A Walk with the Editor
If you've ever heard a person say, "I'm going to write a novel", then you know that it's often associated with what that person intends to do once they retire. They say, "I'm going to write that book that I've been putting off forever, once I'm not working". So, it seems that there is definitely a correlation between writing a book and having the time to devote to it. Does one really have to wait until retirement, or achieve a particular state of wealth, or become a starving artist to achieve it? My own journey begins with telling you I've been cursed with living life caught in flux between my right and left brain. I can spend days or even weeks working on a creative project, but before I can get completely consumed in said project, my reasoning and attention to basic needs can pull me back from a immersion in the creativity and land me in day to day reality once more. On the other end of the spectrum, I've tried pouring myself into careers that did not fulfill my Frankensteinian thirst to live life to that which I create. I can't see myself waiting until the end of a long career to finally do what I long to do, that which truly makes me happy. I was not fortunate enough to find a career that could sustain my financial and family responsibilities while also allowing me to engage and nurture my creative side. So, like a pendulum I swayed from work, quit, create, work, quit, create until four decades passed from one side of my head to the other, and in the end I had no career, no finished book, and no emotional strength to keep fighting much longer. I did achieve an education, experience, wrote a lot of short stories, but never cranked out even a single book, other than a small collection of short works. So, now that I'm older, wiser, and have improved in the area of time management, I decided it's time to put what's in my head onto paper and out to share with the world.
So, this is where my journey began. Every good writer needs support, advice, and a strong sense of direction. I started by attending critique, storytelling groups, and participated in various writers' guilds. What better places to be with like minded individuals that could relate to my struggle, many of which had experienced the same challenges that I faced and could offer advice on how to proceed on the path to achieve my goals. After devoting a year or so to finding just the right support system, I was unable to find anything that covered all the aspects I needed. However, I did meet a lot of good people, good writers, and a few good people who were also good writers. It interested me that more than a few times, the need to determine whether my goal was to live my passion and create for my own fulfillment or create for financial goals seemed to be a running theme. Certainly, some said, if my goal was to make money with my stories then certain industry standards must be observed. Furthermore, it seemed that maintaining the industry standards, namely the inflexible box to fit each work and the limits allowed by staying in certain genres of writing, and many other criteria set by the
old ways of doing
Texas Writers Journal Quarterly / Jan, 2016 ix