The Importance of Being Earnest

by G.Parker

No, I'm not talking about the play or movie. I'm talking about writing.

As a writer, it is an important thing to work hard at what we do. It's not something that you can just play at, if you want to seriously move forward with it. I realized a couple of years ago that I'd just been playing at it when my husband referred to it as a hobby.

I informed him it was not a 'hobby'! It was a career. He informed me that if it was more than a hobby, I would be working more consistently at it. It would be an every day thing.

Well, I was ashamed to realize that he was right. I had been treating it as a hobby. There are times when I still do. I looked at my author page on the Nanowrimo site the other day, and realized this will be my 5th year as a participant. I've been doing this for five years?? It blows the mind.

It's also a little depressing. I mean, all the stories I've finished in those other 4 years -- none of them have been submitted. They are sitting in a file on my computer, waiting for the final editing to be done. Two of them have been shown to my critique group, but the other two have been shelved because I have so much work on the other two. It seems never ending.

It's easy to get caught up in so many things in today's world. Especially if you are a parent -- our families mean a great deal, and if we didn't have them and their support, we probably wouldn't still be striving to write.

So -- this month I'm still working at it. I've been participating in a BIAM at the LDSAuthors forum, and it's been wonderful. I've written more in the past week and a half than I've written in the past two months. I feel like the words are starting to flow a little easier, and I'm getting reved for November.

I'm a writer in earnest. It's important to me, not my hobby. Just so we're clear...grin.