Susan Wise Bauer on cooking, writing and glamor:
Cooking, I think, must be like writing. You do the same thing day, after day, after day, after day. You’d better enjoy it for itself, not for the rewards. There are certainly high points, and of course we all look forward to them… Occasionally I get to go to book parties, or swan around New York in a really nice dress, and you’d better believe I enjoy it. But there’s no way that those very occasional rewards make the day-to-day slog worthwhile.
SO true. I talked a few months ago about how I took the summer off from writing to get back to my love of creating stories, instead of yearning for validation/publication/a readership. Because, much as it is thrilling (or so I imagine :D) to get The Call (from an agent or editor), to see your book cover for the first time, to find your book in a real-life bookstore, or receive fan mail, those moments are few and far between. For some of us, they haven’t even come yet.
Thank goodness I love writing for its own sake. Otherwise I’d be miserable or have given up a long time ago.
Speaking of slogging, I’m 4.5 K words into Rainbird. I think I can wrap it up in two or three scenes, but I have a tendency to underestimate that sort of thing anyway.
Sometimes hard to remember, but so very, very true. Getting back into the slog is a joyful experience though. I’ve been out of it for a while. (Can’t call writing fanfiction to avid reviewers of anything with a good story, writing not so much, quite the slog. ;)) But I’m loving it again. And writing that one drabble was such an eye-opener. I’d forgotten how much I love writing flash fiction. I’d forgotten how much poetry is in my blood. I’d forgotten that writing with no one waiting for it is just so rewarding.
Yes! It’s taken me a long time to recover the love, but I’m glad to have it back.