Skip to main content

A quote and a broken promise

Vita Sackville-West said: "It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the
moment?"

When I don't write, that's exactly how I feel. That the moment is lost. That the day has slipped emptily by.

Today, unlike many days lately, I wrote. I didn't at all do what I was supposed to do. I had agreed - during March Madness Challenge - not to edit and to write write write on my new story. But every day I felt my words were falling into thin air as I wrote because my first chapter was shaky - the boards were loose and my words were falling through the cracks. When I write I must have a good foundation to hold my story. So I cheated and reworked the first chapter.

Now I feel as though my story can stand on it's own two feet instead of standing on mine - just as I did when I was a child and stood on a partner's feet to move around the dance floor. I no longer need to do that. And neither does my story. It's got its own footing.

No more broken promises this month, I promise. But then again didn't I hear that promises are made to be broken. That's a topic for another time. Besides I think it depends on what the promise is. And a promise to oneself I've decided is one that can be broke. As long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

Blessings!

Comments

  1. Congrats that you made some headway on your story:)))

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't really have any set rules about my writing. Sometime I edit as I go along and sometimes I don't. When I'm inspired, I write. Sounds like yours is coming along pretty good.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think we're on the same page with writing this week, no pun intended!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've failed to meet my March Madness goal nearly every day in March! The first few days, I wrote my thousand words. Then I got engaged, and spent a few days blissfully wedding planning. Then I got a headache that lasted three days. Then I got revision notes from my agent on my second novel, and worked on those for a while.

    Today, the headache is gone. The revisions are turned in. And the fiance is, as ever, patient and wonderful and supportive. Today I hope to crank out a few words on my work-in-progress. Maybe a thousand. Maybe not. But I'm content.

    How great that you've got your first chapter the way you want it! You've got a solid foundation to build on.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks to all of you who made comments. I'm thrilled to have such good writing buddies who care about the work of each.
    Sarah, congrats on the engagement. I'm excited to read your upcoming book. Go everyone and WRITE.
    Yes, you must have a spouse that understands.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a great quote. I think it's too funny that you're feeling so guilty about making a significant piece of progress on your book. I'm pretty sure we're supposed to listen to our muses, even if it means breaking a promise or two. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shingles: not the roofing kind...

Just when I thought things could not get any worse at our house my husband R came down with shingles. On the day I had to be at the hospital in Columbus with one adult daughter in the morning and then go to Cincinnati to pick up her husband after his stomach surgery the day before, R gets up with a rash that had turned to blisters. We made a quick dash 40 miles away to our family Dr. for a check up and yes my diagnosis was correct. Shingles! So armed with two medications we headed to the medical center to see our daughter, then to Cincinnati to pick up her husband and then home to collapse and hope that that's the end of our downward spiral. I'm worn to a frazzle and so is R. No time for writing or fretting about writing. I do feel good knowing that I have some contest entries out (short stories and one novel) and will be working on my novel at least two days this coming week. I have my writers meeting on Monday at Great Expectations Cafe and Book Store and look for...

A Revolutionary New Diet...

Recently I went on a diet. Like most diets this one was scheduled around a major life event. My daughter's wedding. There would be no shopping for a mother-of-the-bride dress until the pounds came off. Typically I go on a diet on Monday and by Wednesday I've folded beneath the weight of a German chocolate cake. I've been hijacked by as little as a stale pink sugar wafer discovered in the dark recesses of the bread drawer. But this time things were going to be different. I could tell as I went to get the mail and discovered the first crocus of the season. Life was looking up. Even though an icy rain began to fall, my spirits weren't dampened. Not even when huge drops pelted me on the head and I had to dash inside. My latest plan would revolutionize dieting. If it worked for me it would work for the world. I smelled a book deal. I could see myself all made-over and liposuctioned sitting between Oprah and Dr. Oz. It was full speed ahead. Gone were those complex menus...

Mother's Leather Britches...

My mother gardened all her life. It was one of her great loves, next to family, God, and country. Because she grew up during the Depression, she learned to use every last item from her garden for canning, preserving, drying or pickling. Every year at the end of the green bean season she made leather britches, dried beans that would keep for the winter. These were the last beans hanging on the vines. The beans inside had grown to full size with outsides a bit withered. They were beyond the stage to can or preserve, or even to pickle. Although her fried pickled green beans and corn bread were the best in the world. (Well, next to her biscuits and fried apples.) Mother started the drying process with clean beans. She would spread a clean white sheet on a table in the wash room and spread the beans out on that, giving them space to dry. Sometime she would carry the sheet outside and put them on a table in the sun to further the process. The next step involved needle and thread ...