I dig the distinction between “ruthless” and “jerkness.” I am someone who was bequeathed a Puritan heritage at birth, I’ve had to fight an (often losing) battle with myself to not be a jerk to me. It means a lot to hear another writer say “hey, you know all that rise and grind ‘just write’” bootstraps malarkey? Yep. It’s malarkey.”
I relate so much to this. It's taken a couple of years of carefully aimed eye-daggers for my immediate family (two daughters and a husband) to recognise that when my notepad and pen are out then I'm invisible. Before that, I was fair game for any question/mithering and interruptions they wanted to serve. I think I felt guilty -- in the beginning. As though, who the hell did I think I was to carve out private writing time. Daily writing has helped change that link with imposter syndrome, and now I add value to the writing stuff. It keeps me sane, helps me to un-knot the complexities of life :)
Loved this. It's so easy to put off what you want to do for other things which are pressing. I plan to be more ruthless this year. Hope you do too Lila!
My inspiration book as a kid was Harriet the spy - a writer gets to invent other lives or explore their own and I find that sometimes brings us to ruthless truths .
I love the distinction of being a jerk to yourself versus ruthless.
I dig the distinction between “ruthless” and “jerkness.” I am someone who was bequeathed a Puritan heritage at birth, I’ve had to fight an (often losing) battle with myself to not be a jerk to me. It means a lot to hear another writer say “hey, you know all that rise and grind ‘just write’” bootstraps malarkey? Yep. It’s malarkey.”
Thanks for writing!
I relate so much to this. It's taken a couple of years of carefully aimed eye-daggers for my immediate family (two daughters and a husband) to recognise that when my notepad and pen are out then I'm invisible. Before that, I was fair game for any question/mithering and interruptions they wanted to serve. I think I felt guilty -- in the beginning. As though, who the hell did I think I was to carve out private writing time. Daily writing has helped change that link with imposter syndrome, and now I add value to the writing stuff. It keeps me sane, helps me to un-knot the complexities of life :)
Loved this. It's so easy to put off what you want to do for other things which are pressing. I plan to be more ruthless this year. Hope you do too Lila!
My inspiration book as a kid was Harriet the spy - a writer gets to invent other lives or explore their own and I find that sometimes brings us to ruthless truths .
I love the distinction of being a jerk to yourself versus ruthless.