from writing for a long time--or at least writing something else or writing far less while you adjust to the new circumstances.

It is also true, however unpleasant to acknowledge, that some life rolls take you away from writing permanently. I'm not even talking your death here. There are just things in life that can change everything forever and often there is not one thing you can do about it.

Pretty tough message isn't it? Why am I writing about this subject?

Well, the fact is, Dear Writer, I am in the middle of a bit of life roll right now. It's not a big one, but just enough of one to disrupt the schedule and the plans I had made. I'm working through it. I'm a bit discouraged but I'm pushing through that and working to come back to writing fiction.

I'm sure some of you reading this might be facing something similar. The only thing I can say to you is that you're not alone, it most likely won't last forever, and I promise you'll write again someday soon. Don't give up. You'll make it, Dear Writer. And so will I.

I'll catch you next time.