The Writing Bug | Clare

A month ago I was talking to an old friend who I grew up with. We haven’t been in touch for a while and it was good to have the time to talk and catch up again. One of the things we talked about was how at this time in our lives, we should take the opportunity to do the things we love. We talked about how at our age, it’s time to do what we love if we’re not doing it already. Economic crisis considered, we agreed that although we do need to keep our day jobs, we should be doing something on the side to achieve the things we dreamed of doing in the first place before work, bills and other responsibilities got in the way.

That got me to thinking: what did I really want to do with my life? I know it was never to sit behind a desk doing paperwork and dealing with office politics. I know I wanted to do something creative, something that didn’t need an 8-5, Monday to Friday existence. My friend reminded me of one thing that I did well, even when we were kids and I have to agree that it’s something I love as well: writing.

When I was in college, I remember having an idea for a novel. I have it outlined and everything and I have that outline to this day. Everyone I talked to about it loved the idea but I never got around to doing it. I also had ideas for other writing projects (mostly scripts of films and TV programs I wish we had locally) but I never submitted them to anyone – not that I didn’t have anyone to submit them to.

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of Jane Austen and I recently watched P.S. I Love You and Twilight and I am just inspired by these female writers. A part of me keeps thinking that I can do what these writers did and that I have ideas just as good as they did. The only thing holding me back to be honest is the fear of criticism. I’m afraid of what people would think or suggest about my work.

To me my characters and their stories are like my babies. I’m afraid of critique that will make me revise them and take away the parts of them that I love. I want to share my work, but I don’t want to take away from my babies the thing that makes them special in my imagination.

If there’s anything I want to do on the side that I love this would be it. But to actually make a living out of it, I need to get over this fear and let my babies go. I’m working my way around trying to have the guts to do so. I hope I get to do this one day, fingers crossed!

Photo Source: Huffington Post