Part One: The Dance Between Imagination and The Reality of Achievement
New Year brings all last year’s resolutions to mind, along with the promise of a fresh start. As a writer I have goals for each year and the dance between dreams and reality is a daily battle as the tyranny of the urgent knocks on your door.
Last year brought many things to each one of us. I’ve read of loss, illness, success and exciting projects on Facebook and have lived through some tough stuff with friends and family. My own year was filled with such a mixture of emotions and events. Publishing another novel, the passing of my father-in-law, a daughter leaving home, lots of travel which included an intense trip to East Timor, brought joy, sorrow and a whole lot of other emotion.
Like life, writing is an emotional and spiritual journal that is woven into the fabric of our lives. The dance of life, and writing, has several challenges.
A writer’s imagination is always firing, however, getting down to write can be a challenge.
We see these books in our ears throughout our waking hours and dream of them through the night. However, if we don’t have the structure or time or effort or discipline to get down and write, the books stay dreams.
The dance of life between space and busyness is one that challenges every writer. How do we sit down and write when life interrupts?
A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper. E.B. White
Bryce Courtney would write a 600-page book in around six months, year in, year out. Bob Sessions, Courtney’s publisher said, ‘To achieve that feat he used what he called ‘bum glue’, sometimes writing for more than 12 hours a day.’
This year I’m imagining myself publishing the novel I just finished writing and writing its sequel, completing another one I began in 2010 and also writing a new non-fiction book.
That’s easy to do in the imagination. However, it’s already the 25th January and there’s a lot of work between imagining these books and actually producing good quality books by the end of 2015. That’s where the dance begins. That’s where the adventure is.
The dance may be a fun jive, a slow waltz or a graceful ballet. On some days it might be a messy, stumbling step or two, but I think I can dance between imagination and achievement.
Will you dance between imagination and achievement in 2015? Do you think you can dance?
#365adventure is a book lover’s year of adventures. Adventures in travel, friendship, family, soul, heart and, of course, book stores!
