Everything has been nice in my neck of the woods. I've started working on a new MS. I'm falling in love with the characters. They're awesome. Maybe I'll be able to share this story with you one day.
On to the bloggage.
This is somewhat of a sequel to a blog I posted a few weeks ago. It was entitled *Life's Worth Living Even If It Sometimes Sucks*. If you'd like to read that post kindly click on the title.
Anyway . . .
A man I greatly admire, Dr. James B. Richards, once said, "Life isn't fair."
He's right. Life. Isn't. Fair. Sometimes it just plain out sucks. Other times life doesn't just suck. There are times when you'll feel like you suck. When those times come there's no reason to down yourself, or lock yourself in a closet. Feeling like you suck is a fact of life. There's nothing you can do about it. When the sucky moments come they might as well be embraced.
I'm not saying you should dig a hole of misery. That's missing the point. Place your emotions on a petri dish, and examine them under a microscope.
Why do you feel like you suck?
Are you doing something to make yourself feel like you suck?
What can you do to change the feelings of suck-ass?
As I mentioned earlier: I'm working on a new manuscript. I get up every morning at 8 and am excited to take the first two hours of my day and write. I've been discovery writing. If you don't know what discovery writing is it's simple: I'm planning nor plotting anything. I sit down, read my previous work, take pen in hand and dive the depths of my imagination.
Yesterday, I believe, I started reading Stephen King's "It". Thus far, phenomenal read. It's the only book I've read that's freaked me out. Great feeling.
Before I sat down in front of the laptop to type these words I was reading "It". While reading King's tale I started to get that sucky feeling. I started comparing my work to SK's work. I felt like a major suck-hole.
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Some time ago I decided I wanted to make my living in the arts. As a writer. Becoming published isn't easy. You actually have to write. Everyone that dreams of getting published would increase their chances if they would actually sit down and write. That's why there's not more published writers. After that there's the whole business side of things: finding an agent, finding an editor and publisher, etc.
Starting out, I had no set scheduled and wrote at sporadic moments. I dealt with feelings of suckage. I would think, I'm never going to make it as a writer. If I could ever get published my dreams would come true but that probably won't happen. Those feelings were pretty easy to deal with once I actually started writing. Every day. All the time. The only love I have besides my wife is writing.
There's nothing that can talk me out of making my living as a writer. No matter how hard I have to work or how long it takes I will be published.
You will see a book, that I have written, on a book shelf in a book store all over the world.
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Stephen King has become a personal hero. I love the down-to-earthness of his prose. I read his dialogue with eagerness. His imagery is vivid and I see every word he writes. So . . . when comparing my works to his I tend to think, Holy shit, I'll never be this awesome.
When I think that way it's really easy to set the pen and notebook aside and wallow it the suckness. But I don't do that. I examine my feelings and determine why I feel like I suck:
1. Stephen King has been perfecting his craft for longer than I've been alive.
2. Stephen King understand his craft better than I do.
3. I'm not Stephen King and I have my own style. My own voice. I have my own technique of telling tales.
4. I admire Stephen King's work but I don't want to be Stephen King. I want to be Mark Westmoreland.
I'm getting better and better at what I do. I'm understanding my art better and better everyday. My ability to tell stories is improving, and has come a long way. One day someone will admire me the way I admire Stephen King.
Whenever you feel like you suck and want to quit: Don't. Find out why you feel the way you feel and if there's anything you can do about it at all. Do it.
Thanks for reading this lengthy post. I try to keep them short so consider this an exception and not the rule.
Until next time,
Adios and via con dios.
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