By Kristin Brumm
3/09/10I believe that anything we undertake that is worthwhile, really seriously worthwhile, and I'm not talking here about reading a thick book or planning a Roman holiday, but soul-tingling, life-changing, heart-driven worthwhile, requires a truckload of good, hard work. I also believe that if you're living from your heart, things happen effortlessly. I see absolutely no conflict with holding these two beliefs simultaneously. I have seen both borne out in my life.
Take, for instance, the birth of a child. Can there possibly be a more physically agonizing, drawn out, torturous, nakedly panting, insufficiently medicated experience? Remember, we're talking here about my labors, not yours. And yet, at the end of this there is a child. A living, warm bodied child whose fists open and close and who breathes moist breath on your neck and dissolves into tears when she leaves your breast because she already knows she belongs to your smell. Simply miraculous.
And now, I have a new project to birth. A book. It looms before me in all it's hugeness, it's overwhelming tabula rasa-ness. I'm aware I have no time to write. This is clear. Has been clear for ages and ever. I work full-time, I have a family. But I started my blog five months ago despite this and have written 80 posts so far and it's been effortless. Not once have I sat before a blank page and wondered about what to write. Rather, I've sat in doctor's offices and business meetings and stood in line at supermarkets and idled at stoplights and words have raced through my head and I've fought to slow them down, to write them down. I've written a book's worth of posts. Not all publishable, that's certain. But I'm shooting from the hip; writing and posting and moving on to the next thing. What if I wrote and didn't hit publish, but instead set it aside to be reworked and reworked and reworked, like a proper writer? What if.
A book. It will be a truckload of hard work; and it will be effortless. And so I've begun.
30 comments:
Well stop messing about and get it finished then! :-)
Brilliantly described - a true labour of love , when you are so committed so involved , you will always find the time, you will always find the way.
All the panicking and uncertainties around bringing our little man into the world soon drifted away on a tide of euphoria - somehow you just know, somehow it just flows. Hard work is easy when you know what the rewards are.
Now that I know what I'm going to do with my writing, it has a purpose it has an ambition , suddenly the ideas are flowing much more.
Wish you all the best with the book, writing must always be a living process and in so many ways you are already there!
Like any big undertaking, the writing of your book will take on a life of it's own... it will be effortless in this way, and a truckload of work to maintain it's form, but a labor of love, no doubt! When we seperated ourselves from our first business, I likened it to losing a child. Not that we loved it in any way comprable to how we love our children, but it was a constant in our life and something we created. I also compared creating that business to giving birth. You can prepare for it as much as possible, hear all the stories and know all the things that can happen... but in the end, it's your own unique experience and there's no way to forsee how it will go.
Best Wishes to you! :)
You sound like a born writer. Writing is really one beginning after another. There is no end.
I would definitely buy your book! And we are starting on the same project! How exciting.
Hey Kristin, I love this post! Happy to read any work that comes out of your "what if".
-Anne Marie
Awesome! I will be right at the font of the line when it is published!
Kristin, I look forward. In so many ways, but especially to this.
The quicker you write your book Kristin, the quicker you will be in Australia. So hurry up Woman.
You know I can't wait to read this book. And I would hope I could even get a signed copy :)
You write beautifully and no word is wasted or superfluous - work hard - it will be worth it :)
I say GO FOR IT!!! You are a writer my dear Kristin. So off you go and write baby write!XO
Best of luck to you!
I cannot wait to run to the bookstore and buy your book as soon as it hits the shelves!
I'd totally by your book. And nice to now I'm not the only one with no blogger's block ;)
That description of birth made me ache for another baby.
Cool! Let's see, that's at least four of you that would read it...think that will get me an agent? :-P
Yeah! Get goin' Missy!
I love your description of childbirth.... so beautiful!
" Tick " one book written ! NEXT
" Where the mind goes the body follows " your mind is well and truely there it is only natural that you will make this happen and the book will follow.
Contrats
Great post, and great news! I'm eagerly awaiting your first book...
You've a way with words you boobquaking, police-officer-sweet-talking thing you. Looking forward to stealing some child free moments to read the book that I'm sure you will write.
Thanks for the encouragement everyone! I will post labor updates on my site. Just remember...if I ask for drugs, don't be stingy.
The beautiful thing about writing, too, is that even when you don't have time to actually sit and, well, write, you can do so in your mind, usually during the most mundane of tasks...I find I get the most ideas when I'm shampooing my hair, and as I massage them forth, I draft, rewrite, and revise, all in me noggin for the time being. The fact that you get that it's hard work is the biggest hurdle, I think. Waiting around for inspiration is useless, and you seem to have the right "Git 'er done" attitude to let all those fabulous ideas out to later refine and polish as a finished book!
Let me know when you hit the UK on your book tour. I'll be first in line with a copy to be signed.
fabulous inspiring post...
Often I 'chicken out' of things that I think will be just too hard, putting them off... but you are so right, good things come from hard work.
@Barbara, don't you know I'm holding the booksigning at a pub down the street from your house. Expect you to be there, pouring reds. Then we'll catch the overnight train north to meet Marylin and Mrs. W. for more, er, signing. Then it's off to Hungary to nag on Glen.
Wishing you the best in your book endeavor. I am excited to read through the secret journalings of an author, before she was an author.
Enjoy the journey. I look forward to reading what literary magic you give birth to!
How exciting! Put me down as your first book purchase ..... autographed, of course!
Go for it, Kristin. I know the panic, the worry that you won't find the time, that your won't manage to do the research ... that you will fail and that your work will be consigned to the pile of wasted efforts in the lowest levels of writers' hell! Now 85% of the way through writing my text, I can tell you, the time, the effort, the research will happen. Ultimately, fail or succeed, at least you will be able to you gave it a go that's what I'm telling myself!). And I suspect, from your fabulous blog posts, that you will indeed succeed. You'll have a reader in me!
Thanks Anne! Writing, like raising children, is a labor of love. We do it because we are passionate about and committed to the process. Eventual success is just a bonus. I'm writing because I have a book inside me that wants out, and I imagine that's the case with you, based on what I've seen of your beautiful poetry. If anyone wants to read it when all is said and done, I'll be thrilled.
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