Why Quit?

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.

~Lanston Hughes

I hear many writers saying they are giving up on writing, and I’m not excluded from this club. Sometimes writing can be so exhausting, unfruitful, and downright grueling. There never seems to be a reward or payoff so it just seems easier to give up and quit.

Quit writing? But why on earth would you do that? My reasons were because people had attacked me and made me feel less of a writer and my health concerns took front-and- center stage while I went off the board and healed.

So off I went! Did I really stop writing? Well that is just silly. Writing is/was a major part of my healing. Just because I backed off from view and didn’t share all my writing, I didn’t quit and know better than to give up. Giving up is not something I would be proud of down the line.

I can see my son, many years down the line saying, “I give up. If Mom can do it, so can I.” Is that what I want my son to walk away with? That it is okay to just give up? No way! I want him to see me as an example of endurance and perseverance. Well, he’s getting a full scope of what it all means to persevere. Through thick and thin, sickness and in health, we must all persevere in what we love the most and never give up or give in.

I tried giving up on writing, but deep within me it ate away at me like a termite gnawing on dry rotted wood. It kept eating and eating until I fell apart, gave in to the pull and I wrote and wrote as I found a healing spot. Unlike dry rotted wood that never mends, I mended and am coming back to the writing world full force.

Am I giving up on my gardening; and all the other things that occupied my time these past five or six months? No not at all. I see now they are all a part of me and right here inside me dwells beauty I never knew I had.

So when you decide to give up writing, you need to do a deep soul search of all the things good in your life, even if the bad outweighs the good, you need to SEE all the good in your life and hold onto that as you’re falling. Hold onto the friends who are there supporting you; encouraging you to keep going on. Embrace the love (even if it is small increments) that is tugging at your heartstrings. You need to sink into your writing, pouring out all the mixed emotions that come with giving up and try to visualize a life with no writing in it; pretty dismal picture, isn’t it?

When you rise from bed the day after you announce to the world you’re quitting, ask yourself this one simple question, “WHY quit?” And slide into your lil bunny slippers, scoot over to the computer and without one ounce of hesitation, get writing! Persistence pays off.

The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had means, time, influence and educational advantages; the question is what he will do with the things he has. The moment a young man ceases to dream or to bemoan his lack of opportunities and resolutely looks his conditions in the face, and resolves to change them, he lays the corner-stone of a solid and honorable success.

~Hamilton Wright Mabie

Thinking Thursday~ My 500th post!!!

Happy 500th Post!

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Well I’ve been thinking. Oh no, there goes the neighborhood when Joni begins ‘thinking’. lol

Have you ever lost sight of progress? You know where you just go on, day in and day out, forgetting what you’re doing all of this writing for and blogging?

I get bored very easy and I have to strive to find new things to talk about since in my last 500 posts I have talked about everything from adverbs to adjectives, POV to characterization, from glory to shame, acceptance to rejection, everything there is to get you through your week, and me too.

Getting me through a week is a challenge on a daily basis because I’m not organized in the least. June will have my head! I’m not goal oriented and sometimes I lack persistence. What is that you say? I’m normal? Oh go on.

I should be tackling the keyboard like a madwoman but instead my garden speaks to me and I go running to it forgetting this here blogisphere. So if you don’t hear from me, you’ll know Joni has gotten lost in the garden of life and she is basking in the glorious sun that sweeps over her like a feathered breeze.

I need to be revising my novel. I read everyone else’s work, get lost in critiques, write about saving the world (okay that one I tossed in) but you know how it is? You get lost out here in the world and forget about what really matters.

Today marks my 500th post! Congratulations Joni! I know to some who have surpassed the 500 mark and are aiming at 1,000 or 5,000 for that matter, laugh at me and choke on their own saliva. But to me, 500 is a goal I striven for, for my fellow writers to gain something of true substance in my helping the writer along in the craft. Hopefully I’ve succeeded in giving you all a glimpse of the struggle writer’s go through whether in writing or in life. We persist, endure, strive, and conquer.

My post have been kept to the 500 word limit give or take a word here and there, so as not to bore you with redundancy. I see myself as achieving a goal here with my blog. I have blogged, enjoyed it, written and persevered with my fellow writer’s. Now lets head forward and move the bushes out of my eyes as I segue into a new journey.

I’ll keep you posted. *wink* Pun intended here!
Thank you my followers for all of your support and encouraging words along the way. You’ve been a blessing.

May many blessings rain down upon you and you feel the presence of the Lord’s fingertips! Godspeed one and all.